Suzuki LTZ250 electrical issue

Had electrical problem w/ 2004 Suzuki LTZ 250 quad, need some help.
Seemed to have weak battery on last camp trip, so I let my son ride
it near trailer, planned to buy new battery on return home. Later in
day he was starting it, I was next to him and it started clicking then
smelled electrical wire smoking. The wiring bundle had one wire
basically vaporized.

So the question is what is likely caused this?
And how to repair it?

I see it as one of three reasons. Bad battery somehow sent surge, or
a bad starter that was the real problem from the beginning, or the
wire got a bit hot, melted some insulation then shorted to another
wire.

To fix I plan to put new battery in, and hopefully easy replacement
of that wire bundle that goes into the engine. Don't know how easy
that is get to the connections at engine end, has a cover I have not
removed yet. And I don't want to smoke another wire bundle if the
started or solenoid are the culprits.

Sorry if this long winded, trying to give enough info to make sense
of it.

Thanks, Scammer

 

"Bad" batteries do not send "surges", but bad presidents do.

A shorted starter (or one that is jammed and won't turn) would melt the
starter cable, but the starter cable isn't bundled with the rest of the
wire harness.

If you have a poor connection on one wire, the connection will cause
the wire to heat and it may melt the insulation on an adjacent ground
wire (the ground wire is probably a black wire, and it may have a white
tracer) and then you've got a classic short circuit that melts
everything it can.

Unwrap the wire harness, find all points where the burnt wire touched
other wires, examine all plastic connectors in that circuit for melted
plastic, replace wires as necessary, and check the resistance to ground
of the new wire.

You can easily make a fool of yourself using an ohmmeter, so don't just
*ass*ume that
the test current is flowing through the circuit that you are interested
in.

I once thought I had a short circuit on a T-28 Trojan (that's a
propellor-driven US Air Force trainer, not a condom) and I used my ohm
meter to try and find it. It turned out that I was reading backwards
through the commutator on the generator to ground...

 

Good one sir !!!

If I were looking for a short, I'd probably first check for places
where the harness was getting chafed. Check under the tank, at
the steering head and entering the head and taillight shells
if it's a dualsport.

Also look for any really bad wiring done by previous owners.
Shade tree mechanics often do some pretty funky electrical work
using squeeze on connectors and removing accessories by just
snipping wires. If it was done by a teenager, be very, very afraid.

Best of luck.