re: Good and bad trip to the woods. Need OB mechanic help on Rhino 660.

I'd remove the spark plug and verify that it does indeed have spark and go from there. The internets say a common issue with the Rhinos is stator failure.

ETA: Most Common Rhino 660 Issues

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MY BIKE WON’T START – THE STARTER CRANKS THE ENGINE OVER, I SMELL GAS, BUT IT JUST WON’T START.
or - it runs, but badly, especially at certain throttle positions.

1st (if it won't start at all) check for spark – pull the spark plug and plug it back into the spark plug boot. If you have a spare spark plug, leave the plug in the engine and use your spare for this. Ground the metal body of the plug to a clean spot on the engine. Crank the starter and look for good, strong (preferably blue/white), CONSISTENT spark across the plug gap.

If there is NO spark:
Stator – a common 660 problem is an internal short in the stator windings – between the windings used to charge the battery and the another winding that leads to the CDI.

To test for this failure, unplug the rectifier/regulator and try again. Unplugging the rec/reg frees this common short that is pulling CDI signal and it now allows the ignition voltage to be generated – spark returns. If this works, your stator needs to be replaced (SEE NEW EDIT, 2nd PARAGRAPH BELOW FOR A POSSIBLE SOLUTION WITHOUT REPLACING THE STATOR). A good article on stator replacement is in the forum here: How to replace stator.

If you do have success by unplugging the rec/reg, you can leave it unplugged indefinitely with no concerns about damage to the bike…. But your battery will not be charged. Ride all you want, don’t use your lights and limit the number of shutdowns/restarts as this will discharge the battery quickly. You can charge the battery regularly with a charger, and keep jumper cables with you just in case.

4/23/2012 - Here'a a great video showing the loss of spark problem, and the cut red wire solution, put together by our friend Banshee2Raptor - Stator , red wire revival.

NEW EDIT AS OF 3/27/2011:

Thanks to feedback from several members and verification work done today by CenCalRacing (thanks to all of you)there is a possible solution to this problem WITHOUT having to replace the stator:

If unplugging the rec/reg DOES return spark to your engine, plug it back in and try cutting the red wire that comes from the stator (FROM THE STATOR, out of the side cover - NOT FROM THE REGULATOR). This red wire is from the stator's rotation direction winding and has proven to be not necessary; I believe it is legacy from kick start versions of this engine where it would prevent the engine from accidentally starting/running in backwards rotation.

If the short is in this winding, cutting the red wire appears to eliminate the short and return spark, without any other issues - allowing you to plug the rec/reg back in and return to full bike operation: You get spark and the battery charges correctly - all is good! This has now been verified several times by forum members with the 'unplug rec/reg to get spark' problem. BONUS: It has been reported and now verified that this also increases the reverse (and perhaps parking brake) RPM limiter's RPM limit by about double, so for those times when you just couldn't get enough reverse power, this may fix that issue.

If cutting this wire DOES return you to operation, you are good to go... if it does not, try cutting the white/blue stripe wire, also coming from the stator - this is the other side of the same stator winding. If you now have spark, great... if not, then it's stator replacement time (or leave the rec/reg unplugged as described above).

ALSO, I ask you a favor: If you do this mod, please add a post at the end of this sticky's thread telling us about your results - success, failure, RPM limit changes in reverse and/or parking brake, etc.

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