Okay i have a zongshen 200cc air cooled quad. There is a green wire on the negative part of the battery which when i was trying to start it that wire started smoking. I have taken it off the battery so the time being and traced it along to what looks like a shabby soldering job which i dont understand why. But where should this wire go. Have looked and some people say its from the cdi.

Any help would be great

 

More than probably it was either loose or there is no starter relay and the battery voltage was very low when you cranked it. There is a poability the starter is shorting out as well but that would probably resulted in a dead short as soon as you engaged the starter and fuses would be blown as well as a lot of smoke and possibly a lite show. Do be careful. DO NOT POKE AND HOPE with electrics.

 

Is it needed though as it starts and runs fine without it

 

Ok I am confused there should be only 1 ground wire to the battery. If there is more than 1 wire to your - terminal you may have something wired wrong.

 

Sounds like its wired wrong as it looks like the green wire has been soldered onto another green one. Just odd how ir runs fine without the wire on

 

from what i have seen only black is used for ground wires on these things.

 

your gonna have to get a test light and chase down the issue.

 

If something is keeping your motor from turning and you keep the starter button held down, the wires at the battery will get hot and begin to melt their coatings. The problem is most likely in your cdi or starter.

 

FarmlifeMS. Thats what was happenimg. I was holding down the start button for ages. The carb was really out of tune. Ive now fixed that and it fires almost right away. Will have to put it together and find what that cable is doing

 

If by continuous cranking you were draining the power off the battery as the voltage goes down the amperage goes up creating heat. This could definetly cause a wire to melt, this would not be the case if your starter engaged but something was stopping it from turning the motor. There would have to have been inadequate voltage or an engine problem IE seized motor broken bendix jammed starter. This problem would and could also cause a wire to burn from the negative side however the motor would not turn over if this were the case.
Also remember the stators are not that solid on these machines and continued starting and stopping will tend not to allow significant charging of the battery and leave you with a low battery condition.