1998 Seadoo XP blowing 15AMP Fuses

[jsiebrase]

1998 Seadoo XP blowing 15 AMP fuses. Running perfect the last two years. Riding today... hit a wake got sideways... I'm half on half off the ski... reach up and yank the lanyard to shut it off... never flipped over. Get back on ski. Nothing. No beep... no power to gauges... Tow it back in.

Replace 15AMP fuse in main fuse box (the one with 3 main fuses and two spares) next to MPEM. It's blown. Replace the 15 AMP fuse and get the good double chirp. Close everything back up and try to start... nothing. Disconnect battery. Check 15 AMP fuse in MPEM... it is fine.

Check the 15AMP fuse in the "electrical box" at the front/rightside nose of the ski and it is blown. Replaced it. Reconnect the negative terminal on the battery (it arcs...) replace 15AMP in MPEM. Double chirps... Starts fine... Shut it off. Remove lanyard from post... wait 10 secs and put lanyard back on...nothing.

Check 15AMP fuse next to MPEM... it's fine. Check other electrical 15AMP fuse on front righ...blown.

Do I have a short somewhere? I can get it to start once and run (so it isn't MPEM otherwise it wouldn't even validate my lanyard) ... but after shutting off... and trying again get no beeps. Either blows the 15AMP in the MPEM or the 15 AMP in the front electrical box. I'm out of fuses. Any ideas?

Thanks.

I have pictures if anyone is interested... sorry I don't have all the proper terminology.

JOE

 

[chazdo2]

boy if anyone has a remedy for this PLEASE post it. I am working on a 1998 GTX limited with the same problem exactly. Please let me know what you find and I will do the same. I have had a similar problem with my 1999 GSX and it was the stator yellow wires being grounded out.

 

[seadooya]

its defintly in the charging circuit. Nee to inpsect the conditions of the cables and grounds. The grounds at the coil, inside the rear ebox. Possible, you got metal shavings up/around in the mag housing/stator area.

 

[Furzer]

Did anyone fix this problem? I would like to know the out come I have the same problem on two Xp's

 

[zazzner]

Having the same issue!

Hi
I was wondering if you had had any luck with the regulator as we have an xp 1999 model that has done exactly the same thing literally word for word and we are at a loss as to what is is. we have previously had an issue with the trim but it is not it this time and ours is arching and doing all the same things as yours. I would be interested to know if anything you have tried has worked to fix the problem

 

[serb87]

Had this exact same issue on my 98 XPL! Just finished fabricating my own exhaust that comes out the rear where the jet unit is as the plastic stock one broke! Any who I took it for a spin to test it and was running great, my neighbor jumped on and went for a spin with my brother who has a 2000XPL, anyway almost an hour later they are coming back and my brother is towing my neighbor and my ski!

They got back and my neighbor said he was riding and it just died! So on the spot we started investigating what the issue is, finally found the 15amp fuse in the electrical box top right location of the hull and it was blown! So went and got a pack of 15amp fuses and replaced the faulty fuse. Placed the lanyard back on, got 2 beeps and tried to start it and it starts for a split second and dies, so checked fuse again and its blown, so replaced fuse again and tried starting again this time it didn't even start just cranks but nothing happens.

So we started tracing the wiring and disconnecting everything from the electrical box (top right) to find what and where the short was coming from, found out it was blowing from something either inside the magneto cover or the plug on the magneto cover! cleaned the plug out and tried again and the 15amp fuse blew again!?

- Took ski home and removed the exhaust to have some room to work with.
- Removed the front engine mount and raised the engine a little with some rope hooked onto the roof of the garage.
- Disconnected the oil hoses from the oil pump (main hose from reservoir and 2 little hoses that supply the engine oil) don't forget to plug the main soil supply hose that comes from the reservoir with something, I used a large bolt!
- Disconnected the electrical plug that connects to the female end on the magneto cover.
- Removed all bolts from magneto cover and removed the housing including the oil pump all in one go.
- On the inside of the magneto cover is the stator bolted on by 3 ellen bolts which you will need an ellen key to remove
- Removed the stator and found it has been shorted and blown by a foreign piece of metal (small pin/wire) that was never meant to be present in the first place (must be from previous rebuild the previous owner didn't see/remove) so when my mate took it for a spin he must have hit a wave which caused the little foreign wire to get lodged between two stators and caused it to short and burn out!
- Purchased after market stator from amazon for $170 US as brand new OEM stator here in New Zealand is $600NZD!!!!
- Fitted new stator, placed back the magneto cover, connected the oil pump hoses back, bled the oil pump IMPORTANT and re-adjusted oil pump, hooked up the exhaust etc.
- Replaced the 15amp fuse again and basically put the whole thing back together! Hooked up the lanyard and first pop and it started!

