Symptoms Of A Bad Motorcycle Stator


A strong stator on your motorcycle will help with electrical system performance and functionality. In the event of an accident, you must know how to properly work in this area so as not to cause any damage or risk someone else’s life by mistakes made while repairing.

What are the symptoms of a bad motorcycle stator? The most obvious sign that your bike’s stator needs to be rebuilt or replaced is no spark, weak sparks, and intermittent firing (also known as misfiring). 

Hard starts can also mean you have a problem with this component.

Bad Motorcycle Stator Symptoms

Your motorcycle’s stator is a fascinating and important part of your bike’s electrical system. It is responsible for generating power for various electronics on board, including spark plugs, which are essential if you want any kind of performance from your engine.

The first thing you should do when your bike doesn’t start is to check the oil. If it’s low, add more before trying to ride off again – but if that doesn’t work, keep reading because there might be something wrong with it.

The stator can be a tough component to diagnose as there are many potential symptoms, and they all represent other components failing. It could seem like you’re looking elsewhere when the problem is happening right before your eyes, but don’t overlook it.

When it’s cold, a failing stator will start to behave differently than when the temperature is hot. This could indicate that there’s something wrong with your machine, and it should probably get fixed ASAP.

Your motorcycle running poorly could point to many potential issues, with a bad stator being one of those possibilities. 

As the stator provides electricity for your spark plug, and if it isn’t working correctly, you may get weak sparks constantly occurring or completely irregular and sporadic.

When you are riding your motorcycle, it may periodically misfire. This will become more frequent until one day when there is no spark, and even trying to start the bike becomes difficult because of these same symptoms appearing during other engine problems like battery or spark plug issues too.

Your motorcycle may be running fine at lower speeds, but when you get to higher ones, it starts acting up. This could mean that one or both of your stator coils are going bad – these signs will appear as either high-speed (forceful) failure or low-speed.

Your bike may start back-firing if you have a bad stator. This can tell us that there could be something wrong with your motor, and it needs to either repair or replaced, so keep an eye out.

Related: Motorcycle Starter Solenoid Clicking: What Does It Mean?

4 Obvious Symptoms Of A Bad Motorcycle Starter

The motorcycle will not start at all

Sometimes, it can be difficult to determine the cause of a dead bike. One thing you should check is your battery’s voltage. Suppose this becomes too low or fluctuates greatly during use. 

In that case, there may not be enough amps being supplied by them for the Starter to function properly, resulting in an unstartable motorcycle.

But if your lights and everything work, but the bike still won’t start, there could be one more thing wrong. Measuring voltage at the battery can help determine whether it’s because of some dead cells or bad wiring. 

Checking this first saves us time since charging a new battery is much easier than fixing something like starters.

 Intermittent starting

When the internal components within your starter wear down, they can no longer properly make contact with each other. This leads to it being unable to start up and sometimes giving out an intermittent noise or spark when tapping on its interior parts.

Strange clicking noise coming from your starter

If you notice your starter is making an annoying noise, it could be due to corrosion. To rule out whether the problem lies with this component or if there’s something more serious like a failing solenoid wiring system, for example, do not run jumper wires from battery Earth terminal (black) onto terminals on Starter Motor(red). 

If nothing happens when pressing down hard enough, then it’s just some dirt build-up inside, which needs cleaning before anything else breaks.

Still hearing the starter even after the motorcycle has turned on

When your starter grinds and sounds like it’s trying to start even after you’ve turned the motorcycle on, there may be an electrical short in that circuit. This could happen because of residue left by water or rust, which can cause a shorting out when current flows through them.

What Causes A Stator To Fail?

What if your stator has just burned itself up? Can you repair it yourself, or should I take it to a mechanic? Though, with some attention to detail, anyone can do the entire job themselves.

Replacing a stator can be expensive, especially if you have an old or hard-to-find motorcycle. It could end up costing anywhere from $300-$1 500.

That’s just for the part itself and doesn’t consider any labor costs either, so make sure you are aware before ordering one online because it may come quite expensive.

When trying to fix your bike’s stator, the first thing you should do is remove the component from under its left side engine cover. 

If there are any signs of wear or damage, this will help determine what needs replacing because sometimes burns can result in short circuits that combine three separate phases.

Once you have removed the stator, it is now time to work on getting rid of that pesky epoxy. The harder stuff can be tough and frustrating, but there’s no limit to patience.

