2003 Te 250 Starting Problem

Hello, I am new on this forum, and I am searching for help.

I have recently bought a 2003 TE 250, Italian made. The bike had a good price but was also not starting. I changed the starter relay, that was not working. Now the starter motor is turning the engime, but without starting. What I found out is that I have spark only with the spark plug outsidr, without compression, when I close the plug hole with another plug, I have only one single spark then nothing.I managed to start the bike by jump starting with a car, but the car need to rev at 4000 rpm, if the car is idling the bike wont start. Seems that a minimum of 14 volts is necesary. I replaced battery, plug, plug wire, ignition coil. All new.

I then measured Exciter coil , according to manual the resistance should be between 10.79 and 14.6 ohms. I measured 14.8 ohms.

For the voltage output I have found no reference in the manual. The measured output is 13.53 Vac with the spark plug removed, and 16.5 Vac with the spark plug inside. I have really no standard value here in the manual, but what I have read for KTM and some Honda's the minimum should be 30 +/- 5, coming to a minimum of 25. I have much less. After jump starting the exciter coil is delivering 37.5 Vac, in thr KTM range mentioned, but much less when cranking.

The pulse coil. For this I have no resistance value in the manual. Measured I have 105.1 ohm, same as some KTM's and Honda's. Voltage output is 0.3 Vac without spark plug, and 0.51 volts with the spark plug inside.

Both exciter and pulse coil voltages are reaching the CDI unaltered, I measured in more places.

None of the coils is shorted to ground.This I measured also.

Going further to CDi output. I could really not measure exact here, but I picked up some random measurements at random points.

I measured with plug 128 Vac, 158,OL,145,OL,92 , and without plug 180 Vac, OL, 80, OL, 177, OL,188. Without plug the values are slightly higher, maybe influenced by higher RPM.

Ignition coils is new.

Ignition HT wire is new.

Spark plug cap is new.

Spark plug is new.

Everything is pointing to a CDI problem or a stator problem. The stator output seems a little low with just 16 Vac.


Jump starting with the car battery at 4000 RPM probably generates higher voltage, higher RPM, maybe higher stator voltage? Please help.

First off I don't have any experience working on this year Husky. With that said, based on everything you've said I'd think the stator may be the culprit, that is if the bike runs okay after being jumped started. It makes sense to me that when attempting starting the bike on its own a bad stator wouldn't spin fast enough to provide the voltage to light the plug. Reminds me of a 99 600 Husaberg I once owned.

For whatever its worth it sounds like you've been thorough in your effort to troubleshoot the problem.

Have you done a load test on your battery?
If your battery is bad under a load, even jumping it from a car will not be of much help. Your battery can show to be good without a load and be bad under a load and thus provide low voltage during starting and when jumping it from another battery.

Paw Paw

I replaced the battery with a new one.I tried in total 3 batteries, in cluding a new one. Starting with the plug I replaced with new components the plug itself, plug wire, ignition coil and battery. Altough this bike has a AC CDI sistem, and the battery has not much to do with the ignition sistem. The AC voltage for the CDI is created exclusively by the stator. The only components I have not changed are the stator and the CDI.Probably one of the 2 has a problem.

If the bike runs fine after starting it sounds like the stator is bad.

I ordered a new stator, I will let you guys know the outcome.
Thanks for the feedback.

Hi guys, sorry for the delay but the story is not at all finished.
In the meantime I found out that the magneto is not produced anymore, so I started to search for an used one. According to the manuals i hat the stator is the same for TE 250 2003 and TE 450 2003-2004. I found a used TE 450 complete magneto stator +rotor. I tried all the parts, but the bike is not running. But at least I found out the faulty part.
Seems that both of my stators are ok and are working ok, also pickup coils. When I mounted the TE 450 flywheel there is spark like hell, in all conditions. The problem on the bike is the flywheel where probably the magnets are weak.
Problem with the TE 450 flywheel is that the timing is off. See in the picture.
Now I think my options are :
1. Try and re magnetize the original flywheel. I read some information about using neodymium magnets for this, i ordered some magnets, if it will work or not, I will tell later.
2. Modify the pickup signal plates on the TE 450 flywheel. Does anyone now how some metal plates can be welded/glued to the flywheel?The actual plate can be grinded I think. Any information is welcome.
3. Search for another TE 250 used flywheel.

What do you guys think?
I will keep posting updates on this, maybe it will be useful for somebody else in the future.