Hello, John Talley here with partzilla.com. Let me guess: you're getting ready to go riding,
turn on your ignition, hit your switch, and nothing's happening.
So now what do you do? Well in this video, I'm going to walk you through a few different
scenarios that may help you diagnose what's going on with your machine. Now you will need at least
to have a test light to do this, and if we're going to get into the more advanced diagnostics,
you may want to go ahead and invest in a multimeter. Now don't be afraid, this is
just going to be a skill level one. So let's take that seat off and figure out why this ATV won't
start. For those unfamiliar with the Honda TRXs, they're really easy to get to, well, your critical
parts of the machine without any tools. The seat, you just simply reach behind, and there's going
to be a little tab or actually an arm that you lift up, release it, and then it pulls away.
Now to really get access to where all the electronics are,
we want to drop the rear tail section. Now, lift up on the front edge
of this cover-- it's just held in by a couple of grommets-- and slide it forward, then it releases.
So under that cover is where the majority of the electronics are tucked away. I mean,
you've got your battery here of course, then your ECU's down at the bottom, and there should be a
starter relay hidden somewhere up right over here, then you've got your fuses over here.
So what I'm going to do is bring over the test light, and we're going to see if we actually
have voltage on the battery. And if you have a voltmeter, well, let's start with the simple
stuff first. Let's make sure that we've got an adequate voltage --enough to start this machine.
I'm going and tell you I know that this machine has voltage,
because when you flip on the switch, I can actually hear it go through the startup procedure,
figuring out where the throttle plates are, my display is up, so there is voltage
present. And my test late verifies that. But how much voltage do we have there?
That's where you're going to need one of these. Let's see what our static voltage is.
12.26. Now this battery could stand a charge. I'd rather see it around 12.5 ,12.6,
but even that should be enough to at least engage the starting circuit, and that's not happening.
Next we want to start checking our fuses. Now it's pretty much self-evident that the main fuse
is okay, because if the 30-amp was blown, none of this would light up. But we can still go check it,
but i guarantee you it's still good. Now when you're checking the fuse, you're going to have
one side that's going to be on the constant side, and the other side is going to be on the load
side. We can pull that out on this particular one and you can see that this is the load,
and this is the battery side. But that fuse is good.
Now the other one that we want to check is the ignition fuse, and it is right here a 10 amp.
Good to go as well. Now the next component in this particular circuit is going to be your stop
switch, and what you basically have is the run position in the middle, and then a stop,
and then a stop whether you go right or left. Now the wiring where you could actually test this is
hidden up inside here, but I can tell you on this particular model that one switch not only does
the starting circuit, it also does the ignition circuit. So when we've got this thing flipped on
and you can hear the fuel pump starting to prime? That should
also activate and deactivate if i move that switch. So let's see if I'm right.
That's off, and back on.
So that tells me that this switch is good to go. Now that leaves us with the start switch itself.
I mean, that's the one that's supposed to activate the start motor. Now it does have a
direct connection that comes back to the starter solenoid, which is buried down in there. We're
going to do a quick test on it up at its connector right here. Now if that still tests good, and
we're actually going to get voltage across the two poles that go to the starter, well that'll
tell us that it'll end up being the starter. But let's look at the relay first to see if it's got
an issue. What I'm going to do is release it from its holder so I can bring it out and actually
access the wires. Now what you don't want to do is use either your test light or your meter probe
by cramming it down inside here. Because if you do that, it's going to stretch out and or damage the
insulation and the conductor itself, and if you spread all that open, well,
it's not going to do what it was designed to do, and that's to seal it up and to keep water out. So
there's a couple of different ways we can take a look at this. We can go ahead and unplug it,
and what we're going to be looking for is a trigger on that yellow with a red stripe
wire. So we've got our unit switched on, we're going to ground our test light,
and we're going to go on the inside of the plug, and you'll see the two connectors down inside.
So we're going to go to that yellow one and see if it's sending voltage,
and it is. So that tells me that that switch is good, the actual start switch is good. Now
there's one more thing we want to check is the other side, should be a ground. Now to test to
see if this is actually a negative. What we'll do is take our test light and go to the positive side
of the battery, and it should light it up. There it is. So that's telling me that that is a ground,
because we're getting voltage from this side. All of that is verified that we have a good battery,
all the circuitry is doing what it's supposed to do, and it is sending voltage and has a ground
back at this connection, which goes to the starter relay. So the starter relay is what we
need to look at next. Now what a starting relay actually does, it's basically an on off switch,
but it's transferring more power through a set of terminals. It'll have a negative and
a positive trigger wire that we've just tested, then it'll have a terminal going to the battery
and then the other one is actually going down to your starter. What it's basically
doing is pulling up a contactor on the inside that's connecting those two poles together and
sending voltage down to the starter. So we want to verify that we have battery voltage
on one side of our relay. And we do, so now let's reconnect the trigger and take a look
at the side that's going down to the starter. When I push this, it should light up this light.
Well there it is. Now what should be happening is the contactor should be coming up and it should
be sending the voltage from one pole to the other, which is heading down to the starter.
So the problem is I think we've got a bad starter solenoid. Plus,
even if we didn't have battery voltage coming up to that pole, if it was energizing properly,
you'd hear it click. Now actually I've got a new one over there we're going to plug in, and then
you'll hear that click that I'm talking about. All right, now it should click. There it is.
So I'm betting that we have already proven that when i replace this, it's going to start. Let's
install it and see if I'm right. Now this isn't too tough to do. Basically we just have the
trigger, which we've already disconnected, and then you've got two rubber boots we need to pull
out of the way. And below that there are two 10 millimeter nuts that are holding both the battery
and the starter wires in place. Now before we disconnect that all the way,
we need to go ahead and disconnect either the positive or the negative of the battery itself,
because those wires are live and I'd rather not short it out and put on a spark show.
Let's reach in here and grab this without dropping it.
I feel like I'm playing Operation.
Everything looks alright, but something's definitely going wrong on the inside.
Ah, look right here. Looks like something has been uh, chewing on it.
So I'm betting our issue is behind door number one. So now slide in our new unit.
All right, let's get these tightened back
up. Reconnect.
Slide back on its little holder.
There. Get our boots back in place. Cover up those two poles.
Last but not least, let's reconnect our battery. Okay, moment of truth.
Well there you have it, guys and girls. Not that tough to figure out.
Well listen, if you need these parts or anything else for your machine, why don't you come see us
at Partzilla.com and we can get you taken care of. If you have any questions or comments, leave
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