as we went up to penn this past weekend we thought my little brother could ride his atv ... but we were faced with a problem when we went to start it up we hit the starter button and the starter only spun it didnt kick the engine over... then we smelt something burning and the black box with the louvers on it was burning up... what can be the problem? please help

 

I connected my battery in reversed polarity by accident. Both battery cables are black on my China quad. (That's my excuse anyway.) The stater would spin but I guess it was spinning in the wrong direction, so of course the sprague clutch just freewheeled and starter couldn't crank the motor over. I didn't fry anything as far as I know. I better check my rectifier come to think about it. Sounds like you may have cooked yours?

 

I agree with Resourcefull. A backwards battery will make the starter spin backwards (and freewheeling the starter clutch).

Some kinds of voltage regulators will burn up as well if you don't have a fuse off the positive battery post that feed everything excpet the starter motor/solenoid heavy gauge wires.

If you have a fuse it should have blown instead of destroying the regulator.