hi i have a gio t3 200 cc and i cant get it to start. It use to be that i had to boost it then drive it for a bit and it would work for the day just had to disconnect the battery at night or I would have to boost it again but now I cant even get it going with a boost. i checked my battery and it is fine charged it and tested and got a reading of 12.8 left it on the quad over night hooked up and got the same reading so my battery isnt being drained. i then checked the wire the battery to the solenoid and it reads the same. when i check the solenoid to the starter it reads between 7&9. i thought that that might be the problem but i tried the bypass trick and still wouldn't fire up. so i am thinking it is the starter motor but I'm still not sure it tries to crank but it sound real sluggish and slow. anyone have any ideas on what i should do????

 

All measurements of battery voltage *must* be done under load - i.e. when the starter motor is engaged and trying to turn the engine. Any measurement of battery voltage while the battery is just sitting there with no current being pulled out of it is meaningless.

Consider this little thought experiment: Suppose you take out your quad battery and replace it with two tiny little 9 volt transistor batteries wired in series (end to end). Unloaded (just sitting there) they will read 18 volts. So would you think for a minute that this 18 volts from these little btteries will spin up your starter motor super fast if you hooked it up? Of course not... The starter motor would just short out that teeny little power source. The 18 volts would collapse to near zero, the starter wouldn't turn and the 9 volt batteries would quickly go dead.

It's the same with your quad battery. It's got to able to make 12 volts while delivering *35 amps* of current. Those little 9 volt batteries can't do that, and maybe your quad battery cannot either. That is why you *must* measure the battery voltage under the starter motor load .

You said you had 7-9 volts at the starter side of things. The only way you would have any voltage at all here is if the starter motor is hooked up and putting the battery under load. I bet if you repeated this test and then measured the battery voltage under the same conditions (under load) right at the battery terminals you'd see the same 7-9 volts. Your battery is toast - I expect.

You said yourself that you had to disconnect the battery at night to keep it from draining. This is a big red flag problem, that says you've got major battery charging issues which you've ignored. Batteries that aren't kept charged up religiously are quickly ruined. It sounds to me like your ignoring the main problem has now come down to secondary problems.

What happens if you jump your suspect quad battery to your car battery (please take extra care to get the jumper cables hooked up correctly)? Does the starter motor turn normal speed now?

 

Found this and just ordered it. Should come in really handy to warn of impending battery/charging issues.

6v, 12v, 24v LED Battery level voltage monitor meter J | eBay

 

ok so my battery is fried from trying to get this thing working so i tried hooking up my trailer battery and tried to start it. I am getting better volt when cranking it over but still wont start. I just bought a new solenoid my starter motor seems to be spinning fine but it just won't start.
things i have checked
wires - can't find anything wrong by visual
starter solenoid - just bought a new one
carb - just bought a makuni 250cc performance carb for it
fuel line - can't see any leaks or blocks gas is getting to the carb
spark plug - took out and held to metal and getting sparks

so what else is there to check
as for the drain on the battery I think it was caused by the solenoids wire was contacting the metal outside of the solenoid after fixing this my battery doesn't loose any volts from being conected all night

 

Interesting. Their instructions say to wire directly across the battery. But then it's not fused, and a fire hazard - especially if you have run the unfused wires all the way up to the front of the quad and mount it. I would definately wire it between ground and the non battery (fused) side of the main fuse.

Also, be sure to use one of the the two low power modes (draws 500 microamps). 10 milliamps may not seem like a lot, but at that draw rate a sitting quad will completely discharge a 5 amp-hour battery in just a tad under 3 weeks. In the low power mode it will be just over 1 year.

 

1) Do you have spark? Take out the plug, wire it back up, and hold the threads of the plug up against the engine block. Then try and start the quad (still holding the plug up against the engine). Do you see a steady spark across the plug gap at about 10 times per second? Put the spark plug back in for the next two questions.

2) With the new battery does the starter motor crank at normal speed, or is it still slow?

3) You said you are "getting better volt" with the new battery. How much better? What did you measure? This is important info. Measure the voltage right at the starter while cranking the starter motor. Red lead goes on the starter motor input post, black lead goes on the starter motor case. Use the 20 volts DC scale.

 

The power consumption doesn't bother me I have it hooked up to a 1.5 amp charger/maintainer when not running. For the 15 buck cost of the maintainer its worth every penny in avoiding battery issues.

I will however add a 1 amp fuse to it prior to hooking it up.

 

Did you take the carb apart and make sure it was clean?
Something like a carb can often come with pre plugged jets from the manufaturer.

Is there a good seal on your manifold gaskets when you changed the carb?

Does it sound like it wants to start just doesn't really catch?

 

ok so i went out and bought a new battery and charged her up then tried to start but didn't so i tried a trick my dad told me a dumped a lil bit of gas in the spark plug sure enough it started. my carb when i took the air filter off had some condensation in and when i drained it out the bottom it came out looking more like water then gas so i drained it till it looked like gas again and now its starting fine.

Now for the charging problem i measured the battery wail it was running and it is saying 12.8 now i thought i read somewhere on here it had to read 13^ or something was wrong with the charging system how would I go about find what is wrong

 

First make sure the test is done correctly. Here is the full generic test. Note how the test must be done at medium fast engine speed with the headlights off.