I got a 96 bayou 220. I took the battery out of it over winter cause it was sitting out side under a tarp and today i went out to start it and it just makes a clicking sound by the battery. It doesent even try to turn the engine over. I brung the battery in to charge it and its completly full. I pull started it and it and it started right up and idled fine. The lights would be real dim and then get real bright while idleing. Any how i let it run for about 45 minutes with the lights off to see if it was getting a charge. i shut it off and still just clicked. What do you guys think. We bought it of this guy who lived by a big field and when we brung it home there was a rat nest on top of the battery and a few of the wires were chewed. Do you people thing i have a short or is the starter or altenater bad? any suggestions

 

Just letting it idle won't charge the battery. The engine has to be at about 1500 RPM before it starts charging. At least this is what I have been told by several different mechanics.

 

Rapid cicking sound beside the battery when you push the start button? Been there, seen that, fixed it. You have a bad or hung up solenoid or neutral safety-switch. Place your hand over( they are both housed together beside the battery) either of them when you try the starter to find out which one it is. You have three options here....replace the solenoid, run a loop around it so that the starter will engage without it, or just pull start it. You can unhook the thing (either one) and try tapping it as sometimes this frees them up. Good luck and hoped I helped you. Anything else, let me know, I've messed with those Bayous a pretty good bit.

 

I think maybe you found the problem yourself according to your post about the chewed cables. Before doing any other checks, you might take the cables off the battery, either replace them if the wire is badly chewed, or if just the insulation is chewed you could tape them temporarily with electrical tape. If the connectors or terminals are corroded.clean them by pouring baking soda on them and adding a little water over the soda. Let that stay on til the chemical action stops and rinse off everything. Then replace the cables, make sure your battery is fully charged, and hopefully the bike will start.
I had a similar experience just last month with my Warrior and thought I had a bad selenoid because of the clicking and no start...turned out to be a loose ground cable and insufficient current going to the selenoid. I put a wrench to the connector and voila!

 

Good advice, all.

You get a click, indicating you're getting juice to the solenoid control voltage terminal. Are you getting juice on the solenoid output terminal? (A voltmeter tells this tale.)

If not, the connection between the solenoid and the battery + terminal (big wire) may be bad; an ohmmeter can check continutity/resistance.

No problem there, then: the solenoid is bad, if it clicks and you get no juice on the output.

Wait, you DO get juice on the output side of the solenoid? Mr. Ohmmeter will tell you whether you have continuti between the solenoid and the starter motor terminal.

Looks good? Then get a jumper cable and connect it directly from the battery + terminal to the starter motor; does the starter turn over? No? then the starter isn't grounded (unlikely, many ground through the case and mounting bolts), or the starter motor armature is open (as in, bad starter).

Thatj's trouble-shooting--going back to an initial possibility, low battery (as in, battery won't hold a charge), you can check this out quickly with some jumper cables before you start--jump your ATV battery to a hot automobile battery (positive to positive, negative to negative), and see if everything works--if so, you have a bad battery/bad charging system, another story.

Good luck!

Diogenes

 

I doubt that it's even that serious. Try wiggling the wires around while you continuously try to start it. My starter didn't work when one of the wires got a short in it. (seat was sitting on the wires and shorted them out) I just taped them up a certain way so that the short was gone!. LOL hey what works works, so don't make fun of my methods!

 

Keep in mind that a battery will check good with no load but have little if any current available for starting.

Be sure to check the voltage across it while trying to crank the engine. A good one will hold close to 12 volts while a bad one will drop well below that value.

 

Well first off thanks for the replys. The whole time it was the battery. But i accedently broke the relay starter switch thingy. it works great now that i got a new battery and switch. I still dont know why the battery reads that its full. could anyone tell me why?

 

As I stated before, a battery will check good with no load but have little if any ability to provide current or amps. The tell-tale sign was that fact that your lights appeared so dim. It takes a heck of a lot more current to rotate the starter against the compression of the engine than it does to light a small lightbulb.

Don't feel too bad. I learned the hard way that you should always charge a battery once you add water, either by running the engine or with a portable charger. I added water to the battery in my Bayou several weeks before the start of deer season and then just rolled it back into the shed. The on the day before the season opening I was running around looking for a battery.

Guess I should have more attention to my Chemistry
teacher.