2001 Honda TRX 400

SlammedRanger said:

Could be a number of different things. But as always start with the easy stuff. New spark plug. Try putting fuel on reserve. Remove gas cap( Could be a tank vent issue.) There are a number of things common things that go bad when warmed up. Or cause random miss fires. When you change the plug try removing the spark plug boot off the wire and cutting about a 1/4 inch off and screwing back on.(It just unscrews off lefty loosy righty tighty). If none of that works i would start with coil. Then cdi. After i got a spark tester light and watched it act up with it on and saw the light flicker and go out when it shut off. That would confirm 100% its spark related. That should get you started in the right direction!

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Things I have done so far:

Cleaned the carb
Checked for spark (confirmed spark)
Checked for fuel (confirmed it's getting fuel, quad floods itself out plug gets very wet after sometime)
Attempted to start it with the gas cap removed.
Checked timing
Checked Valve Adjustment (seemed like they were correct from my findings)
Checked all connections


An update the quad will not run at now anymore, it will turn over and fire once or twice every couple of cranks other then that it's dead in the water. I am running out of options here of what else to do. Before it would run then die, I got it to run for 15-20 mins no issues all the power in the world shut it down took it out the next day and that's when it died and never ran again since. It acted as it was running out of fuel or someone tapped the kill switch.


Here's a video of it trying to start.

shadetree said:

SlammedRanger said:

shadetree said:

also..and this is a trx400 what ??????????..fm ?, fw ?, trx400 does not tell us anything, cept ya got a 2001 trx400 !.

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Its a 400ex.

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was that in his first post ?, did I just over look it ?, cuz I did not see a 2001 trx400ex ?..i'm old ya know !..lol.

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No that's my bad I failed to mention that it's a TRX400 EX.

Yes it's getting spark, if you listen in the video you can hear it fire like once every couple of cranks. It fires and kicked the piston over like once and then goes back to cranking. Sometimes the starter even disengages. Now you mention about the dash lights the only light that this thing has to light up is the green neutral light and it does light up. Every once in awhile it does go dim like it has no power but then you let off the start and it comes back on bright. I have it connected to the charger when it does this so it's not a dead battery. Now one thing that does concern me is that it will engage the start while in gear. If you leave it in gear and hit the starter it will jump forward, have not hear it fire before in gear but the power from the start goes to the wheels. Is this normal?

The person I got the quad from told me that it needs a stator but I don't feel that this is my issue as it is giving me a spark. Unless the spark timing is off?? What's the best way to test for a faulty stator?