Can your stator go bad??

[CCWR]

I have a 2003 WR450. I removed all of the lights when I bought it for a cleaner look but I had a street legal e-line kit put on recently b/c of gas prices. Soon after the kit was installed at the dealership the e-start stopped working (kick starts fine but I bought the magic button). The dealership says that the stator went bad and the battery is weak, both need to be replaced. I have had zero probs with the bike until the kit was installed. Seems like too much of a coincidence to me but I don't know enough about it to determine if I am being hosed or not.

[Rich_in_Orlando]

Stators can certainly die. But there's an easy way to test it. The procedure for testing it will be in the service manual. If it's anything like the '99 you check resistance across the power leads. If it's bad, the resistance will be between outside the range of ohm values in the manual. Too low and something's shorted. Too high and you have fried or broken wires.

[dbailey223]

If the stator is bad, wouldn't that mean that both the e-start and kick starting would be unable to start up the bike? My kick-start-only bikes have had stators go in the past and when they do, all the kicking in the world gets you no where.

[mtrablue]

sounds like your dealer didn't know what he was doing. is the e-line kit designed for the wr? your wr has two circuits coming off the ignition. an ac and a dc. the ac runs the lights and the dc keeps the battery charged for the starter. the dc is only dc if the rectifier is in place. the dc will not handle much more than charging the battery. if he tapped into that for the kit, it'll only work as long as the battery is charged. it won't take long to discharge it. i don't pretend to know much about the e-line kit but i'd have to guess it's designed to be wired into the ac (or lighting) side leaving the stock dc side to take care of the battery. just my two cents. not worth any more than that.

before you go hammering on the dealer, call e-line and get all your ammo from them.