• 4 Stroke Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Italy - About 1989 to 2014
    TE = 4st Enduro & TC = 4st Cross

  • Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

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2005 TE250 Not Starting

JoshuaMinkus

Husqvarna
I bought my TE250 second hand and took it out the week after I got it. It's an e-start only so no kickstart and it had been converted to motocross by the previous owner (I'm currently in the midst of converting it back to Enduro/road trail).

I took it out and it was working perfectly, couldn't complain at all. Started up using the e-start very quickly and the battery stayed charged the whole day.
I took it home and washed it [it was covered in mud], I had an exhaust bung in and washed it with a normal hose NOT a pressure washer.

After I washed it, I tried to start it up but it wouldn't start, it would backfire occasionally but not start. About 2 weeks later my friend came over and we worked on it together, we cleaned the carburetor as the pilot jet was clogged up. Once that was cleaned we put it back together and tried to start it. We drained a full battery, so put it on charge for about 30 minutes. It was doing the same thing as last time, just backfiring.

After we charged the battery we adjusted the idle screw and wolah, it started up. We turned it off and started it up again. It worked.
I took it out two days later and suprise suprise, it wouldn't start. The battery was drained within 10 minutes of trying to start it. We spent 30 minutes bump starting it and finally got it working but it stalled on a hill climb about 30 minutes later. We spent the next 2 hours trying different ways of starting it. We tried bump starting it, pushing it down several big hills (about 70m high) and tried jump starting it off a car [it was also a 12V constant battery] but nothing worked.

I took it home and pulled apart the carby, the pilot jet was clogged up and two breather lines were melted from the exhaust. I fixed all that up but still it won't start. It's not even backfiring anymore. There's fresh fuel, a new spark plug and the spark is good.

Does anyone know what could be causing this problem? I've read that it could be due to a STATOR issue but I'm not sure. Any help or input would be greatly appreciated.
 
I'm having almost the same problem on my '04 TE450. I just bought it and it rode really well during the test-ride. The guy who sold it to me was able to cold start (engine was cold; i checked) it immediately. I have had it now for 2 days and I am still unable to start it unless I use ether and even then, it will only run until it's out of ether. I changed the spark plug and it has a fully-charged battery. I'm a vintage-bike mechanic so I know enough (or so i think) to know that its not getting fuel and I am about to pull the carb off and clean it. Before i do that i figured I would see if there's something obvious about this bike that I am unfamiliar with that I am missing. Hopefully someone can help us.
 
I was unfortunate enough to buy a bike with a chewed up stator. It would start, run great for 5 minutes then die when the bike heated up. You can check if the stator is putting out power correctly if you can manage to start the bike. At the terminals it should read 14v I believe. Don't take my word for it as I'm not sure, Google should yield results for testing the stator. It does seem odd that your pilot jet would clog twice on such short notice. Did you thoroughly clean the entire carb? Slide, bowl, jets etc? I would check the petcock screen and tank for gunk built up. It's always best to eliminate the easiest options before dishing out your money. Edit- it's also a good idea to check out all of your breather tubes and fuel lines for buildup and wear
 
I'm having almost the same problem on my '04 TE450. I just bought it and it rode really well during the test-ride. The guy who sold it to me was able to cold start (engine was cold; i checked) it immediately. I have had it now for 2 days and I am still unable to start it unless I use ether and even then, it will only run until it's out of ether. I changed the spark plug and it has a fully-charged battery. I'm a vintage-bike mechanic so I know enough (or so i think) to know that its not getting fuel and I am about to pull the carb off and clean it. Before i do that i figured I would see if there's something obvious about this bike that I am unfamiliar with that I am missing. Hopefully someone can help us.

That sounds exactly like what happened with me. The guy had a full top end and fork rebuild and only did 5 hours riding. He started it up cold and it was perfect. Even the next day my mate accidentally hit the e-start and with no choke it started up cold.

Edit: there is also good compression and the piston moves freely so the engine isn't seized
 
I was unfortunate enough to buy a bike with a chewed up stator. It would start, run great for 5 minutes then die when the bike heated up. You can check if the stator is putting out power correctly if you can manage to start the bike. At the terminals it should read 14v I believe. Don't take my word for it as I'm not sure, Google should yield results for testing the stator. It does seem odd that your pilot jet would clog twice on such short notice. Did you thoroughly clean the entire carb? Slide, bowl, jets etc? I would check the petcock screen and tank for gunk built up. It's always best to eliminate the easiest options before dishing out your money. Edit- it's also a good idea to check out all of your breather tubes and fuel lines for buildup and wear

Yeah that's exactly what I thought. Ive re-cleaned it using Carby cleaner and will use Carby dip this weekend. But that petcock screen is a good idea, I'll check that out to. I think it is the stator but I could be wrong. It's not starting and will only start with a bump start. I've read that a busted stator could result in difficulty to start.
 
Definitely a symptom, trying to kick it over after the battery's dead is pretty much pointless. I would physically check the stator if a volt test turns up iffy. Mine had that hard varnish stripped off and it was floating around in the oil, definitely not good. I'm lucky I didn't severely damage my motor.
 
Definitely a symptom, trying to kick it over after the battery's dead is pretty much pointless. I would physically check the stator if a volt test turns up iffy. Mine had that hard varnish stripped off and it was floating around in the oil, definitely not good. I'm lucky I didn't severely damage my motor.

It's e-start only so no kicker (investing in one after it's running) so I can't test the voltage when it's running due to it not starting. I'm planning on pulling out the stator and taking a look at it, I've had a feeling it's the stator but Just did all the other checks to make sure. What's the best way to test the stator once it's out of the bike/have a look at it
 
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