Beaverplt
Bronze Member
I bought a 2001 Foreman 400 a few years ago. Up until this past December I've had absolutely no issues with it. One fine day I went to plow my driveway. It started right up as usual, I drove it out of the garage, went about 30 feet and it died. When trying to restart it, it would barely turn over. Thinking I might have a battery issue, I put the charger on the battery only to find it was fully charged. The next few tries to start it gave me the same result of barely turning over. In doing some research, I started wondering if I had a faulty rectifier. But if so, wouldn't the engine turn over fine but have no spark?
I decided to try starting it again. It started right up. I took the opportunity to see if the battery was being charged. I was getting between 13 and 14 volts depending on revs. I think that eliminates the stator as an issue. When it was barely turning over, it would end up just clicking as though the solenoid was bad. I replaced the solenoid and still had the problem. The day before new years eve, I got hurt at work and had to sideline this project. I started looking at it again yesterday. Now I am getting absolutely nothing when I try to start it. The battery is fully charged as it was on a trickle charger. I decided to try to jump start it and it fired right up. When I removed the jumper cables, I noticed the neutral light got dim and was flickering. I checked the voltage on the battery while it was still running and got a reading of less than 7 volts. When I shut off the engine, I got a reading of 10 volts. I don't know what could have changed in the past 4 months, but it appears to me there is a short somewhere, possibly the starter? Rather than buying parts blindly, I'm hoping anyone smarter than me could help me.
Thanks
I decided to try starting it again. It started right up. I took the opportunity to see if the battery was being charged. I was getting between 13 and 14 volts depending on revs. I think that eliminates the stator as an issue. When it was barely turning over, it would end up just clicking as though the solenoid was bad. I replaced the solenoid and still had the problem. The day before new years eve, I got hurt at work and had to sideline this project. I started looking at it again yesterday. Now I am getting absolutely nothing when I try to start it. The battery is fully charged as it was on a trickle charger. I decided to try to jump start it and it fired right up. When I removed the jumper cables, I noticed the neutral light got dim and was flickering. I checked the voltage on the battery while it was still running and got a reading of less than 7 volts. When I shut off the engine, I got a reading of 10 volts. I don't know what could have changed in the past 4 months, but it appears to me there is a short somewhere, possibly the starter? Rather than buying parts blindly, I'm hoping anyone smarter than me could help me.
Thanks