It’s my first post here on the Honda ATV forum, and I’m thankful to have a bunch of guys around like yourselves to help owners out.
Here is the issue:
1985 Honda Fourtrax 250. Has been running great, but recently the electric start has stopped working. When the ignition is turned on, the neutral light does not come on like it usually does, and when I hit the electric start switch I get nothing. At this point I thought the battery had somehow just been drained, so I kick started it and she fired up right away. I let it run for awhile to charge the battery, but noticed that the neutral light would get brighter and dimmer as I throttled up and down – something I normally did not see even if the battery was low. Anyway I ran it for 15 minutes, and checked the battery voltage and it was still only 12.5v, indicating to me that the charging system was not working as it should be higher than 12.5v when running. After this, I wanted to rule out the starter, so I crossed the solenoid over with a screwdriver and the ATV started up right away, so it is not a starter or solenoid issue. Does anyone have any ideas of what the problem could be? Does a bad regulator/rectifier cause the electric start circuit to not work? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jeff
