I have a 200c redcat atv and just bought a brand new battery.. it wont start and to best describe it it sounds like it doesnt have enough battery power but i the battery is brand new and i checked it with a meter.. something like 12.4 volts...... i thought it might be the starter so i pulled it and hooked it up to my truck battery.. it was spinning fine but i dont know if that could still be the problem or not... before i try and buy one online i was seeing if anyone had any suggestions... i just bought the quad used and havent had it running yet... the person had it running for a second with the old battery and a jump pack.. any suggestions??

 

You need to charge the battery!

 

it said if it was over 12 not to charge it

 

it's cca's (cold cranking amps) not voltage that you need to start the quad, charge the battery for 4 hours on a 2 amp charger, better yet if you have a battery tender use that to charge the battery .

 

i have a 1.5 amp slow charger

can i use that and have it on a little longer? it tells you when it is supposedly charged but i dont know if its accurate.. i borrowed it from someone

 

Yep, that will charge it fine. After adding the acid to the battery cells the new batteries require a slow charge. Let that battery charger do its thing and wait for the green charged light. Those little automatic chargers do a pretty good job.

I keep both my ATVs hooked up to a battery tender charger all the time when not in use. Otherwise the battery will loose it's charge if it sits long enough without being used.

 

ok so i went and charged it until it said it was done... hooked it up and tried to start it... still sounds like its a dead battery - the fan slows down and the light goes dim and it makes a weird noise... battery terminals started smoking.. both wires were hot and starting to melt around battery they were hot all the way to the starter relay and the starter was a little warm... any ideas?

 

Hey tja349 did you here the ATV running before you bought it because it almost sounds like the engine is locked up. The starter seems to work and the battery is topped off. The starter jsut dosnt seem to be able to turn the engine over. The wires getting that hot is not a good sign. I'd pull the starter back out and see if you can turn the engine by hand using a prybar to move the gear in that hole were the starter bolts in.

 

hey i just checked that out it was spinning i could actually use my finger to spin it around. and for it running b4.. they had it running with a jump pack on the old battery and it ran for a second.. i have tried that with my jump pack but it doesnt work.. maybe theres was more powerful... it only ran for a few seconds i was able to rev it a couple times i think but then it stauled and when i went to try and start it again the pack was drained..

 

Try Jumping the atv with your car using jumper cables. If it starts fine then it may be a bad battery even though it's new it still could be defective, any way it will rule out the battery as the problem.