Well the weather finally warmed up enough here for a ride, thank God!!  I however noticed that I have a hairline (1/2" long) crack around one the bolt holes holding the stator cover to the crankcase!! It's not horrible but I can see tiny particles of oil spray up when it's revved and my lower left leg of my jeans and my boot was damp from the oil spray!!  How can I fix this w/o having to get a new cover?  Will silicone fix it or will JB Weld do the trick?  TIA

Not sure if the JB Weld would work, but you might try it.  The worst case scenario is that you have to replace the cover anyways.  Silicone is going to be a temporary fix at best.  I popped a pretty nasty crack in my stator cover last fall on a curb.  I took it to a buddy of mine who is a fantastic welder, he TIG'ed the thing back shut and I ground it flat and sanded it smooth.  The repair is holding great.  One thing about that method, the clear coat around the weld will turn black and brown and will have to be removed.  I used some Mothers aluminum and mag polish on mine with some 0000 steel wool.  It polished out quite nicely.

Gotta stop it from growing. Either take it & have it welded up or take a shot at yourself. If I was gonna do it using an epoxy, first thing I'd do is drill a small hole at each end of the crack. The radius will give the stresses a place to go & stop the crack from growing. I would grind alongside the crack on both sides just less than 1/2 way thru & mix the epoxy with just the least bit less hardener than directions call for, to keep it a bit more flexible.

If possible to add some ground aluminum to the mix I would expect it to be more durable than a wide expanse of epoxy alone. Of course, cleaning the part is crucial. Berrymans spray will knock the oil out & clean the pores, clean before grinding or drilling.Clean again.
I have never looked to see how thick these parts are, preparing the crack may be tricky if its real thin. Cant be cutting a V in it if its 1/16th thick.
A dremel is gonna be your friend.

hmm so looks like I'll have to take the cover off regardless, if I'm gonna try and fix it or replace it.  So my next question is, are stator covers interchangeable through all years of the Savage/LS650?  For the record mine is a 98.  

TIA and I had a nice ride today in 75* weather here in Richmond, VA!!!  Other than oil all over the left side due to the crack and my leaking plug cap it was a fantastic ride

I went thru trying to repair a stator cover last year. Had a crack in the front side which was leaking a goodly amount of oil. A quick and dirty repair is some quick set epoxy rubbed into the crack and then a second layer on top of the first. Even JB weld would work for a quick fix. Don't know what to use around a bolt hole, I was dealing with a crack on the face of the cover. I ended up pulling the stator cover and tried the low temperature aluminum welding rod from Harbor Freight which was harder to work with than I expected. The stator cover acts like a giant heat sink so you can't use a regular propane torch to heat it with. I ended up breaking out my oxy, acelytene set to get enough heat to make the rod fuze with the cover. It ended up not real pretty but tight. The biggest hassel was the clear coat on the stator cover. It ended up burning off half the cover and looked like sh!t. I should of sanded it off, cleaned up the repair and then polished it. Instead I just shot it with black rattle can paint and put it back on the engine. I didn't like the look, black on one side, aluminum on the other side of the engine so I ended up buying a new cover. If you look at the the time I would of spent cleaning up the old cover along with all the hassel of the repair the new one was worth it. A plus of going in the stator cover is that you can try the ignition sensor timing advance mod if you want. Just my input on it all. Luck with the repair, don't forget a new gasket if you pull the cover.
 

Thanks for the responses.  Looks like I will try th epoxy fix until I can get a new cover.  What all is entailed in removing the stator cover?  I havent had that off yet.  I know there is a gasket I need to get, but what about the timing plug?  Also what is the timing advance mod?  I'm not familiar with that one?  Thanks you guys are awesome!!!