essentially try jumping the two heavy wires and if it cranks you will know its the starter relay problem, I think..

 

I tried what I think you were saying on the two red fat wires - nothing..... I haven't put any money into buying new parts because my goal was to not have to but looks like I may have to! I posted other pictures of the big black box (cdi I think) - could someone tell me how this is important and what works and doesnt work if its bad... or how to check it?? Thanks

 

I'm hanging back a bit because I don't know anything about arctic cats. I do know electronics though.

I stated before that I didn't see anything in your profile pictures that resembled a starter solenoid. I did a google search for 'arctic cat starter solenoid' and found lots of pic's of normal looking solenoids, and none that looked anything like your pic's. So I'm a bit confused.

To add to the confusion bentz1251 seems to recognize your situation. Bentz, have you seen this type solenoid? Between the two of us perhaps we can figure this out .

Dawn, What model and year is your arctic cat? Perhaps with more specific info I can do a more refined search...

And I'm still confused about the following: You reported:

So we have a fat green wire and a fat red wire. This makes no sense at all. That can't possibly be correct... Am I right?

Then later you said:

This makes more sense, but is completely opposed to what you said before.... So you shorted the (now) two fat red wires together in the harness with a pair of pliers and the starter didn't turn. Is this right? Did you see any sparks at the pliers when you did this?

If not then try to jump your quad battery to your car with a pair of jumper cables. WHen you do this take extra care to get the polarity right (positive to positive, and negative to negative). Also be sure to verify that your quad is in neutral and the brakes are set. If (god forbid) the quad should start up in the next test you want it to stay still . Then try to short across the two fat "red" wires again. Does the starter turn? Do you get sparks at the pliers when you do this?

 

I have an Arctic Cat 90cc 4-Stroke 2004. I am sorry to confuse you the mystery box - has 4 prongs that go to - 1 fat red battery positive terminal; 1 fat red that is to the starter (it has the female end on the "box" and a male end that hooks on the starter. 1 skinny wire that is to the left front brake and 1 skinny wire that goes to the start button. It sounds just like a solenoid to me? This diagram is almost exact - number 4 is the mystery thing that I have.

http://www.powersportsplus.com/image...01/14/0023.png

 

well bassically we want to put direct power to your starter motor, this will eliminate the actual motor being whats broke, I am not familiar with arctic cats either, solenoids and relays do the same thing, usually its one or the other, a solenoid is just a switch thats heavy duty so it can handle the amps the starter pulls, but the tiny switch your thumb hits would never handle those amps with out melting, so the starter switch you press with your thumb puts electrical power to the solenoid which has an electromagnet that gets moved and makes another connection between your starter and battery. The whole Idea is to not run 10 guage wire up to your thumb to a huge switch.

what you want to do is bypass the relay/solenoid so your connection is powered from the battery to the starter motor, this will eliminate the possibility of the starter being bad IF it cranks

 

I have - well that one I asked my husbands help with! He hooked the battery charger to something on the starter and then touched the starter with the other one and it turned - the fan looking thing on the other side of the motor and it was just like I pushed the start button without pushing it! He is good with that stuff but he has 2 other atvs he is working on so I want to fix the arctic cat by myself (as much without him as I can). He said he didnt want to burn the starter up, just make sure it worked and it did! On this I have 4 major electical parts a regulator or rectifier dont know which... a coil, a black box and a gold relay? The only thing between the battery and the starter is the gold box but I cant even find anything like it to look up a part number! Thank you everyone for trying to help - I am really determined to fix this and have come a long way - I started with the carb a while back - took it all the way apart and cleaned it and put it back together and the brake light had a short in it and now it dont! Thanks for being patient with me, you can only imagine how it will feel when I actually get this thing startex!

 

Lol well atleast now you know the actual starter motor is fine..which means its not getting power, what does this gold box look like? whats it hooked to? and how many wires?

 

the coil powers the spark plug and thats not your issue Idk much about electronics though

 

This is where the wires go and there is a picture of it in my garage under arctic cat! I just looked at the black rubber thing that holds it and it has writing on it.
QC PASS cycle T2003 09? Its complicated cause I cant find anything like it or anything about it! Thanks

 

the diagram is hard to decipher, # 4 however looks like a relay to me though can you take a pic of the gold box?