My wife’s Rhino 450 started fine, drove 20 feet, died, and has stayed dead. Cranks over fine and sounds normal, but not even the faintest hint of firing. Full tank of gas. I pulled the plug wire and reattached. I removed the air filter and sprayed carb cleaner while cranking, but absolutely no joy. Next steps? (Pull plug, but really, do they just flat out die, suddenly, like that?)
Ours did something like that last July 4 on one of our highest hills, it turned out a cell (hope that's the correct term) was bad in the original battery. I took the battery out after putting a battery booster on it, it would start and you would go 10 feet and it would die, I carried the battery down the hill and we bought a new battery which took care of the problem. They actually tested the old battery at Advance Auto, that's who came up with the bad cell. We had 10 years out of the original battery so it didn't owe us anything. We have the Yamaha Rhino 450, I'll check the mileage tonight. It was the summer after the very cold winter we had so they figured between the cold and not running it enough that killed the battery.
Yeah they can fail suddenly...not common, but it happens... pull the plug and check for spark, both by holding the side electrode against the metal of the engine somewhere, and by holding the side electrode of the spark plug 1/8 to 1/4" away from the engine. When holding the plug against you should have spark between the center and side electrodes of the plug...when holding the plug away (don't touch the plug itself, you could get a nasty shock!) the spark should be between the side electrode and the engine, even if the plug is bad. Can't say I've run across this exact issue on a Rhino or Grizzly (same engine) before...does everything else look right, like all the indicator lights and even the gear indicator lights? Says park when its supposed to, neutral when it should, reverse, etc...?
That might be the longest battery life I have ever heard of in a motorcycle/ATV, especially the original factory battery! But the longest battery life I have ever heard of in anything, was in 2 trucks at work...the first an '05 Ford F350 that the OEM battery died at 13 years old...the second one was an '05 Ford F450 just this year...that's 15 years old since vehicle purchase! The Ford parts guy said they were definitely the original battery's because the ones that come in them off the assembly line look different than the Ford replacements...and you can't get ones that look like the originals as a replacement, never have been able to according to them!
That's what they said at Advance Auto, if I get half of that out of the new battery, I'll be a happy camper. Our Rhino has always been kept in the garage and it usually gets run weekly.
Ok, thanks guys, good things to check and think about. I’ve had a cell on a tractor battery go bad and believe it shows up on the meter as a couple of volts low. I don’t hate many things, but I really really hate getting bit by spark plug voltage! But I’ll stop wussing around and check it. I had a lot of farm chores after work tonight, so no chance to work on it, but she is missing it already for her checks on the cattle in the furthest pasture, so thanks again for all the ideas.
I hear ya, these newer ignition coils really pack a wallop too! As long as you hold it by the spark plug cap you should be OK...or for the electrode to electrode test you can probably just lay the plug tip on the engine, and as long as it will stay there, no need to actually hold onto it. If it passes this test well, probably no need to do the other test. If you need to do the second test (hold it 1/8" - 1/4" away) use your heavy leather stove/BBQ gloves...not spark proof, but better than bare skin!
Yeah, if there's no crunchy sounds, that's goodish at least. It sounds like you don't have spark. 10 years out of a factory baby power sport battery is amazing. If I get 5 years I'm elated on those batteries.
I might just replace the plug anyway. Pretty easy to do. I had a splitter that was messing up last year. Well, off & on since I got it 6 years ago. When I checked the plug, I would see spark. But it would die under load. Like a dirty carb would. Finally got fed up & just replaced it out of 'for the heck of it', and it was a new machine.
They have a vacuum operated fuel pump...no need for a fuel valve...which it could be that the pump has failed, but since it didn't fire on carb cleaner, I figure the spark needs checked first.
I didn't know, some of the old IH tractors had an electric solenoid that would short out and shut off fuel. With the electronics of today didn't know if fuel was shut off that it shut off spark also. Also check ground wire. Lack of ground or intermittent ground creates all kinds of gremlins.
No activity last night, other than to push it out of the gateway where it died so I could get the tractor through. I’m trying to get an Iridium plug - won’t be in until tomorrow. An old post on a Rhino forum says they are the cat’s meow.
They are. I only used iridium plugs on power sport engines. Especially on ones that have a propensity to foul up. The iridium plugs really resist that crap and just fire.
Not worth the extra hassle and expense on a "normal" engine IMO...now if you have some crazy high performance engine, or an engine with some issues, they might help a little...me personally, about the only time I would bother with these plugs would be on an engine that the plugs are very difficult to gain access to...in that case, a "double iridium" plug could buy you longer plug life intervals, possibly. Or if they are OEM, then I will replace with same...
I see your point, but for what little extra they cost it's worth it. In the case of my Suzuki bike, I have an aggressive fueling tune on the EFI. With the standard plugs it will foul them out as it's rich at idle. Aside from that, it's fueled so perfectly that I don't dare mess with the tune. The plugs corrected the only issue with that tune. Now, most won't have this issue, especially with stock components, but just the fact that they resist fouling so well, I'll recommend iridium plugs as cheap insurance, even on work equipment.
What do you call "cheap"? Depending on the plug #, some of them are pretty pricey...and it adds up when you are putting plugs in 4, 6, 8, whatever cyls. Now to be sure I do realize that buying 1 iridium plug for a Rhino won't break the bank for most people...I was just saying that for me, or anybody that asks (or formerly, a customer) I wouldn't just across the board "recommend" them...certainly not gonna hurt anything though...I mean they are good plugs. (still wouldn't use one that was made by Champion though )
