You and I are mostly in agreement on that . The idea here is not to measure the CDI, but rather unplug the CDI and measure back through the wiring harness with a meter everything that can be measured. In this manor the stator, ignition coil primary, and kill switch wiring resistances are all measured. Then all the voltages from the stator while the starter is turning can be measured also. By doing these tests from the CDI connector all the wiring between these items and the CDI are tested at the same same.

The one CDI test you can do with a meter is to hook it up and look at the AC voltage output of the CDI to the ignition coil primary. Most meters will randomly capture some or all of the narrow ignition pulse and display random numbers which vary quite a bit. This does indicate that the CDI is outputting something which is another clue to work with. Obviously this is very crude and amateur. The proper tool would be to use an oscilloscope, but if a meter is all you have it is better than nothing.

 

From... http://www.exriders.com/archive/topic/305653-1.html

The stator tests as follows:

1. YOU MUST USE A DIGITAL OHM METER!!!
2. On the stator the ohm reading between the red wire with white stripe (could also be white wire with red stripe) AND the Black wire with white stripe (could be white wire with black stripe) should be about 1284 ohms for the ETON style (3 bolt fan) stators and 689 ohms for the Kasea, LRX and DRR (4 bolt fan) stators.
3. The red wire with white stripe (could also be white wire with red stripe) to ground should be about 447 ohms for the ETON style (3 bolt fan) stators and 112.7 ohms for the Kasea, LRX and DRR (4 bolt fan) stators.
4. The Black wire with white stripe (could be white wire with black stripe) to ground should be about 837 ohms for the ETON style (3 bolt fan) stators and 576 ohms for the Kasea, LRX and DRR (4 bolt fan) stators.
5. From the plastic connector with the three wires, confirm that the black lead has 0 resistance between the lead and the frame of the atv. That is the ground lead. Any noted resistance in the ground system means the ground is BAD. We recommend always adding a wire between the engine and the frame for a better ground.

NOTE That the total ohms for #3 and #4 are the same as the ohms in #2. 2=3+4. So even if your initial readings are not as noted above, add the numbers from steps 3 and 4. if they match the reading from step 2, then your stator is good.



IF YOU DO NOT GET THESE READINGS your stator is BAD.

 

Thanks for this string. I did a bunch more checking and sure enough my key switch is bad. I now have spark and it runs. Thanks again

Brent

 

That is a *great* link!

This is the first time I've seen any eton stator spec's. Up til now I've been flailing in the dark - doing the best I can with a complete lack of info...

I would like to caution others who read these values specified to four decimal places such as 112.7 ohms to not take this quite so literally. You should approximate these readings, not match them exactly. Manufacturing processes lead to significant variation in resistances just because of the random way wire winds onto bobbins, plus the temperature coefficient of copper is not insignificant. If I recall correctly it is about 0.4% per degree C, and stators can operate from cold to blazingly hot.

A 400 ohm winding at 20 degrees C would become at 80 degrees C:

60 degree rise * 0.004 * 400 ohms = 496 ohms.

That is like a 25% percent difference in resistance readings over very reasonable temperature excursions. Just keep this in mind when analyzing your resistance readings...

Please don't get me wrong. The data and link contains extremely valuable info. I'm grateful you posted it. Whenever someone tells me I should measure something I'm always thinking plus or minus what? That is always a tough question, and often I don't know the answer. But I'm always thinking about it...

 

Yep... couldn't agree more. When I tested my stator, the numbers were no where near what they spec'ed. BUT, total ohms for #3 and #4 are were same as the ohms in #2. 2=3+4.
So even if your initial readings are not as noted, add the numbers from steps 3 and 4. if they match the reading from step 2, then your stator is good.