1998 spx intermittent spark

[SPXblake]

Hello, I got a 1998 Sea-Doo SPX and right now it’s been giving me intermittent spark. When I put the key in I get two beeps and will start right up then after about a minute or two it will die out and lose spark. after that, it’s just endless cranking. Ignition coil was tested and replaced for testing purposes and it checks out. Not much corrosion in the black box either. any ideas?
(compression is good)

 

[mikidymac]

Disconnect the red wire from the voltage regulator and see if it fixes it. Typically they go bad and cause all kinds of strange electrical issues. THe ski will run fine with it disconnected but you will only be on battery power so once the battery dies so does everything.

 

[SPXblake]

Disconnect the red wire from the voltage regulator and see if it fixes it. Typically they go bad and cause all kinds of strange electrical issues. THe ski will run fine with it disconnected but you will only be on battery power so once the battery dies so does everything.

i’ll have to try it out, i think im going to test the trigger coil first

 

[SPXblake]

Disconnect the red wire from the voltage regulator and see if it fixes it. Typically they go bad and cause all kinds of strange electrical issues. THe ski will run fine with it disconnected but you will only be on battery power so once the battery dies so does everything.

okay rectifier is good, trigger coil is good, ignition coil is good, so what is going on?? now instead of intermittent spark it’s just 0 spark at all too

 

[burtshaver2021]

okay rectifier is good, trigger coil is good, ignition coil is good, so what is going on?? now instead of intermittent spark it’s just 0 spark at all too

Have you tested the stator? Only thing left after that is the MPEM

 

[SPXblake]

Have you tested the stator? Only thing left after that is the MPEM

yep stator checked out fine, took the whole stator and cover from a spare parts motor that i knew worked. Any way to test the mpem? it really makes me mad because if it is the mpem, it’s going to be the 3rd time replacing it in the same ski and i didn’t even jump pack this one..

 

[burtshaver2021]

yep stator checked out fine, took the whole stator and cover from a spare parts motor that i knew worked. Any way to test the mpem? it really makes me mad because if it is the mpem, it’s going to be the 3rd time replacing it in the same ski and i didn’t even jump pack this one..

I’m not aware of a way to test the MPEM, maybe there’s a procedure in the manual but I don’t remember

 

[burtshaver2021]

Have you checked your grounds? Pretty sure I read somewhere that a bad ground can damage the MPEM but I could be wrong about that.

 

[MAL]

Holder relay? Sometimes they work with a fully charged battery, but fail when the battery is just a little low. I don't think that it will cause the ski to stall, but maybe you are chasing 2 issues. Dess post and key can make it stall. In my 96XP I had a bad holder relay and a bad DESS key at the same time. both were intermittent. I finally figured out the key when I was able to keep it running by holding the DESS key as it started to stall.

 

[SPXblake]

Holder relay? Sometimes they work with a fully charged battery, but fail when the battery is just a little low. I don't think that it will cause the ski to stall, but maybe you are chasing 2 issues. Dess post and key can make it stall. In my 96XP I had a bad holder relay and a bad DESS key at the same time. both were intermittent. I finally figured out the key when I was able to keep it running by holding the DESS key as it started to stall.

wouldn’t the key give a beep instead of cranking over the ski if it’s bad? i actually wouldn’t be surprised tho because the key and post was very intermittent on the old ski the mpem was on and worked fine on the on the spx so maybe

 

[MAL]

wouldn’t the key give a beep instead of cranking over the ski if it’s bad? i actually wouldn’t be surprised tho because the key and post was very intermittent on the old ski the mpem was on and worked fine on the on the spx so maybe

My key would sometimes give 4 beeps indicating no communication with the DESS. If I reinstalled the key a few times it would eventually give me 2 beeps and I could crank it.


On my ’96 XP I had both a weak holder relay and a loose DESS key fit at the same time. The relay worked fine with a fully charged battery or when the ski was out of the water (no load on the pump), but it would act up when voltage dropped a bit. The DESS key would sometimes lose contact when I hit waves, causing random stalls and/or four-beep errors.