A buddy of mine has a 2003 quad and it won't start w/ the elec. start button. The battery is fine and it will fire right up when you pull start it. When you hit the elec. start button though, you hear a clicking sound at the solenoid. How would I know if it's the starter itself or the starter solenoid? A new starter is $280 and I'm sure the solenoid is much cheaper, but didn't price it yesterday.

 

first check your battery power level then go to the selinoid and there should be two wires comeing out of it just put plyers across the to metal posts and if its the selinoid it will start up but if it doesnt do anything then its your starter i think its your battery thats low and the selenoid might be bad

 

Make sure you check everything really good. <ost of the tim, it's something simple, like a loose connection to the battery.

 

Thanks for the tips. The battery is fine, I even swapped my other quad battery in there and it had the same symptoms...

I'll check the solenoid and hope that's the problem. Will post back later.

 

Something else to check is look for a dirty starter button, sometimes the contacts will get dirty and not let the starter button switch engage fully, causing the solenoid to "buzz".

 

In and around the starter button looks pretty clean. I tried the plier on the starter solenoid trick and nothing happened. I guess that means it's the starter then. Bummer.

 

If you got no sparks when jumping the solenoid then the brushes in the starter are not getting contact - could be you only need a brush plate set (you can get just brushes, but unless you are a darn good solderer, it is much easier to replace the whole brush plate). Ebay has decent prices on ATV starter rebuild kits, as well as new starters ranging from $115 - $140 buy it now (not knowing what ATV you are working on) - I'd pull the starter apart before ordering parts just to make sure it is rebuildable.

 

OK - here's the deal. I tried jumping the solenoid w/ the quad on. Nothing at all, no sparks, nada. BTW - it's a 2003 Kawasaki Bayou 250. How hard is it to replace the brush plate? I'd rather do that if it's cheaper than spend the $280 on a new starter. Thanks.