1996 800 XP Need help please!!

[Soulcker]

My Seadoo starts up fine in my yard with water hose on it. I drop it in the lake and will start once and run great, lots of power no issues. But stop it and it won't start again. I load it up and take it home and she fires right up.

 

[Ckrawiec]

My Seadoo starts up fine in my yard with water hose on it. I drop it in the lake and will start once and run great, lots of power no issues. But stop it and it won't start again. I load it up and take it home and she fires right up.

Check your battery voltage...sounds like "potentially" the rectifier (and or stator) are not doing their jobs of keeping the battery voltage up to a starting condition. Letting the battery "rest" and equalize then allows the ski to start again (more easily out of the water with no resistance load).

Simple check....meter the battery with the ski running on the hose....you should be seeing roughly 13.5 volts (thereabouts - fairly steady)...if not, time to start digging into the charging system.

 

[c4mo]

Might be the needle and seats in the carbs leaking also. It will flood the engine and won’t want to restart.

 

[AKnarrowback]

How old is the motor? Any guess in hours since it was new?

 

[emspjay]

Sounds like needles and seats to me, once warm the worn out needles and seats flood the engine with too much gas. If it starts on land but not in the water when cold then the battery voltage drops below 10.5 volts when starting in the water due to the extra load from the water, and it will not fire. Just figured this out myself this year. One of my best running and reliable skis started on my dock, I dropped it in the water and it would not start. Charged the battery and it started in the water. A few years ago I had one that started great and then once it was warmed up and running it would not start again and it was worn needles a seats in the carb.

 

[Ckrawiec]

Sounds like needles and seats to me, once warm the worn out needles and seats flood the engine with too much gas. If it starts on land but not in the water when cold then the battery voltage drops below 10.5 volts when starting in the water due to the extra load from the water, and it will not fire. Just figured this out myself this year. One of my best running and reliable skis started on my dock, I dropped it in the water and it would not start. Charged the battery and it started in the water. A few years ago I had one that started great and then once it was warmed up and running it would not start again and it was worn needles a seats in the carb.

Excellent info...thanks for sharing.....every little bit helps to hopefully quickly narrow down problems.

 

[Chester]

Check your rotary valve clearance.

Chester

 

[POPPS]

I'm with Chester, rule out your rotary valve clearance.