I was trying to diagnose an intermittent spark condition the other night. While troubleshooting I unscrewed the ground connection that is attached to the frame to clean the connection. Upon retightening the ground bolt the solenoid started to click a lot for a second as I retightened the connection. I realized that I had the key turned to the on position. Not sure if this is a coincidence or not but ever since the starter is very slowly turning the engine over. See video below. I load tested the battery and it tested fine. I also jumped the starter directly from the battery and it is doing the same slow crank. The starter is about 3 months old. Any suggestions?

 

I forgot to mention that the nuetral light goes dim while cranking it. I also removed the spark plug which sped up the revolutions while cranking it but still not nearly fast enough.

 

Never heard one sound like that before but my best guess is that it may be out of time. Anything happen to it last time you rode it....have you done any maintenance on it prior to it sounding like this?

 

Check those earths again, it may just be a bad earth. Your starter sounds like "a bag of spanners" but some do, and continue to work fine. It may be worth having a look inside it.

 

Gentlemen, thank you for the info. I recently replaced my valves and finally got the cylinder head installed last week. Per Fastetatv's recommendation I checked my timing and it was on H and not T. My flywheel is a little rusty so I'm not sure if I mistook H for T or if it jumped time. I now have the timing back to T.

Now, when I push the start button the solenoid just clicks rapidly and the starter doesn't engage. I checked and the solenoid is getting 12.5 volts but only outputting approximately 5.5 volts when I press the start button. I put on a spare solenoid and am getting the same results. I also smell a faint plastic/rubber burning smell around the solenoid area when I engage the start button. Any ideas? Would a bad ground do this?

 

You should be getting 12V plus....at the starter ( is the 5.5 volts being measured at the starter positve terminal when you press the starter button )? So, could be several things, dirty/poor connections....at battery or solenoid, a dirty/poor ground, or a bad/faulty solenoid.....that's assuming your battery is good. A battery can measure good, and show fully charged however, when battery is loaded, it can drop a cell ( voltage ) if it has a bad cell.

 

Thanks for the response. I tested at the starter yesterday and was getting around 5 volts at the starter. I also took the starter off a couple days ago and tested on a vise and although it was not under load it spun fast and fairly quiet.

I took the battery into an auto parts store on Saturday and they said it was producing 350 cranking amps and measured at 12.76 volts. I will keep digging...

 

So, could be several things, dirty/poor connections....at battery or solenoid, a dirty/poor ground, or a bad/faulty solenoid....
Please let us ( and everyone ) know what you find....

 

I checked the main ground connection from the battery and noticed the small wire that connects to it at the frame was getting very hot when I pressed the start button. Not sure what it goes to but it comes with a quick disconnect to the main ground wire. Also the same ground looks a bit burnt so I will replace it. See attached picture. Hopefully this will fix it...

 

I took off the starter and tested it on the bench and it worked while bench tested. The starter was then installed back into the ATV. I then used jumper cables from my truck battery directly to the starter and it did nothing except throw sparks.

I have noticed that the engine is harder to rotate over with a wrench as compared to before replacing the valves. If the starter didn't have enough torque to turn the engine would it possibly cause the symptoms I am having? Any idea what I should look for as to why the engine is harder to turn over. I have removed the spark plug and there is no difference. Any idea on the next step?