96 SPX no start, 5amp fuse good

[camaro430sut]

So yesterday it was beautiful. I decided to pull the skis out of storage and get them ready for summer. Charged up both batteries, put em in and both skis started right up. I shut them down and went to work on cleanin them up. On the SPX, the previous owner had replaced the green hood with a yellow one. I decided I would repaint it. I unplugged the gauges and removed them from the hood but did not remove the hood from the hull. Just unplugged the gauges inside the hood. After everything was all painted and put back together I wanted to start the ski once more before finishing up. Nothin, dead. I get nothing on the gauges but Im not 100% positive they were working to begin with. So I figured the battery had run down. Put it on the charger and tried again today. No luck. Same deal, does nothing. So I put the battery from my SPI in. Before I swapped batteries I started the SPI. Cranked over very fast and started right up. So, I know this battery is good. Put it in the SPX and nothin, doesnt attempt to do anything at all. I start hunting around for problems. Pull out the electrical box to find the 5amp fuse is blown. Im all happy, heres the root of my problems...wrong. I replace the fuse, hook the known good battery up and still nothing. Sooooo now im at a lose. Where is my problem? Whats wrong with my ski? Please dont tell me the MPEM is dead.

 

[Bills86e]

Oxidation on pins & wire connections, Cables. Corrosion

Finding electrical failures is a matter of elimination. Start with the two battery cables
as corrosion could have started last year and got progressivly worse. Release the
grey box from the floor shoe, open it and check, clean & dielectric grease each cable and wire connection, remove fuses, blow out ant moisture in the holes, grease and replace them. Jumper the solenoid lugs with a wrench, it should kick the starter over. You may have to go over every connection on the ski, clean, test, & grease. The MPEM gets its ground from the Stator. Jumper the ground lug all the black wires are nutted to battery ground. TRY it.
Bill

 

[camaro430sut]

But what I dont get is it was running fine about an hour before it wouldnt start. Gave me no trouble on the first start up of the season. Fired right up, let it run for a few minutes on the hose then shut it down. And then nothin. I just dont get it. Im going to check all the wiring over but from what I saw it all looked good.

 

[Bills86e]

Unforseen corrosion & sulfation & oxidation is a Bie...atch!
The above can form a hardened coat on attachment points and prevent the flow of electron current.

A battery cable may look "Brand New" but may be defective and may carry voltage,
but fails to carry CCA's. These "lugs" can be cut off, new soldered on, marine shrink wrapped and re-greased to work like new. Bill

 

[camaro430sut]

Well I cleaned the ends on both battery cables. Still a no go. Im trying to figure a way to see if Im getting power into the electrical box but theres no easy way. I can keep the battery hooked up and everything plugged in with the box removed.

 

[camaro430sut]

Well its fixed! It was something so dumb and so simple. It was bugging me how one mintue it could run and the next it wouldnt. So I thought to myself, its got to be something I did. I started back tracking. When I pulled the 5amp fuse out that I put in I noticed the blades looked a little "dirty" so to say. I didnt replace it with a new fuse because I have tons of used good fuses from cars Ive parted. So I knew the fuse was good but never thought to look at the condition of the blades. Cleaned em up with a lil sand paper, hooked up the battery and she fired right up. Turns out my gauges dont work too. Its a new to me ski so theres some odds and ends to figure out. Thanks for the imput. Im sure cleaing the connections of all my wiring is going to save me some headaches down the road