my buddy has a 400ex(not sure on the year) but we have to touch the battery with a wrench to make it start and sparks fly everywhere while doing it, lights nuthin works , everytime we shut it down we have a heck of a time getting it started again, also, when u first get it started smoke is EVERYWHERE , its white and grey and it comes out evrywhere, the exhaust, engine the whole thing just smokes, u cant even see anything, we are wanting to head out to ride tommorow but not if we cant get it started!!

 

anyone??? were out here in the barn waiting for responses to start this thing!

 

Sparks flying everywhere does not sound good with anything electrical...

Based on the descriptions that were given, it sounds like two different problems. The Electrical problem and the Smoke problem.

The electrical problem is easy enough to diagnose. If you have to touch a wrench to the battery to get any power, it sounds like one of the battery leads may be bad. Possibly a grounding issue. The sparks may be coming from the fact that you are introducing power to an area where power was not before, and that electrical spike causes the sparks. I'm curious as to whether you find that you have to touch the positive terminal or the negative terminal to get it to work. Also whether using something non-conductive and moving the battery wires around helps at all. I suppose it could also be the battery itself having something broken inside (if pushing down on the terminals themselves resolves the problem). I would suggest doing these tests with a non-conductive tool (such as a piece of wood or plastic).

As to the smoke problem, I am not sure. A way to help diagnose it would be to find out if the bike is louder than it was before. Though it appears that the smoke is coming from everywhere, it's likely coming from under the plastic somewhere and just spreading out, giving the appearance of coming from everywhere. Maybe removing some plastic to see where the smoke is actually originating?? It could be simply a loose pipe connection or a badly-sealed gasket that gets better as the bike warms up.

From the sounds of it, I expect that the electrical problem could be fixed in short order, assuming you can find where the problem actually is. The smoke problem could be a little more challenging. More troubleshooting is definitely needed to figure out the actual SOURCE of each of these issues.

Hope this helps,

-ET

 

yes the smoke is flying out everywhere, and it not the plastics, you were right on the battery though thanks you for all your help, hey it runs, alittle smoky but hey what the hek u know?