I have a 110cc Tao Tao approx. 2 yrs old. The Quad has been doing this from day one: With a charged battery, good clean gas and flow, good spark, etc - when I turn the ignition on and hit the start switch, the quad turns over and sometimes starts on first try but most of the time not. I try turning over a few more times and battery draws down so bad it will not turn motor over. I put on 12 volt battery charger boost - sometimes it will start but most of the time not. When I do get it running, it runs great and rides for an hour or more. I come home and turn off and use starter switch to try to turn over and the Quad motor barely turns. Sometimes have a little better luck with keypad start button. I own 4 Tao Tao Quads and they all run great except this one. Please help - I don't have much hair left!

 

Several things
1. check the connections on the round thing that clicks and turns the motor on (I know the name of it but I can't think of it now)
2. check the ground strap
3. your battery might just be bad.

 

Yeah it sounds like a bad battery. But let's make sure.

Measure your battery voltage with a meter right on the battery terminals while trying to start the quad. What voltage do your measure? If it is under about 11.5 then you've got a bad battery or a discharged battery.

Also, try jumping you quad battery using jumper cables to your car battery - but *please* take extra care to get the polarity right (plus to plus, and minus to minus). Does your starter motor spin at normal cranking speed? (Whether it starts or not is a separate issue - you may have more than one problem).

Let's assume your quad starter turns normally when jumped to your car battery. Then we're left with whether your battery is dead, bad, or both....

Get the quad started, then at medium fast speed with the headlights off, measure the battery voltage again with your meter. It should read 13.5 to 14.5 volts at speed if you charging system is working. What do you measure?

 

The atv doesn't sound like it is turning over at normal speed. Sounds like it might be off a little - even when jumping from a car battery. The readings on the battery are above 11.5.

 

Next measure the voltage right on the starter motor. Red meter lead goes to the starter input screw post, and the black lead goes to to the starter motor frame.

Again, you *must* measure this voltage while the starter motor is turning.

You have good voltage at the battery (you said better than 11.5 volts) while the starter is turning slowly. Now lets see how much drop is occuring through the wires and solenoid feeding the starter. If you have good voltage at the starter then you have a bad starter or the engine is too hard to turn.

If you have low voltage then you have bad connections in the wiring or a bad solenoid.

So what voltage do you measure right at the starter motor (as outlined above) with the starter motor turning?