Tks, I will be on the lookout for that

 

The small "main" ground wire was bolted to a painted section of the frame... It was a bad ground to begin with and the small wire made the problem worse...I sanded the paint off AND used a larger wire..

Since I dont live for electrical problem like LynnEdwards ... I let it go too long and fried a couple of feet of wire..But that made me undo all the wiring so i could see the problem..

 

The only way wires can melt is if too much current is going through them, or there is a bad connection. A bad connection causes heating at one spot, while too much current causes heating along an entire path. Since the melting is happening while cranking the starter this is strong evidence that excess current is to blame.

It is common for smaller ground wires to form redundant paths from components to frame and back to the battery. Normally no heavy starter current flows in these wires because it is much easier to use the fat big return wire. If that fat big wire path is compromised the current will try to return through the small wires, and it will overload them.

It is kind of like my return commute home from work. If everything is working OK I take the freeway (the big wire). It is a big road that can handle lots of traffic. But if there is a bottleneck (bad connection) on the freeway and traffic flow (current) is restricted, I veer off onto side streets (smaller paths) to try and get home. When all 100,000 plus other drivers do the same thing the side streets get overloaded, and the commute stops flowing.

 

Well I'd live for other types of problems too (I like solving problems) except I don't have the broad experience of others such as yourself. My dang quad just keeps on running.... Maybe I need to buy a basket case quad to get some more mechanical experience... .

 

so Lynn, what's the little greenwire for that runs along side the main ground wire? is it a part of the main ground wire system? what's it supposed to be connected to? the - terminal also?

 

I'm not sure exactly which wire or quad you are referring to. On my 150cc quad there is a small green ground wire that runs alongside the main fat ground wire from the battery minus terminal into the wiring harness. It goes all over the place to provide grounds to the lights, stator, CDI, etc. It is also connected to frame ground in several places such as inside the stator and at the ignition coil (and perhaps others). These extra frame grounds are redundant, and can cause the very problem copotay is having if the heavy starter ground return wire gets compromised, and the return current from the starter is forced back through the small ground wire(s). If it were me I would not wire a quad this way. But I also live in the real world, and note that my very own quad is vulnerable to this same failure mode. If my quad fails, I'll fix it then.

 

Lynn I did not undo and check everything yet, I was seeing if the wire would once again get hot with minimal starter usage, or any of the wires for that matter, after trying some simple fixes. The wire I replaced the little green burnt wire with was a little bigger about 16 or 18 gauge, oh and I used a blue colored wire for that, all I had onhand. I also followed the path of the large negative wire to motor ground from the battery, no evidence of a problem. I replaced the extremely thin, negative, factory, copper, connector at the battery with a thicker metal connector and crimped the large negative wire and the new blue wire into the connector, then cleaned the neg battery post adn reattached. I removed the neg side large wire frame screw, sandpapered it a bit and rescrewed it to the frame.

mywifesquad I looked around the frame for any other locations of grounding but did not see any in plain view.

So, after a full charge on the battery, I spun it several times, then let it start, then spun it again, and stopped. Felt around the area and nothing felt warm to the touch that I could find. So I dont know if I fixed something but I will keep watching it, and make sure I have a full charge on the battery to eliminate the hesitation when pressing the starter that was occurring before. I told my boy if it does not spin fast and hesitates, to immediately stop trying to start it.

Tks for the help so far ya'll, hopefully it may have been that flimsy connector on the battery, if it happens again I know how and what to check for.