Bought two brand new Peace 110cc quads for the kids. Until recently, one ran nearly flawlessly, the other gives nothing but problems.

On the troublesome one, I can get it to run fine, but it won't idle. Using the accelerator, the quad moves fine, but as soon as the bike stops moving, it dies. every time.

Thinking it was carb related, I took the carb off and cleaned it thoroughly , then reassembled. Same issue. I am at a loss with this issue...

Also, both batteries seem to discharge when parked overnight. After a day of riding, I meter them around 13 volts, park them overnight, then meter them in the morning around ~12 volts. The stubborn quad will crank a few times and if it doesn't start the battery gets too flat to crank the starter. Both quads live on a Battery Tender when parked in the garage.

If anyone can shed some light on these two issues, I'd appreciate it greatly!

 

On the 110cc idle problem what happens if the throttle doesn't go back to the minimum position? In other words, if the throttle is never allowed to go back to full idle (i.e. you keep the throttle slightly applied) does the engine still die? I don't know 110cc quad carburetion at all (since I've never owned one), but I would assume there is a mechanical stop somewhere in the linkage to set the minimum idle speed. Perhaps others with 110cc quad experience can chime in.

You could always try swapping the caburetors between quads...

On the battery discharging problems:

Measure the battery and verify the 13 volts. Remove the fuse. Let the quad sit overnight. Measure the battery again in the morning. Did it still discharge? If so you battery is bad. End of story...

There are only three current paths that can discharge a battery:

1) Through the solenoid to the starter motor.
2) Through the main fuse to God knows what.
3) Through the battery itself (internally).

Number one is so incredibley unlikely that we can safely discount that for now (in favor of much more probable scenarios).

Number two will be verified as a real problem if your quad battery stays charged whenever you leave the fuse out. If this is the case we can look further...

If your battery still goes dead with the fuse taken out, then repeat the test, only this time unbolt the battery itself at the positive terminal. If it still goes dead overnight (after charging it) then the only possible load draining the battery is the battery itself. Bad battery - no question about it...

 

I have set up a little test, per your recommendations. The 110cc ATV's will not be ridden in the next week, they will be in the garage, sadly.

I have one battery disconnected from the ATV, which reads 13.02 volts. I will let that battery sit and see what it reads tomorrow. If this battery remains charged over the next few days, I will assume it is a good battery (it is a brand new Diehard, but even brand new batteries can be bad...)

The second battery, which is installed in the ATV, currently reads 12.51 volts. This ATV has sat for about a week, not connected to the Battery Tender, so I assume there has been a gradual drop, which should be normal? I will check this battery tomorrow to see if that reading drops substantially. If it does, I will remove main fuse, and recheck for a few days to see if the charge drops or not.

I will report my findings starting tomorrow.

Thanks!

 

And as for the dying at idle problem, I was wondering if it is carb related (dirty idle jet, though I cleaned it out, I could have missed something) or if it could possibly be electrical (ie: no spark at idle, but with higher RMP's there is spark, if that makes sense.)

The carb for these ATV's is about $20 on ebay. I have no problem gambling $20 and trying a brand new carb to see if the dying on idle problem goes away, but I like to know reasons for failures, so I can prevent them. I don't want, nor should I have to swap carbs out every time we take these ATV's out for a ride.

I'm no engineer or mechanic, which is obvious; but I am stubborn and curious. And I don't think these machines are necessarily junk, they just come with their own set of peculiarities.

I will report whatever I find in the hopes that someone else that has already had these problems can enlighten me, and also that when the solution is found, these posts will enlighten someone else going through the same thing.

 

Normally if you have electrical problems that are engine speed related the problem shows up when trying to start the quad. That is because the cranking speed is about 1/3 the idle speed (600 RPM cranking versus 1700 RPM at idle). So if spark is starting to fall off as the engine speed approaches idle, it is over a cliff at cranking speeds. The result is a quad that won't start at all.

 

Batteries right off a charger will read above 12.6 volts for a while, but if you put any sort of load on them they very quicky discharge down to 12.6 volts. The same is true if you just let the battery sit a while. Then the battery will stay near 12.6 volts and *slowly* discharge down from there (to 11 volts or so - it depends on the load current being pulled out). Then as the battery approaches being fully discharged the voltage rapidly drops once again.

12.51 volts is in the realm of a fully charged battery.