I bought my kids a used Yamaha Raptor 80 because I didn’t care for the newer models. In proper fashion the ATV the didn’t have any issues starting before but now that it is Christmas morning the thing won’t start.

After fiddling with it and eventually killing the battery I grabbed a spare battery and in my moments of angst I managed to hook it up backwards like a damn idiot. I saw a nice spark and immediately realized my mistake.

Yamaha is brilliant. They anticipated idiots like me doing this and put the fuse RIGHT NEXT to the battery terminal and even designed a spare fuse holder with a new spare fuse right next to the battery fuse. It took less than 30 seconds to fix my stupid mistake.

Bravo Yamaha! You can see the spare fuse sitting next to the battery fuse. Now back to figuring out why it won’t start.

Both my Yamaha and Kawasaki dirtbikes have that, my brother in law’s Suzuki quad does too

Looks like they expected that to happen.

We have a 1945 Willys that wouldn't start after we replaced the battery. We hadn't run it in 10 years and couldn't figure it out, so we took it to a garage. Guy says ya know this jeep is positive ground and you have the battery in backwards? That's when the light bulb went off. Completely forgot about that. Started fine when we reversed the battery.

Good luck finding your issue!

The little Raptor was never “easy” to start but it’s brief time sitting DEFINITELY made it even harder to start. It needs the carb cleaned out and a tune up.

Thankfully I got it running and managed to take the kids for a ride. It isn’t running great but it ran good enough for us to have some fun


It sounds crazy but I’m having just as much fun riding my kids 3 speed auto clutch Raptor 80 as I have on my Raptor 700. The little Raptor is fun to flick around!!

Not enough room here for me to list my stupid shade tree mechanic mistakes. The important thing is to learn from them and not repeat them.

There was a brief moment there, right after it sparked where I had the horrible feeling that I had just ruined Christmas. I’m so glad it was an easy fix.

I’m actually looking forward to doing the carb. I’m going to have my son help clean the carb. It should be a simple enough project. I remember helping my dad clean a Mazda 626 carburetor years ago. It’s when I first became interested in fixing mechanical things.

You might consider a rebuild kit.

I bought a used Grizzly a few years ago that didn't run. I figured new battery and clean the carb. It ran, but not well, so I tried to clean the carb again. Didn't work. Bought a rebuild kit, installed it, and it starts and runs great. Comparing the new and old parts with my eyeballs, I couldn't see a difference.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Looks like they expected that to happen.

We have a 1945 Willys that wouldn't start after we replaced the battery. We hadn't run it in 10 years and couldn't figure it out, so we took it to a garage. Guy says ya know this jeep is positive ground and you have the battery in backwards? That's when the light bulb went off. Completely forgot about that. Started fine when we reversed the battery.

Good luck finding your issue!

A '46 is the same way, but the battery cable begins to glow and smolder when you apply power.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
There was a brief moment there, right after it sparked where I had the horrible feeling that I had just ruined Christmas. I’m so glad it was an easy fix.

I’m actually looking forward to doing the carb. I’m going to have my son help clean the carb. It should be a simple enough project. I remember helping my dad clean a Mazda 626 carburetor years ago. It’s when I first became interested in fixing mechanical things.

If you own an ultrasonic cleaner, Yamaha makes a liquid carb cleaner that works great. I paid like $14 on Amazon for a quart of it and had plenty to clean both carbs on my atv.