Tao Tao 110 slow crank hard crank
 

I recently bought a used Tao Tao ATA-125D (I think) from craigslist. When I got it home it did nothing, no lights, starting, nothing. After reading a bunch forums I learned quite a bit. Some of the wiring was unplugged, crossed, it was kind of a mess. I straightened out the wiring and now have spark at the plug. When I have the starter out, it spins freely when I hit the button. When I install it, it cranks once, maybe twice and then makes a humming sound like it is drawing too much current.

I can turn the rotor by hand, or with it in gear I can turn the tires by hand, so I know it is not seized up. Very similar stories exist on this website, but no actual solution. The closest I read was somebody said the wiring was melted. Mine is not, I am not buying this as a solution.

It seems like there is too much compression, and the starter cannot overcome it. I unbolted the exhaust to make sure there was no blockage, I used gas in the plug and starting fluid on the intake. I hooked by battery charger right to the terminal and ground at 10 amps, and still got the same result. I pulled the starter out, dissected it, and inspected it. It was a pain to put back together, but it is all reassembled.

I have heard of people replacing the starter on the site and still having the same problem. Does anyone have any ideas?

Check the earth leads to engine and frame. However I think you are going to need a new starter, possibly a new battery too. Be very careful to get the right starter, those little Chinese Honda clone engines all look similar but the starter from a 70 is slightly different to the 110.

Check and make sure your battery is not faulty.. Make sure you are getting 12v to the starter.. How fast was the starter rotating our of the machine?

Thank you for all of the suggestions. It turned out that the battery is crap. Even with the battery charger hooked up to it, it would not compete with the compression. I jumped it off a car battery and it took right off.