97 xp mpem/dess? sometimes beeps other times doesnt

[simkaXP]

i just bought this 1997 xp, according to the guy who i bought it from it works fantastic.. well, brought it home, pluged the lanyard in and no music, fiddled around and managed to get a beep, got it to turn the motor over once and it started only once, after that i couldnt get 2 beeps.. checked the fuses, the bottom fuse was blown (15A), replaced it.. still no joy, after i reset the computer ( pressed and held the start w/o the lanyard for 5 seconds then plug the lanyard ...) right after i do that it gives me 2 beeps and thats it.. after that it goes back to no beep and once in awhile ill get a one long beep...im thinking its something to do with the mpem? anyone had this problem? how did you go about fixing it?

also the cover on the motor (where the electrical wires go into the motor, the front cover on the motor closest to the front of the jetski) warms up for somereason... maby that will give you a clue

 

[Dr Honda]

you may have a bad regulator, and that puts a drain on the system, and you may not get your beeps if the voltage is low. open the cover and find the hot part.

 

[popasodatastie]

Gotta love it when they dont start.

:cheers: Check you dess key for any dirt clean it out with some mild dish soap (Dawn) also check the voltage in you battery i do know that saedoo uses a electronic ignition so what it does is it pulls power from the battery to start the ski so low voltage from the battery = no joy on ski. you can try to get around this by taking a battery from your can and with the car not running try jumping the car. so it would be a good idea to check inside you flywheel housing and check for metal shavings. theres about 8 or 9 - 10mm boltsnd youll have to remove the front engine mount to get in there. Also trmove the oil pump off the front. if threres metal shavings try to locate where they may have came from and hopefully if a quick fix. If you need anymore assistance let us know.

 

[simkaXP]

the battery is brand new and i cleaned the key out.. except this time it didnt even beep at all.. but still that bottom 15amp fuse warms up pretty fast and the cover on the motor warms up, so im thinking its the regulator if its behind that cover? but to take the cover off i need to take the whole engine off so ill be doing that on the weekend.. until then is there anything else i can trouble shoot? also, how can i test the regulator to see if it works or not?

 

[simkaXP]

another question, does the VTS work only when the engine is running? i noticed that when i plug the dess/lanyard and when i get a beep the VTS guage arrow goes up, but when i press the VTS button i get a click from behind and it shuts down the guage and nothing happens.. thanks for your input

 

[seadooya]

you can remove the mag cover if you remove the front motor mount bolt, and prop it up with a piece of wood. The VTS will work, when ski is fired up. If you can avoid removing the motor, do it...try'n to align it, to the driveshaft assy sux.

 

[PeterDollar]

The fuses don't have to be blown to prevent starting

SimkaXP, did you ever get to the bottom of your problem of beeps and sometimes no beeps?

I had a similar problem, though not identical with my '07 RXT. I was returning to the boat ramp after about two hours of riding and wave jumping without any problems at all. I got to about 100m from the boat ramp and the engine cut out and I couldn't start it again. With the current quickly taking me towards rocks, I flagged down the first passing boat. In the haste to tow me away from the looming rocks, he ended up turning me and the ski upsidedown and then left me stranded on the beach behind a rock wall. I couldn't get the RXT past the rocks (by swimming with it), so I walked to the NSW Maritime office (luckily it was less than half a mile) and asked for a tow. Sorry, it's a long story.....

Anyhow, after getting towed back to the boat ramp by the Maritime, I got the RXT home and no-load tested the battery with a multimeter, a bit less than 13V, so I tried to jump start it using my car battery (strictly following the instructions in this forum) and no luck. Every time I attached the DESS key, I got no beeps and the gauges faded away within 3 to 5 seconds. Just for kicks and because I couldn't find an exact match in the forum for my symptoms, I tried my (coincidently new) car battery instead of the RXT's battery and still couldn't start it or get any beeps. Sometimes I'd get the beep, beep, beep you normally get when you leave the DESS in. But whenever I pushed the start button - nothing, no cranking, nothing.

I checked all the fuses. The MPEM fuses were all fine, as were the main 30A fuses, none of them were blown. However, and this is the part that anyone with an electrical problem might find instructive, even if the fuses aren't blown, they still might be the cause of the problem.

How? Well, in my case there was a small amount of surface corrosion on one leg of the each of the two main 30A fuses marked as "charge" and "batt" on the fuse cover. I scraped the white corrosion (not salt, the fuse covers were working perfectly) off with my fingernail and re-inserted the fuses. Well what do you know - problem fixed.

The RXT is back to normal, beeps twice when you plug in the DESS key and starts when you press the start/stop button.

Again, I apologise for the long story, but it's such a simple fix (though it took me two days to find), I hope someone out there finds it useful.