handirifle
Veteran Member
While out yesterday shopping for drain parts and other items to fix my "roots in the septic" issue, I came across a distraction. In the local Craigslist there was a quad I HAD to look at. It's old, 1986, a Honda TRX 350. All time 4wd. The good part, is it was owned my a motorcycle shop, and they had done a complete upper end rebuild. New gaskets and sealant are clearly visible. The bad news, the elec start didn't work, just grinds, and it was butt ugly.
The ugly part I look past, cause it's easy to fix. So I bought it. So between 150ft of drain pipe, and the quad in the back, the truck bed was pretty full. It is raining again today, so work on the septic is on hold. The quad runs great, smooth, all 5 gears, plus reverse, work as they should. All lights work as well. This afternoon I tore into the starter issue and slowly started the process of elimination. The problem, was everything looked very good, but it still made a grinding noise and doesn't turn the engine over. So I went online and downloaded a manual. Studied it, researched online, and realized it does not use a bendix, but rather a one way bearing. I forget what they are called.
So after this I got out my battery charger and tested the starter off the bike. Runs fine. What the heck?
So I got out my ohm meter and started tracing down wiring. Then I discovered something that hit me in the face like a brick. It was sooooo unbelievable, I refused to believe it myself, so back to the manual I went. After studying the wiring AGAIN, I thought, it HAS to be wrong.
Ready for this?
The starter was wired backwards!!!!!
There is a hot lead and a ground. The ground is connected at one of the mounting bolts for the starter, and the hot lead, to an isolated terminal on the side of the starter, but when I tested them, the wire on the side terminal, lead straight to ground. I thought, noooo this cannot be. I kept looking and researching to see if Honda did something weird with reverse starter wiring, for some unknown reason, but found no mention of it anywhere. So I swapped the terminals, crossed my fingers, said a little prayer, that I didn't fry something. I turned on the ign switch, so far, so good. I hit the starter button, and the motor started spinning over.
WOO HOO!
I can not believe those guys didn't figure this out.
Around here, ANY 4wd quad that runs like this one does, and everything works, no matter how it looks, will pull in $1700 min. I got this one for $850, cause the ad said, kick starter only (which scares people away) and it's ugly.
I hope my septic fix goes this well now!!!! :thumbsup:
The ugly part I look past, cause it's easy to fix. So I bought it. So between 150ft of drain pipe, and the quad in the back, the truck bed was pretty full. It is raining again today, so work on the septic is on hold. The quad runs great, smooth, all 5 gears, plus reverse, work as they should. All lights work as well. This afternoon I tore into the starter issue and slowly started the process of elimination. The problem, was everything looked very good, but it still made a grinding noise and doesn't turn the engine over. So I went online and downloaded a manual. Studied it, researched online, and realized it does not use a bendix, but rather a one way bearing. I forget what they are called.
So after this I got out my battery charger and tested the starter off the bike. Runs fine. What the heck?
So I got out my ohm meter and started tracing down wiring. Then I discovered something that hit me in the face like a brick. It was sooooo unbelievable, I refused to believe it myself, so back to the manual I went. After studying the wiring AGAIN, I thought, it HAS to be wrong.
Ready for this?
The starter was wired backwards!!!!!
There is a hot lead and a ground. The ground is connected at one of the mounting bolts for the starter, and the hot lead, to an isolated terminal on the side of the starter, but when I tested them, the wire on the side terminal, lead straight to ground. I thought, noooo this cannot be. I kept looking and researching to see if Honda did something weird with reverse starter wiring, for some unknown reason, but found no mention of it anywhere. So I swapped the terminals, crossed my fingers, said a little prayer, that I didn't fry something. I turned on the ign switch, so far, so good. I hit the starter button, and the motor started spinning over.
WOO HOO!
I can not believe those guys didn't figure this out.
Around here, ANY 4wd quad that runs like this one does, and everything works, no matter how it looks, will pull in $1700 min. I got this one for $850, cause the ad said, kick starter only (which scares people away) and it's ugly.
I hope my septic fix goes this well now!!!! :thumbsup: