Scooterotica

On a 1998, standard T5, I've been having a misfire, once warmed up, with the engine dying when pulling away at the lights or cutting out as you're riding along, tick over inconsistent and then running ok. No resistance showing on multimeter from either pick up or the coils. I've tried a new spark plug, cap, CDI but no difference made. Is there any point swapping stator components, economically, or should I just get a new stator ?

What do you mean by 'no resistance'? is that when it'd died? How are you testing the coils? It does sound like a LT coil problem though, mine had similar problems which turned out to be the thin coil wire broken off w.here it attaches to the green. I tried to solder it but it only lasted a day so replaced the coil and had no further trouble.

Cheers for the reply,

The scooter runs but with a misfire. I've tested the resistances with one probe from the multimeter in the green connector and one in the white , got no reading and then moved the probe from the white to the red and again, no reading. The main symptoms are ,it dies when you open it up after a spell at low revs, eg at the lights and misfires as you're going along, with various levels of severity ,from bucking bronco to a discreet cough.

Would a faulty LT coil let the engine spark up in the first place?

sounds like you're using the meter incorrectly.....you should get some reading for the stator to fire. Personally i'd change the full stator for piece of mind (try to lend a working one) if this proves to be the fault try repairing the original and use as a spare. The time and cost of mucking about with stators usually isn't worth the hassle.

Stators can be fixed pretty easily by someone who knows what they are doing and is pretty good with a soldering iron, however, unless you've done this before then you risk spending £30 on parts and then still ending up with something unreliable. There are a number of shops that will offer a fixing service for you but I've had some pretty rubbish work done in the past, which has meant that I now do all my own stator repair work. You can quite easily spend good money on poor work by others .... so buying a replacement might be your best option.

Do watch out though as some of the cheaper Indian made T5 and P-range stators are made with very inferior LT coils that can easily pack up after a couple of hundered miles. I've just been given an Indian P-range one (new but already failed!) to rob bits off to fix a local pal's stator. Buying cheap Indian stators can be a real false economy!

Adam

Ok, some fundamentals, the green wire is connected to one side of the ignition (LT) coil on the stator, the other side of the coil is connected to the stator earth (white wire). The red is the ignition Pickup (little black box) coil the other side of which is also connected to earth via its mounting screw. So to test any of these one side of the test meter must be connected to either the white or the engine or frame earth and the other to the coil wire in question. You should see something higher than 450 ohms on the green and better than 90 ohms on the red pickup wire. If you are not getting a reading on the white then try putting the probe on the engine case instead. If you now see a reading then it indicates that the white lead is not connected to earth so investigate the earth connection on the stator.

And yes, intermittent faults can be due to LT coil problems but would point towards bad connections rather than the coil insulation breaking down.

I assume you have looked at basics like changing the plug and HT lead?

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I'll have another look at it tomorrow probably and apply some of the knowledge/tips you've sent me.

Ian

I would ,personally, repair the old one with piaggio bits, than buy a poor pattern part. Beedspeed do a good re-wire for not a lot of money, if you specify original bits , itll be cheaper than a new stator. T5 stators are VERY expensive.

After trying again, now getting over 1000 ohms from the pickup(red) and nothing from the LT (green). Looks like there might have been some "operator error" around the multimeter, earlier, sorry . So, once I've got a flywheel puller, I'll look at replacing the LT coil then, with Piaggio or BGM?

genuine piaggio over BGM - but genuine piaggio getting harder to source over BGM

good luck