2006 TE250 (300) Hard starting - Pulser coil ?

I have had a lot of trouble starting my 06 TE 250, now a 300. From cold it will almost never start with the button - but if I kick it will usually start with a bit too much effort. But no where near as well as when it was new. Once started it runs great. I have verified jetting, plug etc... all good. Somewhere I read that a weak pulser coil could be a problem and that it should test at 150-200 ohms and at least 2V when cranking. (can't find where I read this)
Just tested mine and it tests at 94 ohms and 0 volts when cranking.

Can anyone provide any thoughts etc... Could this be my starting problem?

Thanks,
John

This is a stupid questions but Have valves been checked? Tight valves make anything damn near impossible to start.

Not a silly question at all may well be the issue if the valves are out of spec.
Put an iridium in and use the highest octane from the pump you can.
Is it running hot-might be a bit lean being a carby model

Thanks for the ideas. I have double checked the valves and they are within spec and I have been through the carb. It is clean and the jetting is set per the JD specs and once it starts it is spot on. I have also put in a new plug & fresh gas - no difference. (oh yeah - the battery is charged & fresh too)
My research has found that a weak pulser coil could cause a weaker spark when using the e-start. I just cant find any verifiable info on how to check the pulser coil. Can anyone provide this info or other ideas of how to test it?

Thanks!

How good is your battery? Lots of issues are from wimpy batteries.
If your idea about the e start causing the pulser coil to go weak is true when starting cold, then isolating the e start system should diagnose that problem. use some jumper cables and a car battery to jump the starter directly on the bike. Don't use the switch to start the bike. Jump it directly by clamping the grounding connection on the motor and the 12v+ lug on the starter When you do this the starter will turn by simply touching the lug and jumper cable together so have everything ready to go and disconnect immediately if the bike starts. this will allow the battery in the bike to have full power to fire the coil without any drain aside from it's own usage. If the bike now starts easy, you've found the problem. 1)battery could be bad 2)wiring or a connection is insufficient to supply enough current or voltage to said parts. 3)pulser coil might be bad, although Its not the fault of the coil if it's not getting enough voltage or current to do it's job.

could also be an auto decompression issue. If it turns slow and hard the starter just cant give it enough speed to fire, which would compound any other voltage/current issues you might be experiencing.


the pulser coil doesn't read an exact 2 volts when starting. It an average over a very short amount of time so some multimeters have a tough time reading it.

Great info - I will give it a shot tonight.

Well - back to the drawing board.
I did as detailed above with the seperate battery (a freshly charged deep cycle marine battery) and the bike didn't start any differently than it did with its own battery - I am going to assume that the pulser coil is fine.
Thanks,

There is a good possibility you have valve sealing problems even though your valve clearances are in spec. At 1 time I owned 2 TE250's. My sons was an 07 and mine was an 06. Like you my TE250 ( 06 model) struggled to get started cold but would always start easier kicking it over. I checked all the basics and all checked good. My sons 07 TE250 always started & ran excellent. I ran a compression test on both bikes and found the 06 struggled ( took several starter revolutions, to the point I thought the battery might go flat even though it was new)) to reach 60 psi where my sons reached 90 psi very quickly. At first I thought possibly an automatic decompression problem because once started the bike always ran great. But that also checked good. I finally did a leak down test and found mine had excessive leak down. Especially compared to my sons bike.
I pulled the cylinder head off the bike. Turned it upside down and put a little transmission fluid where the valves seal to the head. Within a minute I started to see red tracks coming from the exhaust port and a little from the intake port.
I sent the head out for a valve job and was told the valves were out of round. They had a little bit of a hard time getting the new valves to seal also. I wanted to go back with Delwest valves ( which are o.e.) but they have have a coating so you cannot lap them in. They ended up sacrificing a couple of steel valves to help get the seats the proper shape.
Once the valve job was done and everything back together the bike cranks excellent hot or cold and runs fantastic. Compression is now about what my sons was. My bike was not a high mileage bike ( approximately 900 miles). I did buy it used and it did have a bad ( air leak) rubber mainfold between carburetor and cylinder head which I found and fixed as soon as the bike was bought. I do not know how long the bike was ridden with that air leak and that lean condition possibly caused the valve problems to happen.

Bill45

I would like to add I really never found the specification for what good or normal compression was supposed to be do to the automatic compression release feature. Having another good running bike helped me alot in figuring out what was actually wrong because other than hard starting cold the bike ran excellent and started good once warmed up. I bought the bike with about 700 miles on it and rode it for about 200 miles before fixing the problem. I checked valve clearance when I first got the bike and checked them before tearing into it and they were spot on in clearance.

Also the valve job was done by a well known reputable shop ( AS Racing) and it was his idea to use and sacrifice steel valves to lapp the seats in. He did cut the orginal seats when the new Delwest valves were installed but still could not get a good seal until they were lapped in. Once they were lapped using steel valves he installed the new Delwest valves.

Thanks Bill - I am suspect that you are right. When I installed the 300cc kit I found the intake manifold shot too - at that point I had about 1600 (90% offroad) miles on it, I bought it new so I know it was maintained, but have no idea how long the manfiold might have leaked. (Over the winter I rebuilt my KTM 525 top end & with the new valves etc... it starts with the slightest touch of the button.) I will look at compression & leak-down on the Husky over the next few weeks. If it looks at all weak I will have the head done.
Thanks for the great reply.
JCF

Bill,
I want to give you (and the forum) a big THANK YOU

I did a leakdown test & found 25% + leakage, I pulled the head and found the intake valve seats were out of round. I sent the head to Dave Hopkins (djhcyclesport) he confirmed the condition and redid the valve seats - he was able to reuse the OEM valves as they were in good condition. (he did a great & quick job!!) After putting it together it starts well & runs great. Now to put some miles on it...

thanks again

Thanks for the resolution post, it really helps everyone!