250-500cc WR 300 Starter Issues. Advice Needed

Hi All,

After purchasing my lovely WR300 about a month ago and ridden it well over 30 hours without incident, it is now not starting. First of all it died on my way home from a 5 hour ride I could not kick it start again. Pulled the bike into a garage and swapped the spark plugs. I cleaned the carb, thinking it was something stuck in the jet but still it does not start.

A friend of mine came over today. He has restored many bikes and thinks that the carb is fine but the spark plug is not producing enough of a spark. I checked the wires and everything looks fine and to me the spark plug looks like it is working as I can clearly see electricity when i hand pump the kick-starter.

Anyone had similar issues and how was it resolved. Help is much appreciated.

Regards,
Adrian.

What year do you have and are you getting any spark at all off the plug?

welcome to the club.

Hi guys,

Thanks for the reply. It is a 2009 model and yes there is some spark but my mate said it was pretty weak. I do not have anything to compare it with so I do not have a definitive opinion. It sounds like it wants to start on some kicks but peters out rapidly.

There is definitely compression in the cylinder. My groin and upper thigh can attest to that. It is still a tough one to kick over.

Hi Razornpc,

I saw on the other thread you were having issues.
Did you swap out the HD unit and get the bike going?

If its wanting to start it could just be a fuel issue. Like lankdoug suggested, try with starting fluid at least to see if it runs for a few seconds. That will rule out an ignition problem.

ive go parts ordered. i was getting zero spark at all. tested the stator per wayne at lsk's instuctions and found the coil/brain box to be faulty on mine.

my bikes a 2011.

youll have a ground wire, a high voltage wire and a signal wire and 1 other wire(sorry dont remember what it was) the high voltage should be around 40-50 volts, signal should be 5-10 volts and then your ground should be grounded. i dont recall the colors i just figured it out as i tested things with my multimeter.

halls offered no help on any of this stuff for me. wayne at LSK is a super nice guy and very willing to help. if you need help call and ask for the wizard, he would be glad to shed some light for you!

Thanks mates,
Will do with the starter fluid and report back.

Razornpc.. did you order the new hd box then? The tubular object under the frame by the headstock!?

Do you have Wayne's number? I am 7 hours in front of ET USA, but I do not mind calling. I want to check the stator this weekend if possible. Nothing else to do now
What is LSK? Shop?

1-800-588-3550

lebanon suzuki and kawasaki

and yes the little black box/tube with a 4 wire plug going to it.

Lebanon!!? You called Lebanon from IOWA. I did a google search for LSK Iowa lol.
Anyway thanks for the number. Lebanon is just over the water from where I am . Might pop over this weekend!!... Nah Ill just call them.

So did you come to that conclusion by a process of elimination or did you test that box in some way?
I think if it is not the stator it must be that box. The spark plug does get wet when I kick it over, so I think it is not a fueling problem, but nevertheless I will try with starter fluid as per 080s advice.

lebanon MO ! its a couple hours away but its worth the call! LOL not over seas!

Ha ha.. thought you meant Lebanon the country. I am in Cyprus.

hi 080 and Lankdog,

I tried the starter fluid advice but got nothing. I checked to see the spark before I put the plug back in but the fluid did not even ignite when I kicked it.
I am guessing that the plugs are not sparking under compression. It must be electrical. Either stator or the Ignition Coil unit and once I can test the Stator I should be down to the Ignition Coil.

The part number is 7 8000 75346 and an off the shelf on is around 30 usd. Is this whaty you found Razornpc?

Thanks,

You tried kicking it over with the spark plug resting on the side, did you have a spark coming off it?, what color was it?

Hey 080 yeah thats what I did. It was kind of orange. Not really bright blue.

Hi AC3,
Not sure if I have the answer but I killed my 2011wr300 in a very small water crossing (puddle).
The intake was dry and no water in carby. We removed plug and checked spark. It had a very week spark so we replace the plug with new and still week spark. We remove the ignition cover of the crank case and it looked fine at a glance but at closer inspection it you could see condensation on the cover and around the coil. We wiped out what we could and I rolled it down a massive hill to try and get it firing. IT did finally, but would have been the equivalent to 1000 kicks!

It may be worth checking the ignition cover. My bike is new and the water should have never been able to get in there (crap gasket).\
good luck!

Hi Guys,

Thanks to all for your help and suggestions. Finally got it working this week. Here is what happened.
Bike cut out without warning.
Checked reeds,
Cleaned Carb,
Checked Piston and bore, but everything looked fine.
Thought it could be electrical but the plug was sparking although weakly. Replaced the plug cap and wire.
Was told compression could be lost in the stator seal, but was unable to check that without correct tools.
I was about to buy a new CDI unit and ignition coil and seal, so I could eliminate these potential problems. However, man at huskysport said that the electric components rarely failed.

One thing I could try first was to disconnect the kill switches as sometimes there could be a short circuit there. This could cause the spark to fail in the cylinder if it was weak. Got home and unplugged the left hand handlebar control from the main loom and the kill switch on the right. The spark looked a lot better and after a few good kicks it started!!

I think it was raining hard on the way home which could have caused some probs within the switches. Anyway all good now and don't forget to check the simple things before pulling the bike apart and replacing a load of components lol.

I had the same problem with my TE610.

Now it has a whole new wiring loom, stator, key barrel, switches etc.

I did a full electrical replacement and it was a stuck ring...lol

It now has a new pison and rings. 10,000 miles young.

Stu

my 2012 WR300 was hard/impossible to start from new&after several warranty fixes on the top end i worked out it had an ignition fault.after stator replaced i found the correct way to start it on cafehusky.see the R_Little post