Evening folks. Found you guys looking for troubleshooting tips. Hope you don't mine a few more terrible questions!

I will preface this with a huge "I have no idea what i am doing". I have never even owned a quad and the most complicated engine i work on is my chainsaw.

I was given two chinese quads. Both are 2007 Qlink Rodeo 400s, 4x4, automatic, which supposedly have just under a 400cc engine. From what i can tell looking at parts this appears to just be a clone of a Yamaha Wolverine, unsure if its supposed to be the 350 or 450 model. Though i suspect the 450 model looking at how similar most of the parts are.

My aunt bought these new sometime in 2008 ish with just 6 miles on them and the one i can get the digital display to turn on says it has 522 miles currently. but they have sat for atleast 5 years outside, under a pine tree. None of the hoses are good. I don't even know where most of them hook to as both ends have rotted away. the wiring harness is currently my biggest hurdle.

I haven't started on the other one, i have only removed some of the plastic so i can use it to trace some of the cables and hoses it has as it was in much better shape when i received it.

Thus far I have tested the starter and it ran outside the quad, but when i put it back in and supply power directly to it i can hear it humm but it doesn't seem to turn over the engine at all. I can manually pull the starter cord and get the engine to turn but I get no spark regardless
I have the carb completely tore apart and soaking right now as the throttle valve was completely goo balled shut with old fuel. I would love to get a rebuilt kit for this, but i am unsure where i would find one for a chinese carb (Kinzo, they were proud enough to actually cast their name on the thing)
On the electrical side, i am unsure if the sparkplug coil works, i haven't tested it yet, spark plug looks fine, but i haven't gotten a spark just yet. I suspect the ignition solenoid is bad, i am unsure how to test this particular style and i think i have a few conditions unmet for it to even try working. I hooked up a battery charger to the leads for testing purposes and originally had the front display and headlights come to life and the "start" button seemed to send a signal to the solenoid and it would make a humming sound, but since then the display has went dead, the headlights turn on but tent to dim to off periodically, and the coil doesn't seem to move anymore. I attempted to do a continuity test on the start button and none of the pins seem to give me a reading when i was grounded to the engine block. Frame doesn't seem to be grounded as i don't get continuity between the engine and frame anywhere.
I am unsure the condition of the CDI box (or if i even have one honestly), I think it was making noise at some point so it might be dead. I have two black boxes with no markings and am unsure which one is the actual box i should be worrying about.

I have many hoses not connected but i figure baby steps would be better than tackling the entire project at once, as most don't seem to lead anywhere, and others are missle the entire middle section of hose. (Three hoses that don't go anywhere i think i have identified as simply vents. Theres one hooked to a hose that is also hooked to the carb, one coming out of the top of the rear differential, and one coming out of the brake drum)

I am half tempted to just rip the entire harness out and restart using good guides and good parts.

I have attached a few pictures for anyone to get a laugh out of better picture of the situation.

The current problem

The next problem

Unknown unmarked box

I presume the CDI

 

I think i have ruled out the ignition coil as a fault. I get .5 to 1 ohm between the posts, and 8.85k between the post and spark plug cap.

 

It is a Yamaha clone. I would guess that most of it will be covered by one of the 350 Yamaha manuals, the chassis looks like a Bruin to me, but Yamaha's system for naming Quads is decidedly strange so who knows. Those pipes to the rear axle etc are breathers but should go upwards (airbox perhaps) so they don't let water in when you go deep. The wiring is your biggest problem as it may not be standard Yam, but Yam wiring is also fairly strange and complex. Hope you haven't connected the charger up the wrong way round, as a starter going the wrong way won't engage, and you would blow some electronics if the fuse didn't pop first.

 

I've been using a few Yamaha models as a guide taking things apart, been working so far.
I don't think i connected the charger wrong. I'm thinking the CDI box just died when I tried to use the button start, it was making a humming noise, so i think its done fried. The display doesn't seem to be fried as the headlight indicator lights up when i turn them on. But nothing else does.
I've tested the lead from the ignition coil to the CDI box and get connectivity, so either the stator is toast or this cdi box is, or the rectifier box? I have two boxes i don't know what they are, the one above and another with cooling fins that i suspect is the actual voltage rectifier.
I attempted to test the stator today. It wasn't under the recoil starter so I assumed it was under the cover (crankcase cover i think its called?) and pulled the bolts out. Oil came pouring out of it. Not sure if this was the wrong location of the stator or i have a serious problem.

