Suzuki King Quad 300 - Start-In-Gear Mod

[JustRandy]

After looking at the wire diagram I saw the blue w/black stripe wire is coming from the neutral and reverse lights looking for ground thru the neutral and reverse switches. If it finds ground, the lights come on. The same wire also comes from the neutral relay looking for ground at the same neutral and reverse switches. So it was easy to trick the relay into thinking the engine is in neutral all the time without having the light on all the time. Just cut the blue w/black wire at the relay and ground it. Easy

Sorry the pics aren't better

Now it starts in any gear and indicator lights work as they should.

[oxidized_black]

cool trick, just be careful of who starts it i guess ...

[JustRandy]

You still need the key to start it. And the kill switch works. Everything works the way its supposed to except you don't have to find neutral to restart it if it dies. This is the 1st mod I do to any quad I get.

The honda 250ex was a real pain and this mod was a necessity. Honda went though significant effort to stop the engine from being started except in neutral. So even if you were cruising along in 5th gear at 50mph and turned the key off and back on real fast, the engine would not run again until you come to a complete stop, find neutral, and use the starter. If the battery died, you're out of luck. It cannot be push started and there are no backup pull cords or kickers. I have no idea why honda spent so much money to accomplish this. Honda was cool in the 80s, but the way they have been trending since has left me feeling like the H-word is a black mark to be avoided.

[steve shugart]

Hey just randy, when you cut the wire at the relay do you ground it and pig tail back to the relay? or just ground?

[mark2215]

For anyone with a 2001 or newer king quad you will have to a bit more work.  The CDI is looking for a ground signal from the neutral light.  This is why some people who have grounded the starter relay have had a crank but no fire condition.   The CDI is looking for the ground from neutral and not seeing it does not allow a spark.  I was worried at first that this might induce a  rev limitier (the CDI would think the machine is in neutral) but I grounded the starter relay and the CDI and all was good.  To recap, with the newer machines, if you cut the ground wire to the starter relay (blue/black) and want to keep the neutral light working like it should you'll need to cut the blue/black going to the CDI and ground that with the starter relay.