97 gsx intermittent issue with either no crank or no spark.

[kmarts]

Title says it but some history.

Bought this ski years ago, used it a season or two with no problems.

Then a couple years ago start having this problem where it intermittently won't crank. Seems that when you jiggle the wires on the rear E box it would then kick over and run. Dealt with that for a season, then when I winterized it I pulled all the connections apart in that box, cleaned them, reassembled.

That problem stopped happening and good times were had by all.

Fast forward to this season, I ran the thing in my driveway, prepped it, no problems. Go to launch, no crank. Drive it back, remember the old issue, jiggle the wire harness and it cranks. Take it back to the launch and it cranks but won't start. Drive it back and now I have no spark.

So at this point it was cranking w/ no spark. I ordered an ignition coil and a starter solenoid. Changed the coil and after that it doesn't crank. Changed the starter solenoid and it still doesn't crank.

I checked the yellow/red wire and 12v is going to the solenoid trigger but it doesn't click.

I kind of scratching my head here because it was cranking with the old solenoid, then after I changed the coil it won't crank at all with either.

Anyone experienced something like this? I'm kind of stumped.

 

[rusty nail]

check your fuses....you may have shorted something when you were wiggling wires.

 

[kmarts]

All fuses check out

 

[rusty nail]

i just read your post again....if you are getting 12 v to the solenoid on the small wires, then check to see if you are getting 12v on the starter side of the bigger red wires with the switch on. if not, solenoid gone.

 

[kmarts]

i just read your post again....if you are getting 12 v to the solenoid on the small wires, then check to see if you are getting 12v on the starter side of the bigger red wires with the switch on. if not, solenoid gone.

Yeah that's kind of what I'm leaning to. Bought the new solenoid off Amazon a few years ago because I figured this was the problem. Just didn't expect it to be defective right out of the box

 

[kmarts]

Soooo... put the old solenoid back in, doesn't work, then as I'm measuring voltage on the output side when pressing start, it begins to click.

Engine starts to crank... so this solenoid I'm thinking is intermittently faulty (original assumption) and the cheap one off Amazon is just defective.

Problem is I still have no spark. Is there a thread showing how to test the ignition coil? Service manual has a procedure using a breakout cable I don't have.

 

[rusty nail]

if you take the white wire off the coil and put a test light between the white wire and ground, then crank the starter. If it flashing then you are getting a signal from upstream and the problem is localized in that box with the coil( ie, coil, grounds, plugs, plug wires, etc.)

 

[kmarts]

If I don't have a test light will I pick up the signal on a digital multimeter or is it too quick?

 

[rusty nail]

I do not know.

 

[kmarts]

OK all fixed.

I went to measure the magneto and trigger coil resistances at the mpem connector.

When I pulled it, saw that the trigger coil pin on the connector side was pushed back half way and figured it wasn't mating properly. I had pulled this connector last week to measure continuity, troubleshooting the intermittent issue thinking it was a bad wire. This pin must have misaligned when I put it back and pushed out. Anyways, got the pin seated again (not fun) and had spark.

Ran down to the marina and bought a new solenoid, good as new. Roberts your mother's brother.

When comparing the solenoid from Amazon to the seadoo dealer, the male trigger pins on the amazon solenoid were considerably smaller. I suspect there wasn't good enough contact made there to trigger the solenoid.

Cheers