I have a 86 Quadracer and it has been dificult to start the past few days. 30 min. the first day, 40 the second and 1 hr the third but after i got it started it started first kick the rest of the day. Well yesterday it wouldnt start at all and neither today. I tried a new spark plug but it didnt help. Its not getting any fire. PLEASE HELP!!!

 

Have you checked it to see if it is getting spark? Pull the plug and put the wire back on it and hold it against the cylinder look at the plug while some one kicks it over, there should be a very stong blue spark. If not then you need to trace down a bad connection, spent coil, or there may be corrosion behind the magneto and the pick up coil. If you do have good spark then you have a fuel problem, there may be a bad tank of gas or your carb needs cleaned and/or rebuilt. Did the bike sit for any length of time? In the summer month's gas companies run reformulated gas, this mixture burns cleaner for the enviroment, but it also crystalizes faster in the carb. If all this checks out try a compression test, I once had a very small hole in my piston and the bike would not start when cold unless we pull started it with another quad, but once warm it would start ok till I finally tore it down and found the hole. Let me know what you come up with and I might be able to help a little more.

 

I checked and its not getting any spark. It is about 80 degrees and im mixxing 45:1. It did sit in a shop for 3 months but if its not getting spark then gas isnt the problem. When i trace back the cord from the plug, what should I look for? Thanks

 

I would start by pulling the coil and having it tested and a new plug wire and cap installed. This way you know that it is new and if it still doesn't work you have to look elsewhere. Do you have a tethered kill switch,key or handle bar switch to shut the bike down? You will want to look at all of these to make sure that you don't have a bad connection, or that something is grounding the system out. I would still drop the float bowl on the carb and spray it all out with carb cleaner, after 3 months you still might have sticking in the floats. 80 degrees!!!!!, I am hooking up the boat and I am on my way, the weather here is unseasonably cold.

 

Thanks for the help. It was 80 degrees 2 hours ago, its 88 now.

 

If the culprit remains a mystery after checking the coil and stator (the part under the flywheel), you may have a bad CDI. A friend's Banshee had a similar problem untill recently. The machine had to be pull or roll started but once going it would run fine. After eliminating everything else, I bought a used CDI for $125 and put it on. Problem solved! I have no idea why the CDI would work fine while running but not for starting (even when the machine was warmed up it would not start with the kick starter).
I once had the pick-up coil (located on the stator) go out on my Quadzilla causing it to lose spark. However, I think that the pick-up either works right or it doesn't work at all. I don't believe that it can slowly make the engine start harder and harder (I could be wrong about that though).

 

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I had a very similiar problem with my big bear and man did it get annoying. I wouldnt start with the electric start but it would with the pull start I trird every thing ( the sparkplug battery starter coil CDI and even a second hand stator ) I was eventually told to take the spark plug out unscrew the spark cap and hold the lead 15 mm away from the cylinder head and turn it over a nice blue spark should jump from lead to the head if not then the problem is the stator. It turned out that the second hand stator I got was faulty. The problem is part of the stator,but not the actual stator it is called the exciter coil and I sent mine away and had it rewound now it is fine. Good luck trust me I know how annoying it can be, I dont like sending my bike to the shop unless I really have to its to damn expensive.....

1992 Big Bear
Home made floor boards
Home made nudge bar
Home rebuilt front suspension
Rebuilt top end
Bought cheap rode Hard
Also 1995 Twin turbo Subaru Legacy

 

I have an 86 quadracer, and the same thing happen to me, it took like 30 kicks to get it started and it got worse, then i rode it and shut it off and it wouldnt start back up the only difference was i had spark, but anyway here my timing was off because i sheared the key that holds my flywheel in place. Do you have any backfiring when you try to start it? The otherthing is,like the other guy said, it could be your cdi unit. If you find out that thats what it is, i have an extra one that i got off a parts bike and i know it works id sell it for 75 dollars. You might also want to check your stator. The other thin is you can check the resistance on your coils if you know how to use an ohm meter. It tells you in the manual what the resistance readings should be. Well good luck.