I have a better way... I have a test light that hooks to battery and shows me hot or ground without changing my connection.

 

Agreed. I have a test light as well but it's useless when one wants to check whether switches are broken or not or the continuity of a single wire.

 

With your standard off the shelf test light maybe. Iv never had to pull out my multi meter with this test light to test for bad wires or switch..

 

Ok. What's important is that we all share our knowledge and experience which may be helpful to others.
Personally for quick tests I use the test light but in cases where I don't want power going into (unless they have to have power) the components I'm testing I use the multi-meter.

 

thx for the replies i decided to narrow the valves going to the engine so that gas is not wasted. The solenoid turns over, when I tap it. But the killswitch has no signal, so I routed the b/w wire in the key to the red wire in order to turn the vehicle on/off.

 

i mean the black wire, the red/t wire goes to ground. If you did that it might blow.

 

a lot of these Chinese ATVs have constant power to red wire at the solenoid. the starter button is actually a ground button, check that.if you cross the two main connections on the solenoid..does it turn over? i just replaced the solenoid on my 08 Unsion 250 with a new one found on Amazon for $10 free shipping.