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1996 Seadoo Xp has very little spark - runs awful

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cowsgonemadd3

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So.....yet another problem. Seems like my whole machine is falling apart lately. I had my VTS boot break on me. I calked a little to fix the problem since the VTS is broke. I did not do a good enough job and it filled full of water at the lake yesterday. I emptied it after I noticed it felt less agile. It had like 4 inches of water in the bottom. We went back out for half and hour and once again it had water in it. So last night we loaded it down on the calking.

Today I take it to the lake and the calking is not 100% yet but it was not leaking bad at all. It rode fine then I let my dad ride. He was out for a few minutes then idled back in. He said it was running bad. It was sounding like a weak motor and was sputtering.

I told him it sounded like it was running on 1 cylinder. So we took the spark plugs out and both spark but I mean VERY VERY little. He got shocked by one and he said it barely hurt. Spark plugs should about make you cry if you get shocked.

So I didnt get to ride much today. No water is in the box here the wires go to the VTS and off the battery to the spark plugs in the back.

The front box however fell apart up front and is wet. Fuses are not blown though.

Maybe when it gets dry it will work? Or do I need a new coil and stator? It runs...just barely. 10mph....
 
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clip the plus wires back and get new boots, see if that helps; it's a cheap fix to try and diagnose a problem.
 
I clipped them back but didnt get new boots. Didnt fix the issue. Can new boots be bought at an auto parts store since they are the same brand as the plugs I see?
 
should be able too, yes. next thing would be metal shaving in the stator housing. open that up and check, then check the trigger coil. did you test the voltage regulator?
 
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The voltage regulator is unplugged as of yesterday as its fried.

I read you have to unbolt the motor and lift it to look at the stator?
 
Open up the rear ebox and check for water. Clean up the ground wires.

The front mag housing can come off by taking out the motor mount and proping the motor up on a block. The bottom 2 bolts are a complete beeotch.
 
So...here is an update. I cleaned the coil ends in the back black box along with all the black wires attached. There was no water in it. Took it to the pond and it still runs bad.

I bring it home and check the spark, I seem to have some spark but then it just stops sparking. I take the end off the stator and the orange thingy falls off into the bottom. I recover that but decided to try it without the orange part on. I have spark again...I put on the orange thing and I have no spark unless I wiggle the wires then the spark goes in and out as I crank it over.

My white box up front has came out of its holder on the floor and jumped around. I think I may have a connection issue either at the stator area or the white box.

EDIT
Just tried unhooking the red wire on the voltage regulator and hooking it up. Either way does not help as there is no spark. Now there is no spark no matter how I mess with the end on the stator. So I guess tomorrow I am taking off the stator cover.
 
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Before you do that I would take both motor connectors apart and clean them. Take the orange wedge out and pop each pin out and clean them up.
 
Just a thought, since you have the rectifier (voltage regulator) disconnected the battery is not getting a charge. You might want to check the condition of the battery. If it were me, since we know that the rectifier is bad, I would fix one problem at a time and replace the rectifier first.

Lou
 
Thats a side issue considering it wont even run now haha

Those ends you said to clean are stainless and so cant be cleaned. I have spark again but it wont run at all now. Just cranks and cranks but wont even sputter. Maybe I flooded it rolling it over without the plugs in it.
 
Okay so one of the stator connector wires had slid out of the connector. I put it back in and now I have spark. It ran a little grumpy for the first minute in the water but after that I had all the power I ever had.

Hopefully that was the issue, a connection problem.

On a side note I found out how all the water got in my seadoo last week. The rave valve? over the purple tank is shooting out water like crazy. I guess it screws out by the looks of it. When I took the cap off I noticed the screw that holds the clamp on was missing. The top clamp was sitting there.
 
I got the leak fixed but the seadoo still wont run. I have on and off spark....
Has to be either a bad coil, stator or both. I will tear into the stator tomorrow I guess....oh joy
 
Well it ran sorta okay but only after it got warmed up. Something is wrong.

Soo...I checked the connection again and its fine. I have spark but its like very faint as in you can barely see it. I think the stator is dirty or bad?
 
replace the rectifier, man, you were told that by a guy named lou, who had nearly the same problem you have he had 2 weeks ago, and you said the rectifier is bad, also, for your info, rectifier does more than just charge battery, one more thing, you keep posting things and finding things and you dont do anything about fixing things, myself, why do you keep asking about thingys ??? i looked at parts picture and seen no part named a thingyyy ...........
 
I was told it would run without it. It does not matter, I will buy it.

Thingy is what I say when I dont know what its called and then I try and describe it.
 
I found out the coil was rusty and I thought that might have been the issue since the voltage regulator couldnt be the issue being unhooked. Well it ran fine for 5 minutes then started running terrible as usual. The rpms just do not kick in and it spits and sputters. Sometimes the rpms just come and go. Mostly it just runs terrible. So tomorrow I will check the white wire to the new coil and see if its getting power. Then I probably will take the stator off as the next step.
 
Took the stator off and it LOOKS okay. Nothing is broken but the contacter thing was COVERED in metal shavings. Just tons of them. Cleaned them off and I have spark again. Test rode it today and it runs but still does not have its power 100% like it did. I am now confused seeing how I cleaned the carbs and rave valves.
 
Battery is fully charged. Looking at getting a rectifier soon. Maybe I need a carb rebuild kit to make this thing run. Just has no power at all. Runs about 10-15mph and has no rpms.
 
if it idled fine initially, its prob not ur carbs, unless the carbs were under water, theyre fine. usually the simplest fix will fix the prob
 
The voltage regulator is not attached(red wire removed) and the battery is fully charged. I have CRAZY good spark. So that means the voltage regulator cant be the problem. It idles rough actually...motor pops a little when it idles.

I think it could be the carbs.
 
The CDI system has to have the correct voltage and amperage to work correctly. Yes it will run for a little bit to test if a rectifier is faulty...but only about as long as you describe before it will run rough.

I had one that I did everything top to bottom and it didnt seem to take care of it...ended up needing the main wire harness replaced. All gremlins died after I changed that.

BTW those pins are not stainless...they are tinned brass. They sometimes corrode and get green...which will cause intermittent problems.
 
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