This paper describes the characteristics of damping and synchronising torques which are produced during hunting of a synchronous reluctance motor. The damping torque is divided into its individual components as produced by various windings. Theoretical results are presented which show the influence of various parameters on hunting performance of reluctance motors.Expressions are developed for the direct - and quadrature - axis components of damping torque. These are obtained by analysing the d- and q- axis equivalent circuits. The expressions lead to a much improved understanding of the influence of the different parameters on stability, and indicate direction in which improved behaviour may be obtained. The results obtained using these expressions are found to be in reasonably good agreement with those obtained using more detailed modelling.Ø