Actually Gw.. First up, use the analogue gauge on ohms and see if it changes resistance momentarily as the crank turns. It might be that that's how it works and triggers the cdi.. Digital gauges don't pick up very brief changes.. not unless they are very good ones.

Got out this afternoon and did a few tests, made some test leads to fit into the CDI plug of the wiring harness, got the mechanical meter with needle, hooked it up to the white/green and white/ red for the pickup coil, set on the lowest AC voltage setting which was 15 turned over the engine and got nothing, thought, this isn't working at all, then I moved my leads to the rotation direction coil wires white/blue and red rotated it over and the needle moved. So it does work, thanks you for that info Mech. So I have something wrong with the pickup coil even though it had the right resistance rating of 528. Next step is pull the side cover and see what's going on with the aftermarket stator. The wires are not color coded the same as the OEM wiring harness wires, im going to look inside and see what goes where. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Ok thank you for the suggestion I will try that and report back

I just run a magnetic pickup tool down my oil fill hole, generally when I get a new old one, and wiggle it around to see if any metal chunks come out, that tells me a little about the engine condition.

That would be the most likely reason.

If you shorted across the two big terminals on the starter solenoid and there wasn't even a decent spark, and the starter didn't spin, then you have a bad connection somewhere in the main big wires or their connections or a crook starter. If it's the starter it is most likely because the brushes inside are worn out or stuck in their holder from sitting too long. If you know how to do it, you could use a volt gauge as P5200 is suggesting and carry out voltage drop tests all along the starter cables, earth cable and between the starter and engine.. Or, the easier thing, which is to pull the starter motor out and test it on the bench with a battery and jumpers. Most starters come out real easily.. That's probably the easiest, and likely to be where your problem lies too. Starter brushes give a lot of trouble.

Oh it's over in another site Gw.. which I thought you visited.. must be mistaken about that. It turns out that it's been run without any battery in it, and the regulator is attached with a zip tie, and it has no air-filter.. So hardly surprising it's bedevilled with problems.. All good though. We had a laugh and Yoshi is going to get onto things.. haha. Hopefully it will be ok once things are back to as designed.

I would look at starting circuit wiring diagram in the manual, make sure the key switch is wired to the correct wires, sometimes aftermarket switches don't have the same color code as OEM harness,I think jumping the solenoid to see if the starter works as Mech, and p5200 suggested, would be first step, it would tell you if your starter is good, bad starter would be pulling lots of AMPs and cause your light to dim. Key switch wired wrong would also cause this.

Hey guys, I'm Brian. I have a couple of quads that run, a few that don't, and a couple that aren't exactly "quads" I mostly buy basket cases and salvages for dirt cheap to fix them up. I'll make a list of my current collection and post it soon

It could be a bad connection, uncharged battery or bad starter.. Do the lights dim right out when you push the button ? Did you charge the new battery ? Have you tried bridging the two big contacts on the starter solenoid or used a jumper to put battery positive straight to the starter. If you put power straight to the starter and it doesn't go, then the starter is crook or you have a bad earth connection or lead. That would be the first step I think.. Try that and report back what happens.