 

You don't need to remove the alternator cover to test the stator, the wiring runs out of the case and you test it where it plugs into the loom, the stator does run in oil. Resistance tests are fairly inconclusive anyway and a scatter gun approach won't work as you don't know what you are looking for. Get the starter working properly on the button, then you can start testing the ignition system with the engine turning, for volts coming from exciter coil, volts from trigger coil, volts from CDI to ignition coil. The box marked 200604 is probably the CDI and the finned box is going to be the voltage regulator. Follow the ignition circuit tests in your Yamaha workshop manual.

 

Started working on getting the engine to produce volts. I initially tested the cables for the stator as they were comming out of the cover. I got connection between all three leads and it doesn't seem to be shorted out. Being as i already had the cover off i went ahead and looked at the starting motor to see what it was doing while inside the case. I applied volts and the thing tried to move but was unable to turn the motor. I took the spark plug out so it wouldn't have to fight compression and it still couldn't turn over the motor. To be fair i had an extremly difficult time trying to turn it with the cord with the spark plug in. but it woudl turn easily with the plug removed and i was able to move the motor by just moving the flywheel by hand. So i think this starting motor is having some problems by itself. I'll see if i can't find a good one while i trace the leads to get the push button to work again.

 

Well I cleaned the connectors in the push button start and the kill switch toggle. I got continuity between the buttons and the leads where they plug into the harness itself.

I also seem to have some sort of spark now. I hooked up the battery charger to try rigging up another solenoid and shocked myself because the entire sparkplug lead was energized somehow. I took off the springy thing protecting the cable so it wouldn't arc on everything, but the metal housing around the plug is still energized and i think the terminals where it bolts to the frame are as well. The plug wouldn't stop sparking actually. It seems linked to the killswitch somehow. When i have it in Kill Engine its off and when i put it on run its sparking the entire time regardless of anything else. I assume i have a short somewhere in the harness or once again the cdi box is to blame.

I main display randomly decided to turn back on as well so its def not fried. Once i put the button on Run it blanks out again, and once i pushed Start button it would blank out again. it doesn't seem to turn back on easily either, wiggling the hardness sometimes gets it to live again.

I am unsure how all these systems are powered by just the battery. Right now its Red lead from battery into solenoid, and the Black lead is directly connected to the engine block. I presume one of the leads leading off the solenoid is powering the rest of the system.
Hooking up the other solenoid produced no results. I couldn't get it to even try turning the starting motor. I do have continuity from the push button to the connector though, this is what i plugged directly into the solenoid to try and bypass everything but i'm guessing it was unsuccessful since the cdi box had no way to talk to the solenoid.

I tried just hand starting the engine, but there is far too much pressure in there for me to crank over, it just rips the robe form my hands.

 

Alright I am stuck. I cannot seem to trace these wires, and some of these make zero sense.

From the solenoid one lead goes to the push start button(Blue Black), One lead goes to the CDI box (Blue White) I cannot find where the red line goes. I get some continuty from a red wire in the fuse box, but that fuse then turns into a brown/blue wire and is also jumper'd to another fuse leading to another fuse and goes off into the harness again

I then tried to trace some of the other wires around the cdi box. the one ground wire i found goes into another plug and turns into a white/green wire and the rest of the plug is unused, the mating plug has multiple wires presumably coming to a dead end. In another plug leading out of the CDI box the mating plug has a ground wire ending at the plug but there isn't a ground wire mating up with the box side because it was obviously used in the other dead end plug.

I don't understand how this is getting grounded or how the start button is supposed to get power to close the relay to allow the motor to start.
I did start at the stator. I found all the normal wires and was able to trace the three coil wires to the voltage rectifier and then the two leads going back to the charging system.
Looking at the various Yamahas this could be based off of it seems to have the same solenoid but following their troublehsooting and wiring doesn't seem to match up at all.
I am also thinking that mysterious box is somehow related to the 4x4 funtion.

 

They are using Yamaha's wiring system, though not, apparently, Yam's colours. Positive from battery goes to the solenoid, through the 30 amp fuse and into the red wire, which goes to the regulator and the ignition switch. Remove, clean and refit the earths, there should be one to the frame as well as the engine. Check the positive leads are clean and tight from battery to solenoid to starter. Make sure the battery is fully charged, then if the starter still doesn't turn the engine there may be a problem with it. Rare that they try to work but don't, they usually ether work fine or not at all. Take a look inside it to find out why it isn't working.

 

Frame grounding may be an issue. I'm not seeing any cable going from or to the frame at all.