Taking it out tomorrow to test how it goes! But yes be sure to test where its blowing from, or just take the stator out and inspect! Hope that helps, sorry no one replied to you I just joined today. But it shouldn't take too long to find out whats causing it! Its either your stator or its shorting somewhere close by!

Let me know how it goes!

 

[seadoosnipe]

Hi
I was wondering if you had had any luck with the regulator as we have an xp 1999 model that has done exactly the same thing literally word for word and we are at a loss as to what is is. we have previously had an issue with the trim but it is not it this time and ours is arching and doing all the same things as yours. I would be interested to know if anything you have tried has worked to fix the problem

The 99 XPL runs the 951 motor. This 2 stroke motor is the only one that Rotax made with the reeds instead of the rotor plate. It's also the only one with a magneto cooler supplied by the cooling water system.

If your having problems blowing the 15 amp fuse, the problem is metal shavings that has grounded out your magneto. This is a bad flaw with all the 951 motors. There is a test you can do checking continuity from the connector. If you have a shop manual, you can find it in there. The test is too long and time consuming to type in here now. Its also in the forum, in a different thread, because I know I've wrote about this problem before.

Do a search for "magneto test" or Charging circuit test. When you do determine it is grounded, you'll need to remove it and clean all the metal shavings. These shavings are coming from the starter gear assembly (or as some refer to as a bendix).

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

Snipe, only the DIs had a cooling circuit for the 951. the carb ski's do not. the '99 is a carb ski. the 03-04 XP were DI.

As for the rest, you are correct. I actually am building a tool to test the stators. you can't really probe the stator with a ohm meter on the ski, so I took the wiring from a wrecked ski, now I can probe it.

My '02 XP would kill the battery after a few hours of running.

If you don't have the manual, or the ability to test, or a friendly dealer: there is one quick test to determine if your charging system is working, but only if you can get the engine running. If you can't you need the static test as outlined in the manual:

Engine runs test:

1. take voltmeter to battery with ski off. should read 11.0 - 12.4 ish.
2. start engine (do this in under 10 seconds and you won't need water hook up)
3. take voltmeter to battery, at idle should read slightly higher.
4. take engine to 4,500 RPM, and quickly read voltage from battery. should read 13-15v


as for the manual test:

Forgive the formatting;


Stator
947 Engines
STATIC TEST: CONTINUITY
1. Disconnect the magneto wiring harness connector.
2. Install the 6-pin magneto harness adapter (P/N 295
000 136).
3. Check resistance between two of the YELLOW
wires. The resistance should be between 0.1 to
1.0 ohm.
4. Place either meter lead into the remaining YELLOW
wire and note the resistance (same as
step no. 3). If the readings are out of specification,
the stator will need to be replaced.



STATIC TEST: INSULATION
1. Disconnect the magneto wiring harness connector.
2. Install the 6-pin magneto harness adapter (P/N 295
000 136) to the magneto wiring harness. Leave
wiring harness side disconnected.
3. Insert multimeter positive (+) probe to one of
the YELLOW wire of the 6-pin magneto harness
adapter.
4. Ground the multimeter negative (-) probe to the
engine or the stator iron core and note the reading.
5. Repeat test with the other two YELLOW wires of
the 6-pin magneto harness adapter.
NOTE: There should be no continuity (infinity) between
the stator insulated coils and ground. If
there is a reading, the stator coils and/or the wiring
from the coils is grounded and needs to be replaced
or repaired.

DYNAMIC TEST
1. Disconnect the magneto wiring harness connector.
2. Install the 6-pin magneto harness adapter (P/N 295
000 136) between connectors.
3. Connect test probes of the multimeter to two
of the YELLOW wires of the 6-pin magneto harness
adapter.
4. Set multimeter to Vac scale.
5. Start and rev engine to 3500 RPM. The obtained
value should be between 45 and 70 Vac.
6. If the stator is out of specification, replace it.


Anyway, since that part "295 000 136" is like 80 billion $$$, I decided to make one from a '98 GTX that hit a dock.

I'll get around to it if I ever need to test a charging system again. I can just plug the connector in and.. ta-da... actually might come in handy for the spare engine I'm building. I can test the stator when I'm done.

