after reading up on some forums about how people are getting their electric start honda 450s to start up faster i thought why not my kfx too. the kfx doesnt start nearly as slow as the trx but after coming from a kick start 450 i thought there was some room for improvement.
so after some consideration and some studying i decided to try it. the key to this is to only run 24volts to the starter. if you run 24volts the the entire bike you are going to cause alot of problems. to do this you will need a second battery. finding a place to put this battery can be a little tough. each quad is different so take some time and look around. i have seen pictures of people putting them under their hoods or down on the frame like the kfx. well since the kfx already has a battery on the frame i couldnt put it there, and on the kfx all of the electrical components are under the hood so there is no room there for it either. the best place i found for myself is behind the airbox. i removed the tool kit and bracket, that opened up a large space underneath. it was perfect size for my extra z400 battery. i lined the area with that truck cap sticky foam stuff. my battery slid down in there perfectly. i then drilled some small holes in the bottom of the box area under where the battery is going to sit. i ran some zip ties through the holes and completely around the battery to hold it down. the foam keeps an extremely tight side to side fit and the zip ties hold it down to eliminate any moving at all.
the only problem i have with this mounting position is it makes the battery vulnerable to rear end collisions. so i will be adding a rear grab bar that is low enough to protect it.
after figuring out the mounting position of the battery, i traced the wires to and from the starter silonoid and figured out which one was in and out. i disconected the out wire from the starter silonoid and ran a wire back to the second battery. i connected this wire to the negative terminal on the battery then ran a wire from the positive terminal back to the starter. now i chose to run it all the way back to the silonoid area and connect it to the existing starter wire to make it easier to return to stock if i ever need to.
unfortunatly since you are only running the second battery to the starter it wont be recharged by the existing charging system on the quad. this set up will require you to frequently recharge the second battery.
so far after a very short amount of testing i have found out the when the quad is cold the starter sounds like it is really hating this new system. however once the quad is warmed up a little, this thing starts like a champ, as soon as you touch the button the engine roars to life. the real test will be the holeshot at this weekends race. if you guys are looking at my rear end off the line, you know it worked well.
here is a picture of where i mounted my battery. it looks like a factory battery in alot of other quads on the market. very clean look.
