i have a redcat trail 70 ,72cc. 2005 ,i think.recently bought from a friend who got them a few years ago and hardly rode them,only 20 miles on both.had to put batteries in them and clean the carbs.they both started and run well untill yesterday,was riding one and it died,my fault,when i tried to restart the starter kept going and i tried the kill switch,kept going,turned the key off,kept going .had to take key out ,unlock seat,get tool kit out and disconnect battery cable. without using my head i thought the starter was hungup,sooo i pulled the starter motor out and the spings for the contacts came flying out and now i have to pull the whole starter assembly out. all of this and was it just a bad solinoid?

 

It definately was not the starter motor. The solenoid applies/removes power from the starter motor. So if the solenoid (and actuation circuitry) is working it would remove power from the starter. No matter what could possibly be wrong with a starter motor, is isn't going to spin unless it has power applied. It's the job of the solenoid (and associated circuitry) to remove power.

Therefore the solenoid is the next step.

Find the two *small* wires that go to the solenoid. Usually this happens through a 2 pin connector going into the wiring harness. Disconnect that connector. Now the solenoid can't possibly be activated. Does the starter motor still spin when you hook up the battery? If so, and you've verified that the screw post heavy gauge wires aren't shorted, then your solenoid is bad.