I have a new (used 2 times in the last 2 years) Baja WD90 ATV. The first time we ran it, everything worked just fine. We took it elk hunting and road for a couple hours and the lights got dim. Dumb me, we shut it off and it would not start again because the battery had died and had to pull it back to camp. Didn't know if it had a bad battery or not since we were at elk camp so we went to town to get a new battery. Guy at the honda shop also took the time to charge the new battery for us while we spent the rest of the day in town. Returned and put the battery in and everything ran fine. (Only road for about an hour). My son left camp the next day and several days later when I went to start it again, it did not have enough juice to turn the engine over. Lights lit but starter would not turn over.

It seems as though the ATV is not charging so here are my questions

1. How do I check to see if the Stator is working?
2. What else do I check?
3. If the Stator is bad, is it hard to change?

At the moment I cannot think of another question and perhaps I am not looking in the right direction.

Thanks
Dan

 

Start up the quad and run at a medium fast speed with the headlights off. While the engine is spinning fast use a meter to measure the DC volts right on the battery terminals. You should see 13.5 to 14.5 volts DC.

All this assumes your battery is at least partially charged. If it is flat out dead then look for a voltage that is higher with the engine running medium fast compared to when the quad is stopped. If the voltage is higher when running, drive around for a half hour or so. Then look for the 13.5 to 14.5 volts DC as outlined above. On the other hand if you don't get higher battery voltage with the engine running then your charging system is not working.

The stator can be measured very easily once we know what stator you have. How many wires come out of the stator and what are their colors? Also, How many wires on your voltage regulator and what are their colors?

The charging system consists of the stator, voltage regulator, and the interconnect wiring (and the battery of course). That's it.

 

Lynn,

Sorry for not getting back sooner with the results. I had a very bad battery and just received the replacement battery.

I tried what you said and here is what I found. I placed the new battery (freshly charged right off the charger) in the ATV. I took a reading after starting and it was 11.6 volts. I increased the speed and there was no dramatic change but the volts were beginning to climb slowly. I shut it off and the volts remained the same. I then, while running, disconnected the negative battery cable and it continues to run which seems to indicate that the stator is capable of keeping it running. All of this was done with the lights off. Could there be too much draw with the lights on that it is not charging the battery?

Also, to answer a portion of your response earlier about how many and what colors of wires come off the stator, they are as follows;

5 wires
Blue w/ white stripe
Black w/ red stripe
Green
Pink
Yellow

I would do the same for the volatge regulator but I don't know where that is or what it looks like.



*****************UPDATE***************** Apparently long ago when I bought this Baja WD90 and I was looking for a way to disable the speed control, I looked at a post somewhere that said to unplug the box under the left fender. I did this and was rewareded with an ATV that no longer was limited by the speed controller. I do not know how or why but what I unplugged at the time was apparently the voltage regulator and as soon as I pplugged it back in, I seen the correct voltage charging the battery. But the weird thing to me is, why was this affecting the speed controller and why isn't it affecting it when I plugged it back in since I now have an ATV that is charging and running quick? Hmmm.

Anyway Lynn, thanks for your help and I am still wanting to know which stator is correct per the wire explanation above in case I need to do something with that some day.

Now to try and figure out how to get a headlight out of its socket and replaced and I will be in fat city....anyone know how?

Dan

 

11.6 volts is a half dead battery. Either your charger wasn't working or your meter is no good (or your brand new battery is no good). But I'm assuming that you were not measuring this while the starter was actually turning. Starters draw a *lot* of current and will pull the battery down a bit. But if you measured this while the starter motor was stopped (whether or not the engine was running) something is wrong.

Measure your car battery with your meter. If it reads 11.6 too then your meter is no good.

No, this is a wrong conclusion. The ignition system on your quad runs entirely off the modertely high voltage AC ignition power winding on your stator. This is entirely separate from your low voltage battery charge winding. You could disconnect the battery charge winding at the stator, unplug the voltage regulator, and remove the battery and the quad would still stay running. Think of your lawn mower. No stator, voltage regulator, starter motor, or battery. No 12 volt anything. You pull on a rope and it runs. Same for your quad. Turn the engine by whatever means and it will run as long as spark isn't killed via kill switches.

But on most chinese quads the only way to turn the engine is via the starter motor which does require a battery, starter motor, battery charge circuitry, etc. But once running the quad is on its own power source.

This is called the placebo effect. You are told that disconnecting this widget will increase power, you do it, and sure enough it does. But how did your determine that? Did you put it on a dynamometer? Do you have results measured by something that that has real data that can be compared, verified, and analyzed by others? Humans are notoriously bad at measuring things with their senses - especially when they have heightened expectations. We are all subject to that - some of the best scientists in the world have been fooled by relying on personal desires and expectations (cold fusion comes to mind). That's why the scientific method requires that all claims are met with skepticism until it can be proved with independantly verified data.