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96 Sportster wont start

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96 sportster

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I have a 96 sportster with single 717, I just bought it three weeks ago. Never once had a problem starting it. Went out for a few hours today, got out of the water and now it wont start. I get the 2 beeps and a clicking sound. I am guessing that this is either be solenoid or starter. I checked all the fuses, none are blown. The blower, lights and stuff all still work. How can I tell if its the solenoid or the starter? Or could it be something else?
 
I would check the wires at the battery for a good connection, then the ground wire going to the engine by the starter. If the battery is not new, chances are it might have a bad cell or 2 causing it have a full charge but not enough amps to fire up the engine. If all the connections check out, have the battery "LOAD" tested to see it's condition at like Auto Zone for free.

Keep us posted.

Karl
 
Hello Kustom Karl, I checked the wires and the positive wire at the battery was a little loose so i tighten it, Same thing get two beeps but when i hit the start button i get just a click at the starter relay. checked all connections all but the positive wire at battery was tight. tomorrow morning I'll go to auto zone and have the battery checked out.. Thanks for all your help I see you help out a lot of people on here.
 
If your getting a click at the solenoid it could be a battery problem. If you wanted to test it a little further you could follow the red wire from the battery to the Mpem box,open it and jump across the solenoid to see if the starter rolls over. Use a 14 guage insulated wire and jump across the 2 red wires. If it does it might be a bad solenoid. That's the clicking you hear.

Keep me posted on your progress.

Karl
 
hello, I had the battery checked out today, autozone said it was a good battery. So i bought a voltage tester and checked the solenoid at the one side have 12.60 volts and on the other side(post) when i hit the button i get 12.40 volts. so i went to the starter positive post same thing when i hit the button i get 12.40 volts. so i am now guessing it's the starter, Am i right? i took it off. any way of just checking it now that it's off? anyway i can rebuild this myself or do you know anywhere in my area that can? Thanks again for your help.
 
I had a similar problem on my truck's starter, easiest way I found was to put the starter in a vice or under my foot (I don't have a vice), then connect the negative wire of a battery to the mounting bolt and the positive wire to where the positive from the MPEM connected... you will probably still just get the click click.

If it winds up, go back to the boat, still without the starter. Pull out the plugs and take off the drive shaft cover, then try turning the PTO flywheel by hand. It is towards the back of the boat under a gray cover held on by two wing nuts. It should be easy to turn the engine by hand.
 
If you did the test of the solenoid with a 14 guage wire it would have saved you like 2 hrs of playing around. It it did roll the starter the solenoid is bad. To check the starter,sue a good 12 volt vehicle battery. Connect the ground for the starter to the bolt hole of the starter. Jump a wire to the positive to the place the positive from the seadoo connected to. See if it rolls over now. If it does the starter is good. To check if the engine is seized, first remove the spark plugs. At the shaft on the rear of the engine, grab it and see if it turns in a counter clockwise direction. Use a pipe wrench if necessary to see if it rotates. It it doesn't rotate the engine is seized up.

Keep us posted on you progress.

Karl
 
So based on all that, the starter is my problem? that is the same listing i was looking at so should i buy it? good deal i think. but the next question is can i rebuild it myself? also when i get this figured out i have one other question. before this happened i had just bought a new wear ring and a skat trak impeller 14.5 22.5 pitch, how do i go about doing all that? the powersports places around here no longer service jet boats. but i did talk to a mechanic that said if it bring him the pump and wear ring, impeller he would do it for 80 bucks one hour of service and pressure test it and all that.
 
If the starter doesn't spin, i'd say the starter is the problem. Make sure you are getting a good ground and make sure you're connecting to the right spot for positive feed. I haven't checked the wiring guide to see if it has two connections to the starter, one for the bendix and one for the motor... but basically if the motor doesn't turn its a bad motor.

Can you rebuild it? I dunno, to me three hours of my time to have a maybe working starter that could leave me stranded in the middle of the lake is not worth it when a new part is only 80 bucks shipped.
Wear rings and impellers I haven't touched, and hope I don't have to until next year or the year after ;)

You might get more replies from others on here, or just do a search of the forum, people ask about wear rings and impellers all the time.
 
it was the starter, I took it apart to find the little wire in side has come apart is there a part number for that?