Once all around your winding are clean from the residue, remove them one by one until only six remain in each section before moving on to the next steps, which will help avoid any future issues down this road again.

Now that you have prepared your bike’s stator, it is time to file off sharp edges and get ready for winding. Look up what size enameled copper wire is needed on AWG sizing charts specific to motorcycles (it may be different than a car or truck). 

The re-winding process can seem tricky at first, but if one does their research, they will find diagrams that make this easier.

When you have wired the three poles correctly, cover them in insulating paint to help prevent shorting. 

After coating your stator with this protective layer and curing for 30 minutes at 300°F (148 °C), solder connector wires together so they can be attached easily on top of their respective phase leads coming out from an electric motor inside a bicycle hub or elsewhere near where power is needed.

How To Make Your Stator Last As Long As Possible

When you get your stator, take care of it and keep the wire-free from any obstacles that could cause a short. 

Your motor will last just as long, if not longer than one with higher amps, due to proper installation, which prevents contact between metal surfaces; for example, an engine bay cover can do major damage.

Keep your motorcycle’s stator working hard by keeping its amperage low. 

This means not running any accessories, which will make it easier on you because it doesn’t have to supply power all over again for each accessory when one fails or gets disconnected from something else in the circuit board (like spark plugs).

Vibration does a lot of damage to your stator. It can begin rubbing the varnish that serves as an insulator on its windings off, which will cause shorting between these strands and case material if this happens.

Shorts also ruin your stator pretty quickly. When you hit large bumps in the road, it’s not just your engine that suffers. Hitting these huge divots can easily break or ruin a stator winding, leading to more expensive repairs down the line.

How To Fix A Bad Starter

You can often fix your starter motor, but you should diagnose the issue first. Skipping this step will lead to spending time “repairing” something that isn’t working.

You want to know if your solenoid is bad, the starter has failed, or there’s a problem with battery power. Once you’ve ruled out these possible issues, it should be easy enough for someone who knows what they are doing (you) to take apart that pesky machine.

The entire starter motor can be disassembled and put back together. Many brands offer specific motors instructions, so inspect them thoroughly before reusing or replacing any O-rings inside the device.

You can measure your bike’s commutator for diameter, or you may also want to look at the bearing that spins with it. If there is not enough room inside this component, then everything above will need replacing too.

You can also remove the brushes entirely. The length of these brushes may be measured, and your bike will specify a minimum that they must not exceed, if necessary, for you to replace them with longer ones until this task has been completed properly from inspection through repair. Hence, to avoid any future issues down the line.

At What Point Should You Replace The Starter?

Starter motors can fail, but buying a new one might not always be the best option. If your bike’s current starter has been working just fine for some time, it all of sudden starts causing problems or struggling to turn over even after you’ve greased up its gears. 

Then there are other factors at play that would require fixing rather than replacing with an upgraded model.

The cost of repairing your starter motor may vary depending on the bike. When one part goes bad, it can often be replaced for around $30-50 or less rather than investing in a new unit altogether.

Repairing a starter motor can take quite a while. To remove and tear the starter apart takes about 30 minutes on its own, then diagnosing different components of it might require more time as well. 

But installing an entirely new one is faster since you don’t have to spend any of that time.

If your starter motor is very old, it might just break again soon. In this case, you could spend money on parts and hours tearing apart an already-tearing machine when all that’s needed are new ones.

Related: How to Bypass a Motorcycle Starter: The Ultimate Guide

Preventative Maintenance For Your Starter

The average lifespan of your motorcycle’s starter motor is about 80,000 miles. 

Motorcycles have a lot more moving parts than cars, and their starters typically need to be replaced at around this mileage mark due largely in part to corrosion on wiring connections or dirt buildup. 

That can restrict electricity flow into the machine, causing overheating, which eventually leads them all together to stop working properly. 

So what’s one thing you could do? Regularly clean those terminals!

Make sure you check your starter for tightness periodically. If these mounting bolts become loose, the motor will vibrate excessively, and this could cause it to fail prematurely or not be able to engage with the flywheel at all.

By following these tips, you can keep your starter motor healthy and strong for as long as possible.

Jim Harmer

I am Jim Harmer and I am in love with the outdoors. I share all the information I know on all activities I like doing in my home in this website. You are welcome to read and reach out for more information.

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