My nephew's Eton has refused to start for a while so I finally got a look at it today. Turns out the engine will run fine when hot-wired but there is an electrical fault somewhere.

• 12.5 volts at battery
• 12.5 volts at red live into back of ignition
• other three ignition wires give same reading when ignition on or off i.e zero
• can't find a live inside the handle bar control i.e. horn, lights, start, kill

However, if I hotwire the starter the bike runs fine and it also switches off using either the kill switch or the ignition key.

Should I be looking at a relay somewhere or a wee magic box of some sort??

Thanks for any advice

James

 

By "hot wire" I assume you mean jumping across the starter solenoid posts.

The ignition switch should have one of those 4 wires go to 12 volts when the ignition is on, besides the red wire which is at 12 volts all the time. According to the eton wiring diagrams at www.anythingatv.com this wire color is brown.

The other two wires on the ignition switch are for killing the engine. One is at ground all the time (black according to the wiring diagrams), one is switched to ground only when the ignition switch is "on" (white/black or red/black). Since your engine runs, and dies when the ignition switch is turned off with the ignition switch, these two wires are working.

If you don't get 12 volts on the brown wire with the ignition switch on, and you have 12 volts at the red wire, your ignition switch is bad.

Note that the very common generic chinese ignition switch available everywhere will not work on your quad. Chinese igntion switches short the kill switch wire to ground when the ignition switch is "off". Etons need to short that wire to ground when the ignition switch is "on".

 

Fantastic news, thank you very much.

This is exactly why this forum is as good as it is!!

All the best

James

 

Since choking the bike by hand and replacing the ignition barrel this bike has been running well.

We were at the dealer looking at new Polaris machines and he gave the kid a new spark plug (maybe he didn't have any treats). So changed them over and went out for a ride on Saturday, no problems. Yesterday the bike wouldnt start. No spark. Refitted the old plug, still no spark.

So where should I be looking?

Thanks

James

 

What model Eton 90? Is it a viper, or something else? Does it have reverse?

 

Eton Thunder??

No reverse.

Ta

James

 

Etons are always a bit of a challenge for me since I've never seen one, and the wiring diagrams usually show 6 wires on the CDI while the actual CDI usually only has 5 wires. But we can muddle through anyway... .

Just so we can compare notes what are the wire colors in the wiring harness that connect up to your CDI? Be sure to use colors on the wire harness side of any connectors if the colors don't match up to the CDI pigtail wires.

The above info is important, but let's forge ahead and gather some more info using assumptions that are probably correct:

1) Unplug the CDI and leave it unplugged for the next tests. Turn on the ignition switch and set all kill switches to the run position. Measure the following at the CDI connector(s) on the wiring harness.

2) Use a meter to measure the resistance of the Kill pin on the CDI to ground on the 200 ohm scale. I think this wire will be black with a white stripe. You should see very close to zero ohms. If you see infinite ohms (open, or OL) you have a kill switch problem.

What do you measure?

3) Measure the resistance of the ignition power wire to ground on the 2000 ohm (2K ohm) scale. I think this wire color will be black with a red stripe. You should see something like 400 ohms.

What do you measure?

4) Measure the resistance on the timing trigger wire to ground on the 2000 ohm scale. I think this will be a blue wire with a yellow stripe. You should see something like 150 ohms.

What do you measure?

5) Measure the resistance of the CDI output to ground using the 200 ohm scale. I think this will be a White wire with a blue stripe. This should be less than 2 ohms.

What do you measure?

6) Now switch over your meter to read *AC* volts on the 200 volt scale. Measure the Ac voltage on the ignition power wire (black with red stripe) to ground while cranking the engine. You should measure 50-80 volts or so.

What do you measure?

7) Lower your meter scale to the lowest AC voltage setting you have (2 volts would be ideal). Measure the timing trigger wire (the blue/yellow wire) voltage to ground while cranking the starter. You should measure a low AC voltage like 0.3 volts.

What do you measure?

Note: I'm jumping way ahead assuming the wire colors match. If the wire colors don't match we will have to back track a bit. Measure what does match and document what doesn't. We'll adjust the course based on that....