Hit the parts link at the top, then open up your boat. There should be a section specifically for the starter, and it probably has a parts breakdown.
 
So based on all that, the starter is my problem? that is the same listing i was looking at so should i buy it? good deal i think. but the next question is can i rebuild it myself? also when i get this figured out i have one other question. before this happened i had just bought a new wear ring and a skat trak impeller 14.5 22.5 pitch, how do i go about doing all that? the powersports places around here no longer service jet boats. but i did talk to a mechanic that said if it bring him the pump and wear ring, impeller he would do it for 80 bucks one hour of service and pressure test it and all that.

Here is some information on replacing the wear ring and impeller...
Replacing the wear ring

For starters....

1.) Remove the three hoses on the inside of the boat. (Attached to the pump) if you do not do this first, you will forget and cause all kinds of problems for yourself!!!

2.) Remove the steering rod, 10mm bolt and nut.

3.) Remove 4 13mm bolts holding nozzle on. with this off you will have a much better view of the wear ring.

4.) Remove 4, 17mm bolts from the pump to hull. Make sure you pull off all the lock washers and washers to ease pulling the pump.

5.) This is the tricky part.... Most shops gob all kinds of silicon on when replacing the pump and so it makes it a pain to pull it away from the hull.
You need to pull the pump away from the hull as straight as possible.

They sell a pump removal tool but I just made my own. Cut a length of 2x4 that I set across the rear of the ski and drilled 2 holes in it. I thread long 13 mm bolts with washers through the top two holes of the pump where the nozzle mounts. This pulls it away nicely with a butterfly impact.

6.) Now you have your pump and impeller in your hands, the next step is to remove the 3 8mm bolts on the cone. Make sure you have something to catch the oil and nose plugs.... This stuff reeks to high heaven...

7.) After cleaning out the oil I place the pump impeller side up in a vice. (grabbing the flat end of the pump shaft in a vice)

8.) Place impeller removal tool in the impeller and grab a 1/2" drive 3/4 socket with a huge breaker bar. Twist it counterclockwise till it pops loose. (May take some pressure. I seriously use a 4 foot pipe on the end of my breaker bar and use a popping motion rather than smooth pressure.)

9.) Now that you have the impeller out take your new wear ring and put it in the freezer.

10.) You have to get the old wear ring out of the pump. (I have found the easiest way is to take a saws all and cut a slit in the wear ring the full length of the pump) Be careful only to cut the wear ring and not the pump.

11.) Take a large standard screwdriver and a hammer and tap the screwdriver gently between the wear ring and the pump all the way around to separate them.

12.) Clean all the white corrosion off the pump where you will be putting the new wear ring

13.) After tackling this task go to the freezer and grab that wear ring. (don’t dilly dally with it) get it to the garage and slide it in the pump. you may have to tap lightly with a rubber mallet. If it doesn’t slide in then you didn’t clean the pump good enough. Repeat steps 9 and 12.....

14.) Reinstall the impeller in the reverse order.

Note: it is very important not to pinch the thrust washer when re-installing the impeller shaft. That’s why it’s a good idea to do it in a vice rather than on the ground sideways.

Once the impeller is tight you should have 1/8 - 1/4 inch play in the shaft back and fourth. if you don’t start over and inspect your thrust washer you probably pinched it..

15) Inspect the rubber o ring and if it is good apply silicon and reinstall the cone. Make sure the allen fill plug is on top.

16) Lower the front of the ski and add oil to the cone. When it is full, take a brake and have a drink. There is air in the cone and when you go back you will see that it is low. Top it off and take another brake... do this until the fluid does not lower again. I often start the ski for a few seconds to make sure oil is all the way worked into the bearings and all the air is out.

17) wipe silicon on the set screw and screw it in (be sure not to run it all the way into the cone. just deeper than flush is fine. let it sit 24 hours to cure the silicon and put the nozzle back on.

