Ask the Editors: Is It Bad Stator?

The only thing he didn’t replace yet.

Well there are a few possibilities here. The first thing we need to address is, no, you wouldn’t necessarily know if you hooked the battery up backward because it would do exactly what it is doing now – it won’t start or crank. In fact, it will likely have blown one of the fuses designed to keep the battery from exploding on you at worst/ damaging the electrical system of your ATV at best.

So why is it still cranking? Because you’re jumping it off another battery and if you’re reversing the jumper cables to the opposite of how you have the battery installed, you may actually be able to send an electrical current through the system. Albeit in a very, very dangerous manner.

We would be begin our investigation by making sure you have the positive lead looked to the positive terminal of the battery. If it turns out you do indeed have it reversed, expect to have drained the battery (and hopefully didn’t damage it). While putting it on a charger, check your ATV’s fuses. Follow your machine’s battery cable until you locate the fuse (usually a 15 amp/ blue or 30 amp/ green fuse).

If the battery and fuse situation check out, you can very easily check your stator just as you would any other electrical switch. Grab an electrical multimeter and set it to DC ohm. Remove the stator cables where they connect at the wiring harness. Take your red meter probe and insert that against the male pin. While keeping it there, insert the black probe into EACH of the female sockets on that plug. Any reading should indicate that the circuit you’re testing is conducting as it should. Repeat this same process on the second plug.

If you locate a circuit that is not producing a reading, your stator is faulty and will need rebuilding or replacement.

Lastly, while you said you put a new solenoid in before encountering all these issues, do keep in mind that jumping an ATV is often most taxing on the solenoid. If your stator checks out, and the battery connection and fuses, check that solenoid (simple bypass) to make sure you didn’t fry the new one. We typically bypass the starter relay solenoid entirely by laying the metal blade of an insulated screwdriver across both metal contacts and having someone else try to fire it up.

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