Hey all. First post so go easy on me. lol. First off, thanks for all the info I've acquired from this site. Been lurking for a while and reading a bunch and have learned a lot so, thanks.


I'm in my 40's, from NJ and just picked up my first kids quad last week for my 11 year old daughter, a 2008 E-ton 90r 4 stroke (RX4-90R) for $200. It was in great shape cosmetically & the seller told me it ran great the last time it was put away but it never started again. Said they did a compression check and there was none. Assured me that the piston was moving so I took a look at it and decided to take a gamble. I've worked on bikes/quads/cars all my life so figured, what the heck, I got this. lol. I've never heard of Eton before but after reading a bunch here, they seemed like decent little machines.


Got it home, did a real compression check, not just the finger test, and it did have compression, only it was 50psi tops. Pulled the motor and head and found out the timing chain jumped off. Not broke but just lying on the bottom of the case. Bought the gaskets and a new chain and decided once I took a look at it, the chain seemed a little stretched but the tensioner seemed to apply good pressure so, not going to split the cases to replace the chain just yet and to just re-adjust everything, set the timing and get it back together to see what i'm working with. Motor back in and compression was back up to around 140psi. Perfect. Re-connected carb and CDI and looked for spark. Here's the odd thing, it would spark only once I let off the starter button. And I did get it running this way but figured no way could this be right so... off to atvconnection to read some more. lol.


Here's where I give back and hopefully can help someone out. I've copied and pasted so many different posts about this exact problem (LynnEdwards... I've read so many of your great posts, it feels like I know you, ha) and figured it had to be that someone disconnected the tether or remote kill and didn't bypass correctly, somewhere there had to be an incorrect value, something odd somewhere.


Mind you, when I bought the bike, it was caked with mud.


After a bunch of reading yesterday, I went home and started checking a bunch of things. The problem?.... the 2 spade connections on the coil under the front bonnet were dirty. That's all it was, go figure. Looked good from the outside since I power washed and wiped the entire bike clean before and during the tear down but inside there was a little bit of dirt. I cleaned them up with a little contact cleaner and bam, solid spark while cranking and she fires up now with just a touch of the button. I remember reading here some days ago about how much it takes out of those tiny batteries to crank these bikes up which could deprive other electrical components if any connections are weak.


Anyway, I hope this helps someone else out and will save them some time. I know how some kids get impatient when their bikes are "in the shop", I was exactly the same way. lol.


I cant wait until she see's this (under) the tree next week. I'm not sure who will be more excited, my daughter or me!


Thanks again all, great forum.


- Len

 

Welcome to the forums.

I'm sure you'll both be excited.

 

Another thing to check when you have a strange spark issue is your rear lights. On my little ones quad i bypassed the brake safety start and jumper ed the rear tail lights as i wanted her to have more visibility from the rear when riding. Fought a battery drain issue all summer until i figured out what it was. Stupid battery monitor was also draining battery. During this issue i had unplugged the rear lights. Plugged everything back in the other day and the machine would not start. Unplugged the power jumper to the lights i had made and still wont start. Strange lights are completely disconnected from system. Unplugged the lights from the harness and it fired right up. Found one of the lines had gotten cut and for some reason was shutting down the cdi.