I'm resurrecting my mostly in good shape 2001 Suzuki quadmaster. It's in relatively good shape but has sat for roughly 5-6 years. It had a junk battery in it but I got it to run like crap with a jump from my truck.

I ripped apart the carb and cleaned and re-assembled it and installed a new battery. It fired right up like a champ, I let it idle about 5 minutes. I then proceeded to back it up and was sounding good and when it bounced down off the trailer when backing off I lost all power and the unit shut down.


My initial reaction is brand new battery was junk (it did have 13.0V when installed) but after removing it I only had 10v. But it took a charge, held it and passed a load test so it's not the battery. I then stuck the fully charged battery back in and turned the key back to on and still no dash lights. I pulled out my trusty meter and was reading a whopping 0.50v +- when the key was on, but oddly enough turning the key to off the battery would go back up to 12.5x-volts. I put a continuity test on the battery leads while removed from the battery and it doesn't show a positive to ground direct short in the on position, but it does ready a direct short on the "on with lights" position. However, even when the switch is in the "on" position without the short with battery installed i'm ready almost no voltage across the battery terminals. I did yank my cooling fan fuse just in case because I know my fan is seized up but that also made no difference.


What exactly am I looking for in this condition? Obviously something is soaking down all the voltage when the key switch is on, but where's it going and how can I isolate the problem. Any advice is greatly appreciated.