MarkinAR

To resolve this thread: it ended up being the solenoid. The solenoid itself was good but there was an internal break in the circuit somewhere between the incoming 12V from the battery lead and the white wire that should be outbound 12V to the bike. I did a continuity test on the new one and as expected, there is continuity in a good solenoid. Thank you all for the help. Now to just narrow down a few floating grounds to make the dash lights and headlights perk back up and this thing is ready for a new home. Just started a 1993 Kokiak 400 4X4 rehab as well. Should be a fun one!

Those little tri zingers are worth a grip and lose value as you mod them. I would think routine maintenance such as carb refresh and so on would be the extend if what I'd do to it. I've looked for a decent one for a while and there just aren't any here. The few that have survived are usually trashed.

Thanks for the info brother. Pretty certain the solenoid circuit has an internal break somewhere. New one should be in tomorrow so we'll find out. Oddly noticed last night that if jumping 12V to the white wire manually the starter engaged. Pretty much tells me the solenoid is bad and stuck closed I think.

Neutral safety switch grounds normally, breaks ground in gear so it's fine. My issue here is no electricity in the harness at all past the + terminal of the solenoid. For that matter, I get no internal connectivity between + solenoid and white wire spade on the solenoid using multimeter. I assumed there would be connectivity there within the solenoid circuit even in the absence of electricity. am i wrong?

Sounds like the needle valve is sticking or gummed up and not sealing good. If the plug is wet, it's drowning itself. If the 300 is like my 220 you can pull the airbox and then the carb in about 5 minutes. Pull it apart and give it a good spraying through with carb cleaner and then blow every pathway you can find out with compressed air. Pretty sure it'll fire right back up then. Check the number of turns on the idle air screw though before you pull it all apart. Tighten it counting the turns in until it snugs up. Don't tighten it as that may damage the seat, just snug. You'll need to put it back together with the same number of turns out. Sorry, I know you said you didn't want to pull the carb but you take a real chance on burning a valve if you introduce anything strong enough to clean deposits. They don't much like hotter explosions than gas.

They all do it. It would be better if they didn't but it's a terrible design. Shoot em full of grease and roll on.

Let me start with I have about 30 years of ATC experience, but not much with stuff made after 1988. Some, but I'm mechanically inclined so it's all good. I"m rehabbing a 1997 Bayou 220 to send back into the wild and the mechanicals are now all good, just working on making the electrical system...electric. Right now, I have no power on the white wire as tested directly on the plug at the starter solenoid. I'm assuming that wire is supposed to be hot any time it's attached to a battery? The genius that had it before snipped a couple wires and inserted a fairly heavy push button for electric start bypassing the electrical system. I think i've corrected everything north of the solenoid but the white wire has me stumped. Is my assumption that this should always be hot with a hot battery correct? Does this indicate a broken circuit in the starter solenoid? Relay was also bad and wired incorrectly, but that's resolved and I can make the relay click bypassing the solenoid and connector, directly giving the white wire 12V. Thoughts?