[RacersDad]

I have a 2004 Polaris Predator 50 that my 8 year old son is racing in the VXCS racing league in Virginia.

Recently the ATV has been giving me some trouble. I am having trouble getting it to start using the electric start. It will start very easily using the kick start, but when I use the electric start it is very difficult to start. I am not sure my 8 year old will be able to start it. He races and sometimes accidently hits the kill switch. I do not want him to be stuck on the course and not be able to start the atv. I have replaced the battery, starter, and spark plug. Once it is started, it runs great. I work on my own vehicles and feel comfortable working on the atv, I just don't want to wasting money on starting to replace electrical stuff without knowing what the problem is. We already spend enough on the atv and the racing as it is.

All the help is greatly appreciated!!

 

[RVS Performance]

I was going to say weak battery causing the spark to be weak, but sounds like that is covered. Also, do you have a tether on it? If so, I'd bypass the kill switch, or relocate it. If he gets thrown it will kill with the tether. That will help a lot with him killing it. With the adrenaline flowing out there I bet he won't have any problem kicking it over.

 

[TMan84]

I was going to say weak battery causing the spark to be weak, but sounds like that is covered. Also, do you have a tether on it? If so, I'd bypass the kill switch, or relocate it. If he gets thrown it will kill with the tether. That will help a lot with him killing it. With the adrenaline flowing out there I bet he won't have any problem kicking it over.

X2 on that.

 

[RacersDad]

Yeah, I have been thinking about either moving or disabling the kill switch since he has the tether strap. Just wish I could figure out why the electric start does not work better.

Race is this Sunday, so we will see how things go!!

 

[RVS Performance]

Kill switch is one of the first things to go on my race sleds. Nothing like killing it at 9k turning hard left at 60+mph to ruin a race.

 

[RacersDad]

Guess I have at least on repair after the race this weekend. Remove the kill switch. Hopefully I won't have any more repairs. But half the fun is working on the atv.

Any ideas on why the starter will not start the atv??

 

[RVS Performance]

Could just be a weak starter at this point. I have seen many that will spin when out of the machine but just don't have the umpf left in them when trying to spin over a motor.

 

[RacersDad]

I have already tried that. First I thought it was a weak battery. So replaced the battery and it helped a little. Then I tried the starter. Again helped a little but still will not start right. Just trying to find out what other people think before I keep replacing parts that don't fix the problem.