Gwbarm

I have one of the earlier 250s, 1987 and iv owned it since 89, engines were superb, starters not so much , it always sounded like something was breaking in there, even with new starter and new gears always made that noise. I would have thought they would have fixed that by 2000.

Thanks for the info , they look just alike I will have to check to see if they have been swapped because I tried both in the starter cutoff harness and neither worked, they are the blue things in the photo, also see the other black box just in front of the CDI think they called it the engine controller I haven't tested that to see if its good

Thanks Mech! Finally got the starter rotating with the start button, the cutout relay is bad, there is another identical relay in the harness next to it , it was also bad , not sure what that one is for I looked it up last night and now I can't remember, the joys of getting older. I temporarily put a jumper wire to take place of the relay, still nothing. I checked all the connections again and found a ground wire that bolts to the coil I had left off. I did that because when I attached it the fan would run continuously, but that ground was the problem. Not needing the fan to run now I unplugged the fan from the harness. The starter now rotates with the button and I have good bright voltage where it needs to be. Still no spark yet, but I will continue looking for that problem. I did notice the CDI had a date hand written on it of 2019, im assuming that's when it was replaced. At this point I think I will just start checking for correct resistance on all the coils and go from there.

Getting the manuals is a great service, I think you will enjoy the site, great people offering valuable information, by far the best ATV site I have been on.

Yours was an easy fix, I had a yamaha doing that once and I had to take the slide out and polish it smooth to get it to slide easier still wasn't perfect I came to the conclusion that the spring wasn't strong enough for it to return, causing the idle to stay high after releasing the throttle.

If you are even thinking of push starting it you are doing well, its all I can do to push mine 20 ft or so around the yard.

I just checked voltages at the relay both wires red and blue/white have 11.7 then checked with test light red is bright, blue /white is dimmer and black/yellow only has 2 volts and very dim . Checked with relay still attached.

The measuring of voltage I did was the wires that plug into the solenoid I haven't tested voltage at the relay yet.

Thanks for the wiring explanation Mech, I was just reading your post about using the test light, I knew I had a problem with something because I did that test earlier, at the solenoid the red white shows 12.4 volts and the test light burns bright at the blue/ black and blue/white it shows 11.7 volts and the test light is half as bright and I was using the same grounding point on the frame for all tests, where the battery negative bolts. Haven't done the other tests yet but I did these earlier today

Excellent explanation!

The yellow wire does look like it fits that connection point.

Not sure what those wires are for yet at first thought they were added to my harness but if you have them they went to something the only yellow wire found on schematic s for lighting I haven't got that far yet. The big knob has a cable that goes to front differential it doesn't look factory I thought these had an electronic switch for switching from 2w to 4w I don't have that what does your have. I just bought this thing in July and just getting around to it.

Thanks for the update!

I have always had motorcycles, wanted ATV to move my boat around the yard and do work, haling dirt logs ETC, I needed something stronger than my John Deere lawn tractor, they are a blast to ride, but be careful they are addictive I now have three.

Good Job ! Thats a lot of work. You are taking stripping down to the next level.

Maybe minor differences but parts and information is about the same, depends on what you are working on.

If you are getting no power to CDI there is a fuse and 2 switches to stop power from getting there check from BL/W to battery neg and see if you get power there check continuity from reverse switch connector to CDI . If you said reverse switch is broken just replace it and cable or if you want to get it running first just ground the GR wire. Just my thoughts.

I do not have the lights wired up the fan ground is unhooked because when I hook it up the fan runs horn is not hooked up and these two wires I haven't figured out where they go yet my guess is the carb heater which appears to be missing. I took the switch out of the equation and went back to the main wiring harness found the blue/black and black wires made a jumper and theoretically when I touch the two wires together the starter should turn, it did not. Im getting a little embarrassed, this is not that complicated of a system, im at the point that I need to devote my undivided attention to this, I have heard that these big bears had wiring harness problems, but this is the first I have run into. This one has been badly abused and not fixed correctly it has the wrong start stop switch with no place for the choke cable, then there is another start stop switch with the wires cut and the choke cable attached. Thanks for all the help, we will eventually get it figured out.

It doesn't seem to have a 2w4w selector switch it may have from new I haven't got that far into it yet but it does have this that goes to the from differential

Thats the start switch plug I think the pink wire used to be red and white it is the same wire that's in the last photo. The video was very informative but he didn't show how he fixed the grounding issues from the front end which is what I think is going on with mine also

Thank you for the info. I wasn't sure if the oil temp light should come on when key was turned on. I have 11.8 volts on both blue wires and 12.4 on red

Thanks for the help! Battery hooked up, turn key on, the neutral light lights up, the oil temp light does not, the starter does work there is power to the solenoid the starter will work when I jump solenoid with screwdriver. If I take the starter circuit relay out of the harness and bypass it with jumper wires the oil temp light comes on and I push the start button and it goes off until I release the button.

Trying to figure out why the start button won't make the starter rotate there is a discrepancy in the wiring harness somewhere.

I was just looking there are several on there that covers the 2000 Model BIG Bear with different letters on the end, according to my VIN number search I have YFM400F/YFM400FH I may be looking at the wrong manual because I did see one for the YFM400F.

Mech just checked to make sure which manual I was looking at it is the 2000 Big Bear / Kodiak WFM400FWA[M]