I have a Baja BA250 atv and the previous owner had installed a hi performance CDI Box with adjustable rev limiter. The problem is that it is not charging the battery (never had since I own the quad). I've the wiring for lose or disconnected wires and I noticed that the CDI has an additional red wire comming out from it that was like severed off and I can't find what it's supposed to be connected to. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Here's a pic.ure

 

I've never seen a CDI like that. But is uses a standard connector set as shown here:

Note there is no connection for the kill switch or the AC ignition power.

The CDI needs power. I suspect that the extra red wire is battery power, and that you have a DC powered CDI (as compared to high voltage AC power).

But all that aside, this is not the reason your battery is not charging. The CDI fires the spark plug, and nothing else. 250cc engines have a three phase power system coming off the stator that puts out AC volts on three (usually) yellow wires. These wires go to the voltage regulator which converts the AC voltage to DC voltage, then regulates it to between 13.5 volts and 14.5 volts and connects it to your battery. Applying 13.5 volts DC to 14.5 volts DC with some sort of current limit across the battery is all that is required to keep the battery charged.

So you have a stator problem, voltage regulator problem, or wiring problem connecting these two things up. Find your voltage regulator. Unplug it, and measure the voltage between each of the three yellow wires. At idle you should get around 30 volts AC.

Also measure the AC volts between each of the three yellow wires and ground. Report back what you find. This part is a little more complicated if you have an auto choke, or anything else that runs off raw AC voltage. Lets look at the values you get and see if they make sense.

Plug the regulator back in, and make sure the next test is done with a good, charged battery. Measure the DC voltage at the battery terminals with the lights off and the engine running at a fast clip. You should measure between 13.5 and 14.5 volts DC on the battery.

 

That's some useful piece of info you provided, thank you very much for doing so. As for the AC Power Ignition/Kill switch plug, It was in deed connected but for better picture appreciation I took it off so that the red wire and the rev limiter dial could be seen better. On the other hand, I just checked the rectifier cables and I can see that the Green (I suppose it's ground) cable was cut off from the plug and it's just hanging there. Could that be causing the battery not to recieve any charge? I don't have a voltage meter on hand so I will not be able to make the test you described for now but I sure will be doing it once I hook everything up again, just to make sure everything is working as it should.

 

The regulator won't work without a ground. Hook it up and see what happens....

 

I'll do that as soon as I get home... can't wait to test it...

 

I just took out the stator cover/housing and a bunch of oil came out from where the stator sits inside the flywheel, is there supposed to be that much oil inside the stator housing?

 

I'm not really familiar with your particular engine, but often on quad engines there is a removable inspection plug in the top of the flywheel/engine cover that allows you to shine a timing light down onto the flywheel to check ignition timing. Many new quad owners mistake this for plug/hole for a place where you add oil.

You're not supposed to have oil in there. I'd clean it up as best I could and put it back together.

 

Hello Lynn, I contacted Baja Motorsports the same day that I posted the thread and just yesterday got this reply:

"The stator on these machines runs in the same oil that lubricates the engine so there is no need to add oil as that part of the engine shares passages thruough to the crank case and trans.The cam chain also runs behind the rotor for the mag and this is where a majority of the oil will get into that part of the engine as cam chain is lubricated by oil running down from the head.. Hope this helped."

Interesting...

 

Lynn is dead on with this. I would listen to him he knows his elect. stuff. Seth 03

 

MarvinSanti: Hmmm... Interesting indeed! I started off saying I'm not familiar with the engine and perhaps this proves it. Thanks for posting the Baja Motorsports reply.

Seth 03: Thanks for the vote of confidence, but on this one I might be wrong. There's no shame in being wrong, there's only shame in persisting at being wrong.