18) Use Sea Doo 75w90 GL5 Synthetic Polyester Oil

Do you have a seadoo shop manual? If not here’s an idea for you. You could join as a "premium member". As a premium member you can down load a authentic seadoo manual from the seadoo manual library. In the library is a variety of manuals for almost all years and models. You can view as many as you like on line as a PDF file, or download it and print it for your personal and private use. There are operator manuals and repair manuals for you to do your own repairs on your seadoo. The repair manuals have everything from troubleshooting, repair procedures to winterizing. It contains wire diagrams torque specs and pictures for disassemble and assemble instructions. In the spec sheets it tells everything needed to maintain oil changes, spark plug gaps, carburetor rebuilds and impeller wear ring tolerances. Click on the "Seadoo Manuals" link at the top of the page for more details. If you need any help or get in a jam, we are always here to answer your questions too. Premium members get priority when it comes to getting quick detailed answers.


Karl
 
Hey guys, Thanks for all your help. I think i'll be back on the water in a few days now, just one last question. Would you happen to know the pitch on a stock impeller for a 96 sportster? I'm going to a skat-trak swirl 14.5/22.5 what do you think?
 
Well i got the starter today, fastest shipping ever. i had it in three days(can't beat that). 20min to put it back in, and it starts right up.

New starter at dealer $287.00

new starter i got $75.00(with shipping cost)

Being back on the water.. Priceless

Just need to do the wear ring and impeller now.. Thanks again
 
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Great price! I'll remember that if my starter ever goes... Good luck with the impeller and wear ring! I did look around a bit and did not find any information about the stock pitch, hopefully yours won't be *too* radical ;)
 
cool...that impellor is what been hearing, makes all different to boat, order the impellor tool, and for the 80buks, have him doit, and get new wear ring as well, you could do it yourself, but 80buks, let him fight darn pump assy get'n off....
 
ok i have got another problem, the impeller came yesterday(in a skat-trak box) but with the seadoo name and stock replacement numbers 271000497 on it. this is not a skat-trak 14.5/22.5 impeller is it? any help would be great. Thanks just so you can see here's what i got.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h70/viperdgts/skat-trakimpeller.jpg This one says seadoo on one side and 271000497 on the other.
Here's what i think i should have got.(remember this is the same seller)
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h70/viperdgts/impeller.jpg This one say's 14.5/22.5 on the side we can see dont know about other but i think skat trak cause they look so different(i think).
 
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Thanks, i didn't think it was right. But anyways i took the pump off easy job 5 minutes is all it takes. now removing the impeller and wear ring might be a different story( anyone know?) not sure if i should do it myself of let the dealer do it for the 80 bucks. i'm thinking better let him do it cause i don't have the impeller tool or the pump oil, plus he said he would pressure test it to make sure it holds 6psi. What would you do? I should have the right impeller in a few days.
 
80buks,.. let'm do it. It can be done, need jigsaw or sawsall, to cut old wear ring, but a chance on hit'n pump assy, screw'n it up, plus like you said, need impellor tool...
 
It's me again, I took the impeller off myself(really just spun right off) Think that was my problem with it not taking off right and bouncing off the rev limiter. but the wear ring had small pits in it, so i'm still gonna replace it.

Now for the next question, When i took it apart the impeller is a nujet with the numbers 1210350302. Does anyone know the web site for nujet as i can't find it or if what the pitch is on this one, It's not stock is it(replacement)?

And do small nicks and dings make a different in the impeller? It dont look that bad to me, like i could file it out.
 
Well it's about time the impeller got here today, installed everything and it's now ready to go. That impeller (nujet) is a SD-A5.5 whatever that means in pitch i could not find out.

Just something i would like to share.

WHEN TAKING OUT THE OLD WEAR RING DO NOT CUT IT. AS EVEN I(GOOD WITH A SAW) CUT A LITTLE TO FAR. TAKE A LONG FLAT HEAD SCREWDRIVER AND TAP IT OUT(AS IT IS NO GOOD ANYWAY).


Hey timmyboy76, Wanna trade for that bike i see?
 
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