I am not real familiar with how the wiring works on my dads fourwheeler. He has a 2001 Honda Rancher 350 ES. Maybe someone can help me figure this out or at least explain it to where I can figure out how to bypass it if needed.

Ok, to start with, the fourwheeler would just click when he pressed the start button. He thought this was due to a spent battery so he bought a new one. He charged the battery and put it in, and the fourwheeler is still doing the same thing.
I started messing around with it, and now the neutral light will not come on, and there is a dash, ---, where the N for neutral should be. So since the electronics dont know that its in neutral, it will not start, not even with the pull start. It will shift thru the gears and it will shift into reverse, and when shifted to reverse, the red reverse light comes on and there is the R for revers on the digital read out.

So this is what I have found so far, I can apply ground to the green wire with the red stripe on it that comes off of the starter magnet, or what I would call the solenoid, and the green light will come on, and I can pull start it. Although the electric start still doesnt work when i do this.

I have been reading and found that maybe the neutral switch has gone bad?

Any help or info would be appreciated, or even an explanation of how the whole starter situation works. I cant find any wiring diagrams either, but I think there could be one in the manual, but he dont have a manual.

Thanks for any help

 

neutrail switch, angle sencor, or clutch adjustment are most likely. assuming you dont hace a frayed wire/short in the wireing harness.

 

Ive been doing some reading, and I think the neutral switch could be whats causing this.

One, where can I find this? i saw on the schematics where it is, but I dont really understand where it is or how to find it.

Second, do you know how to test that to see if thats what the problem is? I saw another post that said to check the gear position switch wires for continuity to ground. Would that be a good place to start?

 

Yes, that is where to start. The gear position sensor is under the rear engine cover. Close attention must be paid to the sensor position when installing. Also those 350's had a problem with the end of the shift drum snapping off where the gear position switch cross pin slides in. Shift drum replacement (total engine disassemble needed) to cure this issue. The new shift drums from Honda are thicker in this area and the engine case needs to have a bushing drove out in order for the new drum to be installed. With the rear engine cover removed, the shift drum can be checked with a standard screwdriver slipped into the shift drum slot where the sender attatches, and trying to turn it. The shift drum end should not turn using a screwdriver, if it does the shift drum is broken

The click in the starting system most likely is bad starter brushes. If you get it to click, the gear position switch is sending a signal to the CDI, unless you are jumping the solenoid at the terminals with a screwdriver. If jumped with a screwdriver and the starter will not turn over, tap on the starter while jumping the terminals. If the engine turns over then, you need to install new starter brushes as the tapping is causing the brushes to arc on the armeture to complete the circuit.

----- Gimpster -----

 

ive bypassed the nutral safty on my 300ex and a couple other quads.....on the left hand side of your quad youll find a large rubber boot ....slide it back and youll find a group of connections....first unplug them one at a time then plug them back in to check for a bad connection here...if that dosent work ...
.
look at the connections there will be two wires coming from one sleve that crosses over to the right side of the trans and then into it ....(to the nutral safty switch)
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once youve determined youv'e got the right wires dissconect them (at the large rubber boot)(we no longer need the two going back to the trans) now the other two wires heading up the harness that were plugged into the nutral safty switch wires ,(they will plug together )add a spare peice of wire by placing a stripped end into the female plug then plug in the male ...then connect the oppisite end of the spare wire to a frame or engine bolt...turn on the key and the nutral light should be on .....

 

Sounds like the above have alot of knowledge for correctly repairing your bike. I just offer a work around if the starter is good. Most bikes will allow you to start them in gear if you pull the front brake. (right handle bar lever), however if it is clicking I would agree with the above post that you have brushes, or solenoid issues in the starter and N light issues.

 

Thanks to all for the comments, I am going to dads tomorrow, i will see what I can come up with.

Gimpster, I did notice that when I could get the solenoid to click, that if I touched the 2 posts together using a screw driver on the solenoid, nothing at all would happen.

Y2dat, do you have any idea what color those wires would be that you are talking about for this fourwheeler?

ss420, I did not believe that until i got proved wrong by my bro!! Thats good to know though, thanks for the info

 

Ok heres what I know about this situation, I can ground out this green wire with a red stripe, that has the gator clip on it, and the neutral light will come on and the bike will crank. But, I have to take this off of ground, or the gears will not change, and I have to turn the bike off, and recrank it, then remove it, in order to be able to get the gears to change




The wire runs to this connector which is under the right rear tire. It runs behind the motor.



From there it goes around to the left side of the bike. In the pic below, there are 3 wires that look like they are going into the motor. I stuck one of them with a wire tester and the red reverse light came on. I believe one of them is the green and red stripe wire, but I cant tell. Is this the neutral switch that yall are talking about? I wasnt sure if the neutral and reverse switch are the same.

 

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