I have an older Bayou220 that has been having starting issues. It ran fine but it started clicking on starts. So I got a new starter solenoid. But after I swapped in the new one, the atv would not turn on at all. I don’t mean crank, I mean it wouldn’t not turn on.. Not even click! I swapped the old solenoid back in and it turned on instantly.. but same thing.. I went to crank it up, I only got a single click out of the old solenoid. I think I even saw a little puff of smoke coming from the wire connecting to it. I made sure the wires matched and had a 20 fuse in.
could it just be the solenoid or what can it be? Can I even test the solenoid ?

Ok thanks that helped a lot. I actually had the cables backwards. This Chinese solenoid had the posts backwards from the OEM so I didn’t even look to which was for battery.
Now I can get he ignition light to come on but..
Unfortunately.. now the solenoid just does a long drawn out clicking.
What do I do now?

by the way, I can pull start it.. if that helps at all.

So this is strange.. This whole thing started a couple weeks go. I had my atv at the farm and brought it back to the house to do an oil change and clean it up. When I got home I had tested my battery and the battery tender said fully charged. It started up fine and worked. Then I went to use it last week and it wouldn’t start. That is why I had thought it was the solenoid.
Now.. I went to check the battery with the multimeter and it had read 10.8! It had worked two works ago, not sure how it dropped. So I let it charge overnight and this morning it reads 12.7, great news. But.. I just checked again and it now reads 12.6, is that something to be worries about, or could that just be because it was freshly charged? I’ll hook it up tonight and check to make sure it starts but why would it drop like that over the span of two weeks?

Now the battery is at 11.54. And it’s not in the atv. Should I hook it up to the atv or is a sign that something is wrong with it.

I did a load test, checked it while starting it up.. never went below 11, it actually went down and then up to 13! Kinda crazy but maybe it was juat dead and now it’s fine? I’ll leave it hooked up and check it in a week or so.