First post here and a little back-story:

Neighbors had a 2007 Panther 110 RX4 sitting in their back yard 2 years ago. Offered to buy it for $75 but they said "No, we'll get it running and sell it." There it sat for 2 years... No cap on the gas tank, no air filter, wires hanging all over the place... It was a MESS! It was going to rot in place (and I HATE seeing cars/toys rot and rust away when they could be fixed)!

Fast forward 2 years (2 weeks ago): Walked over and told them I wanted it again. They asked "How much?"? My reply: "HA! You're going to give it to me! I'm not going to buy it. I'll roll it home, get it running for my son and I might give your kids a ride on it when I'm done." Well, 2 minutes later, I was pushing it over to my house.

Did some research on here regarding common problems and decided to buy NEW everything on top of the engine (CDI, starter, carb, air filter, gas tank, handlebar switch, ignition switch, stator/magneto and battery). I mean, why not spend $20 per part to know the system, have some peace of mind? (Oh, picked up some brake pads too).

Well, I put everything in/on the Panther, hit the switch and to my delight, she turned over (and over, and over, and over)... NO SPARK! Darn!

I went through the popular "no spark" threads and tested, tested, and tested some more. Could NOT find anything wrong with it... UNTIL...

I looked at the harness side of the CDI connection... Just looked old and abused. I went into my box of misc crap (one of many I have laying around from other projects) and located a wiring harness which looked like they had the same type of brass female connectors that go INSIDE the plastic housing on the CDI plug (harness side). I cut the wires and removed the brass female pins from inside the harness, spliced them into the Panther's wires, soldered it, put marine grade heat shrink tubes on every splice and said a little prayer... My guess was that the pins on the CDI were just not making good contact with the harness. Current was flowing from each pin inside the harness to where it should so I took a gamble and did some seriously tedious work.

Man, let me tell you how satisfying it was to hear that little ATV roar to life!

Moral of the story: Sometimes you have to think "outside the box" with these things... When you might have a wiring issue, it might not be where/what you think it normally is!

Signed - LOVE to tinker and my son is grateful for it!!!

 

Very good post! A lot of people over look harness connectors as a problem also.Many think that since it may show power on individual pins with a meter, it has to be good,but don't realize that harness pins can slip back in the connectors not allowing a good connection to the component,plus sloppy factory wire crimping may cause erratic power,etc.Not just on Chinese wiring either.Found that out enough on Polaris efi harness connectors and wiring with all the ones I had to replace.Glad that someone has a lot more patience than I ever had on electrical problems. I probably would have use a gallon of gas and a match.

 

It is always important to have a "fall-back plan", right?

 

Great story.. Happy ending..

LOL at a match and a gallon of gas.. a quart would be plenty