ATV not starting; fully charged battery

2003 Yamaha Wolverine 350; air cooled single cylinder, 2 valve.

It started just fine yesterday. I pulled the battery yesterday and brought it in to charge overnight on the charger/tender. It still had a decent charge, but figured why not since it was in the lower shed for the winter.

Went to start it today: Lights came on the dash, hit the start button and heard what sounded like a “zap” from the battery area and nothing. I then pulled my SAE connector off the battery and tried again. Fired up. From there, it would not start with the electric start. No dash lights, no buzzing sound like the battery was low. Started with the pull starter through.

This seems to be more of an issue in the cold vs warm.

 

A snap sounds like there isn't a good connection.

What if you hook jumper cables from a know battery to it? What I'm saying is I think maybe your connections are dirty, not good and or battery may have a bad cell and appeared charged but voltage drops too low when trying to start .

For the latter hook a volt meter to it and watch its voltage as you try to crank.

 

Good call on the connections! I’ll check those.

I need to hook a meter up to it and try it out. I should be able to do that next weekend.

 

Is there a fuse for the starting system? Very good advice in first looking at all connections at the battery, any solenoid, starter itself and regulator/rectifier. Both positive and negative sides.
The handle bar switch can also get dirty and need cleaning but typically not the place I go to first.

 

There is a fuse. Pulled that and it checked out good.

 

Snap could be the starter itself, but you said that was near battery area. Do you still hear sounds when triggering the button?
Next step after connections for me would be to remove that starter and bench test it. Ground on the mounting points and carefully apply 12v to the post and see if it operates normal. Watch for the motor to physically move/roll if not held down/clamped. If it works fine, test the post wire for 12v and the trigger wire with switch activity.

 

Had almost the same exact issue on a motorcycle, albeit a different make. The battery ultimately needed to be replaced.

 

I had rebuilt the starter years ago; brushes were worn out. I get nothing when pressing the starter switch. The lights on the dash do not light up either. It’s like the unit is getting no power at all. Then when I unhook the terminals and reconnect, it’ll fire up once via electric start, then not again after.

The battery is newish. I think I year or two old? I keep it on a solar tender during the warmer months. It comes inside during the cold months.

 

With a meter, connect it to the battery and read. Then start the engine and take a reading on voltage. I've seen bad R/R's do funny things in the past. Should go up to just over 14v with motor running.

All my advice is assuming the battery is good. That is always the very first place to check. Even a jump start, if there are dead cells you can still struggle to get it to start.

 

You have a bad connection here somewhere...maybe even at the battery itself...take a wire brush to all the connections, on the battery and the cables...make sure connections are good at the solenoid too.
It was fine until you took the battery out, right? Gotta be something with things that were touched during that operation. A 12v test light and or even better, a multimeter will be your friend here...and don't forget, it's not just about getting power where it needs to be, gotta have a good ground (-) connection to make a complete circuit too.

 

Have an amp load test done on the battery. It might hold a charge, but be unable to provide needed amps for starting. Pretty sure the 'snap' you are hearing is your start solenoid complaining about lack of amps. Age of battery in question?

 

A tick over two years old; September 2020. YUAM222CA YB12C-A Battery

 

Power sport batteries are cheap junk. That's about their life. Sure you luck out and get 4 years sometimes but I would say your in territory I would first suspect the battery as bad. Like we have said it may read 12.5+ volts (12.65v is 100%) and act like it's fully charged but when major amps are demanded it falls on its face as it has nothing to give!

 

Most any place that sells battery's can load test it...

 

All great advice. Check the battery. It's probably bad, despite not being really old. All of these power sports batteries suck.

When you get it running, do a test to see if your charging system is actually charging. Old regulator/ rectifiers are prone to fail. I chased charging issues on my Kawasaki bayou. After checking output, it was the R/R.

 

Rare on a Wolverine

 

This machine has been super reliable over the years.

 

I had one for a while...don't recall the year though...I always wished they had put a manual clutch on the Wolverine.

 

I’ve heard of some folks who rigged one up. It’s a fun machine. They don’t make them like that any more.

 

Eh. It's a fairly inexpensive component. It's also over 20 yrs old.

Let's see what the voltmeter reads.