Howdy All

I finally got a chance to rebuild the top end on my son's LT80 and was having a little trouble getting it to stay running....hence the battery wore down. Well....instead of just charging the battery overnight, I decided to jump it off my vehicle to get it going. Not a real big deal until I REVERSED THE JUMPER CABLES ON THE QUAD!!! Positive to negative and vice versa. In all the years I've wrenched on things I've never done this until today. Now the quad doesn't seem to be getting any juice to the starter. I see that there are two fuse type deals located under the seat and one says that it is a spare, but after switching the fuses out...still nothing. Any ideas on troubleshooting would be appreciated.

 

Here's something to try, bypass the battery to see if you fried the battery.
Use the battery cables that mount to the battery to jump it, if that doesn't work, I know you said you replaced the fuses but did you use the right size? were the originals blown??
Does the starter make any kind of clicking noise or any noise at all? If none of these
suggestions work than to see if the starter is still working try to jump staight off the starter
itself find the starter lead that goes to the battery and try that and see.
This is all I'm coming up with, GOOD LUCK!!

 

I agree, bypass the battery. Use the jumper cables and touch it on the starter wire. I'm guessing the relay fried.

 

Hey Guys...Thanks for the advice. I did as you said and hooked up direct to the starter and it works. While looking at the wiring, I found a wire that was burned in half that appeared to be a ground. The bad wire is suppossed to fasten to the bolt that holds the rectifier to the frame. I used a small piece of wire and fixed the broken one, but still no luck. I also tried the spare starter relay that is included in the harness. Still nothing. Does the rectifier have anything to do in the starting process? Thanks again for the info.

 

I just tried one last thing. I used a jumper wire to bypass the starter relay and the starter engaged. That pretty much points to the starter relay I'd have to say. I'm still unsure of the bad wire. I'm not sure if it was burnt or just rotted in two. At any rate...I'm close to a solution!!!

 

Did you happen to have the vehicle running when you tried to jump start the LT80. Saw a guy fry his battery that exact same way, and he had the vehicle running. It no problem jump starting those little things with your vehicle battery, just need to NOT HAVE THE VEHILCE RUNNING. If you reverse the cables, not sure if it matters or not if the vehicle is running, as far as toasting the battering. I know running it will toast it, don't really want to experiment with it not running. Interested to see if yours was running or not.

 

TNT50, I'd almost have to say that there may be a little more, further into on the ground
wire. It could be bad in other places as well .To know this for sure you might want to
possibly replace as much of that wire as possible.I would get some male & female connectors
and cut as close to the relay as possible to work with and use the same size wire, run fresh wire all the way to the battery and shrink tube all of your connections. The jumper you put in may not be making a complete circuit.Or there could possibly be another break or rot spot in another area of the ground. Try running a complete new ground and see how that does for ya.Or check to see
if your ground screw is a good bare metal ground.

 

I traced the broken ground back quite a ways finding nothing out of the norm other than the rotted section. The bad section started at the rectifier and went into the harness about two inches. Like Biggone suggested...I replaced it with the same gauge wire and shrink wrapped it. I think THAT part will be ok, but the starter relay seems to be toast. I ordered a new one, but won't get it till the middle of the week to check everything out. When I attempted to jump the four wheeler, I didn't have my vehicle running. Like Quad4Fun...I've heard that with the vehicle running...you're probably gonna fry the battery. I've never tested the theory on a four wheeler, but did try it on a motorcycle a couple of years back with poor results. I had acid boiling out of almost every plug!!! The battery in the LT was whipped anyhow. I wouldn't have been out much. I bought the LT as a project quad...it might have been cheaper to just buy a new one at the rate I'm going[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Thanks again for the help!!!

 

Give this a try.

Take a look under the seat attached to the frame next to the oil tank (right side), there is a breaker about 1 inch square in a rubber mount. Look at the end facing the rear of the quad you see a little red button under clear rubber, press that button to restore the power to your quad.