I have a 99 Xplorer 400 4wd. Went out this morning, unhooked the battery tender and tried to start the atv. It started then quit. I then hit the starter again and all I could hear was a buzzing sound when I would hit the starter. I then used the pull starter and it fired up and ran on the first pull. It seemed to run fine but when it was idling, the speedometer acted more like a tachometer when I revved the engine. Any idea on what is going on here?




Edited to add: The buzzing noise is coming from what I'm assuming is the solenoid(relay?), beside the battery. The charger is showing the battery fully charged. The battery was replaced last year with an el cheapo from Advance Auto or Auto Zone...can't remember which.

 

A fully charged battery can show good,but it can have a bad cell(not enough amps) to crank the engine over. Check all connections,then I'd have the battery load tested. Could be as simple as needing a new one. You can also try jumping the solenoid to see if the starter works also. Could be a starter,but eliminate the battery as a problem first especially if it's an older one.

 

Had the battery tested and it had zero cranking amps and only 9.5 volts. They are going to trickle charge the battery and test it again. I'm hoping the battery was the problem, along with the battery maintainer too.

 

Turns out the battery was in fact the culprit. It was purchased from Advance Auto Parts in October of 2012. I'm a little surprised that it went so quick as I got 3.5 years from the last battery.

All of this brings me to another question. Did I more than likely just have bad luck with this battery or, is it possible something on the ATV could be draining the battery?

 

Could be just bad luck? I've even had brand new Bike Master and even Yuasa batteries bad straight out of the box.One thing we had plenty of was stacks of bad batteries to be picked up for recycle. Main thing with a new battery is to make sure the reg/rectifier is charging 14 volts back to it while at an idle or slightly above,plus keep the battery tender on it as you've been doing. My own opinion is that we generally had better luck with Yuasa and Interstate for the most part at the shop,but again they cost more too..Going on 5 years now(I think) on the Polaris(Yuasa) maintenance free battery I've got on my Honda that I got at the shop way before I retired.I'm getting kinda concerned a little now as to how much longer.