Anyway, anyone with a DI ski, your issues can be similar, but the DIs also use a more powerful charging system, so don't follow these specs.

also, the 2002 manual (Since I have 2 02s) is 557 pages of awesomeness.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

I made my stator tester!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sabrtoothsq/6786042604/in/photostream

It's from a wrecked '98 GTX LTD. the 'sea-doo' one has a female side as well w/a T, but this works for me. and was.. FREE

yes, it's missing a pin, apparently the tester has all 6, but the ski only uses 5. It took me a minute to figure out what that pin was... but now I know... do you?

the 3 yellow go to the stator, the black/white and yellow/white go to the ignition sensor (tells MPEM when to fire the spark plugs)

the missing pin is the ground.

 

[Minnetonka4me]

SERB....I sell used parts to NZ and AUS all the time...just sent an MPEM to NZ last week.

I would have sold you a good clean used Stator and PU on the front cover for $120. I could have taken it off the cover to save a few $$ on shipping too.

If you end up needing a MPEM I think I know where to get one.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

Thanks, I had them from a '98, so I have the '98 versions for sale. I only had to buy a '02 exhaust manifold, cover, and oil pump. the rest of the engine is the same, ohh and new reed valves / cages.

I have a MPEM for sale, I'd even take $200 for it if you can find me a buyer...

 

[serb87]

Minnetonka4me - Ah mate wish I knew that a few weeks back haha! Yea I just purchased a new after market stator, runs fine. Went out for a good 5-6 ride couple days ago, I found out what blew the stator! The foreign piece of metal I found inside the magneto cover was from a chipped tooth from the Bendix gear! Let me rephrase that 2 chipped teeth!

How do I know this? Because once I replaced the stator and took it for the 5-6 ride I fell off at one stage and when I got back on the saddle it wouldn't start! I could hear that the electric starter motor would spin but the bendix was not engaging!

So I took it apart again last night and I found that the Bendix has seized and is was not being thrown out by inertia when the starter motor is cranked! Went and purchased a new bendix for $150 NZD and got it fitted (don't have the seadoo pulley to get the flywheel off!) its still at the shop to get the sponsons fitted as I cant be arsed fitting the new worx sponsons on!

I get it back this Saturday, once its back I have to whack the carbs back on, the exhaust and flame arresters and connected everything back up and it should be ready to go for a test run again. Once all this is done I just need to replace the wear ring and I'm good to go!

If you have any wear rings let me know how much you want for one!

Cheers in advance

 

[Minnetonka4me]

I dont have any 155 wear rings...but make sure to get OEM. The aftermarket ones lack the quality control.

 

[serb87]

Cheers man will keep that in mind.

Here are a few photos depicting where the bendix has had 2 of its teeth break off, the small piece that came off the gear is what shorted my stator which in turn kept blowing the 15amp fuse! After replacing the stator the ski ran fine for approximately 4-6 hours and then the starter would not start the engine, all you would hear is the motor winding over but not engaging and this was due to the bendix finally failing and ceasing.

So if your ski is blowing the 15amp fuse, check your stator! and while you're at it check the bendix gear!

 

[Minnetonka4me]

Is that the replacement? Typically the aftermarket ones are the ones that chip and break...but The OEMs can too. Most typically the little square parts get loose...they are inside as you spin the gear out. There are 3 of them in there and if you see one missing find it and replace the bendix.

That is the most common failure....and those get up in the stator and completely destroy it. I have also seen it break the ground wire in there and give the 12v low on the gauge. I had a guy bring one over like that and the dealer told him $900 MPEM b/c the internal rectifier was shot. We put an external rectifier bypass kit in it and it turned the light off....for about 5 tanks of gas...then the MPEM died.

 

[serb87]

No that's the faulty Bendix I removed from the ski. I took the bendix apart and the three counter weights your referring to inside are all intact and look good, the retaining spring that keeps them together is also in good condition. Not sure if the bendix I removed is OEM or not but the one I purchased is after market and looks to be better quality than the one removed! OEM benidx $780 NZD!

The reason it failed was because the ball bearings inside are shot! the gear that engages the flywheel spins but not freely! So in other words the bendix gear that engages the flywheel gets stuck and does not fly out while the starter motor is spinning the bendix.

 

[callmike2]

Hello to all! I want to say that this is one of the better threads I've seen on any seadoo forum. Apparently, there are many, many of us with 951 stator problems. When we pulled the cover on this 98 xpl, the tips of the coils were covered with black carbon. 9 of the coils had blackened from overheating. That must be a dead short to fry like that. Obviously, we'll change the stator. What else should really be checked thoroughly before hooking up battery current?? We don't want to fry a new stator for the sake of experimenting. We're very open to suggestions, especially how to check the mpem for damage.