I have a 2011 110cc that was purchased new in Dcember. The battery kept going dead, sitting and while driving. New battery was purchased and fully charged, now bike won't start at all- no click from starter, no noise at all. Tried crossing out the solenoid and no go, also tried a wire direct from battery to starter. Fuse is good.
What else can be wrong/ could I check?

Melissa

 

Well this is bad... So let's start fixing it... I have some questions:

1) "the battery kept going dead while sitting"... Could you describe this in more detail please? I'm thinking: So you're riding along and everything is going fine. You shut off the quad, and it starts up again OK. No problem. Then you park the quad for a couple hours (or days - please specify which), and the quad won't crank the starter. This is how I interpret "quad doesn't crank after sitting"...

2) "the battery goes dead while driving" is completely different. Again more detail is needed. I'm thinking: So you're driving along and everything is normal. You shut off the quad, and after 30 seconds, you go to start the quad and the starter won't crank. This is a completely different scenario from 1) above. In fact they are somewhat mutually exclusive. So I need you to be a good scientist and analyze this objectively and thoroughly and report back. Don't hold back - give me as much detail as possible...


You bought a new battery to replace a battery that isn't being charged (i.e. it keeps going dead). That is completely the wrong answer to fix this problem. If your first battery was ruined because it wasn't being kept charged, then your next new battery can't be far behind...

Quad batteries *must* be kept charged up or they are quickly ruined. You're now claiming no "click", and no "noise" from the solenoid. My question is:

3) Did the new battery work ever? Did it "click" or "crank the starter" when you first put it in? Or is it failing after working for a while?

Do you have a meter? I think we're down to that level. We need to measure some voltages...

 

So it seems like the battery issue is more like your scenario #2, it died while moving twice on my son and many other time it would not start again after sitting even 10 seconds. I have a second quad which this also happened yesterday (it was used so I'm not sure how well it was originally working or charging) but my son drove it for about an hour through some mud and puddles, he stopped for supper and now the battery is dead and I tried boosting it with a power pack but that didn't work.
Both quads were boosted off of a truck a few times this winter, before we bought a trickle charger, one charge off another quad resulted in popped fuses in both, replaced and they seemed to run, but never did keep their charge.
I don't have a meter but could pick one up if they're not too expensive.

 

if you want inexpensive, harbor freight. $6.00. i use it and it gives me no problems. then you can check your voltage before cranking, during cranking and after it's running.

 

Even when my battery is fully charged now I get no power anywhere (no brake/headlight), and absolutely no noise when I try to start.

 

Jaster94 has the right idea.

Measure the battery voltage right on the battery terminals (plus and minus). You should have 12.6 volts or higher for a fully charged good battery. Then while measuring the battery voltage (on the battery terminals again), have someone jump across the solenoid posts. [Jumping across the solenoid hooks the battery directly to the starter motor, bypassing all switches and safety interlocks. Make absolutely sure the quad is in neutral and the parking brakes are applied before doing this. If the quad should start you want it to stay put...] What does you battery voltage read while jumping across the solenoid?

Next do the same procedure (jumping the solenoid) but measure the voltage right on the starter motor (while the solenoid is being jumped). Put the red lead of the meter right on the starter motor input post, and the black lead right on the starter motor metal case. Dig the probes in to make sure you have a good connection. What do you measure there?

Just in case you've never used a meter before, you want to set the meter to measure DC volts on the 20 volt scale. To practice measure the battery voltage on your car or truck (which we know works - I'm not confident of anything about your quad yet). Once you can measure 12.6 volts on your car reliably, then move over to your quad...

 

Okay here's what I got;
Battery before hooking up to quad was 12.42
After hooking to quad, power started to drain immediately and was 11.19 after a few seconds.
Crossed solonoid and battery was 10.03, quad attempted to turn over but choke was off.
Measured starter while crossing solonoid;8.03

Noted; seemed to be a burning smell immediately after hooking up battery, could not isolate the origin. Red lead from battery to fuse was HOT to the touch.

 

You have more than one problem. Your battery shouldn't drain from 12.42 volts to 11.19 volts in just a few seconds. So your battery is bad or discharged. This is not surprising, since quads that don't have good charging systems ruin batteries very quickly.

Then you measured 10.03 volts on the battery when the starter was engaged, and 8.03 volts at the starter. Those are wrong answers too - you should not get 2 volts drop between the battery voltage and the starter voltage (10.03 volts to 8.03 volts). But I suspect your battery is just petering out under the load. If you had remeasured the battery voltage again *after* measuring the 8.03 volts I bet it would have measured much less than 10.3 volts. That 2 volt difference is probably not the voltage drop on the starter cables, but more likely the battery voltage drooping down more and more with each measurement.

A much bigger problem is the hot wire going to your fuse. That should not be too. Is that wire getting hot along its entire length? Or is one end getting hot? A bad connection can heat up locally (right at the bad connection), but excess current draw will heat up the whole wire along it's length. But that should never happen since that should blow the fuse. What value fuse do you have installed? For a 110cc machine it should not be over 7 amps. 7 amps should *not* be capable of heating up that wire. By chance, did this 7 amp fuse get changed to a much larger value? You mentioned in an earlier post about changing popped fuses...

When you hook up a battery to your quad with the ignition switch off it should not draw any current. So if you are drawing current then we need to find out where it is going. You find this by unplugging connectors one by one until the current stops.

But I'm jumping ahead here. First let's make sure you don't have a bad connection. Then let's verify that you have a 7 amp fuse in place that does not blow when the battery is hooked up. If you can verify this then we can use the meter to measure the battery current flow directly. If the fuse blows then we can't use the meter to measure current quite yet (or we risk blowing the fuse in the meter). Don't be afraid to measure ohms and/or volts though. Meters are pretty much newbie proof for AC/DC volts and ohms. We need to slightly more careful when measuring large currents...

Let's get the answers to the above questions. That will point to which of several paths to take next.