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Crap what did I do?

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suke

suke

Well-Known Member
So had a spare few mins today while working from home. So started to get the ski ready to take to the lake tomorrow. I constantly have it on the tender when I'm not riding it. So filling it up with gas I wanted to see how much further I had to go. Pop on the key and nothing....no gauges nothing. FACK!!!!!!!! I left the tender hooked up!!!!!!!!! No pops, smoke, nothing. Unplug the tender and gauges come on just fine. Now the battery light is on. She starts and runs fine. Checked she's charging and 14 volts at idle. What did I mess up and/or what can I check?

Light stays on once it's running too. The battery light normally comes on for a split second when I hit start then goes off once she's idling.

Unhooked the battery for a few seconds to see if that would clear it up. Apparently it's not like OBDII stuff. HAH!

I have a new battery that I could put in as well. Granted don't think the battery is the issue as it shows just over 13 volts. 13.06 or something like that.
 
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Check the charging voltage to the battery at high idle, 4000-4500 rpm, it should be 14-14.5 volts. You could have a voltage regulator/rectifier problem, or it could be the battery or battery cables/connections. Does the low voltage message go off once your underway, in the water?

Lou
 
This literally just happened a few mins ago, so I haven't had a chance to run it in the water. It charges right at 14 volts at idle. I just replaced the damn rectifier too. I don't have enough hands to test while revving and checking voltage. Fuses in rear ebox look perfect. VTS works fine as well....still. Not that really matters.
 
Honestly, I'm not sure you have a problem, my low voltage light will sometimes come on in the no wake zone, the go off when I'm underway, that being said I'm on the 4th. year on the battery, probably on borrowed time, I plan on replacing the battery next season.

Lou
 
I tried revving it and it didn't go away. Guess we'll see tomorrow. I tried to test it by myself and couldn't get enough on the leads to get a good reading while revving it.
 
LouDoo said:
Honestly, I'm not sure you have a problem, my low voltage light will sometimes come on in the no wake zone, the go off when I'm underway, that being said I'm on the 4th. year on the battery, probably on borrowed time, I plan on replacing the battery next season.

Lou
Click to expand...

That's really great service from a small ski battery, you should mention which one you have.
 
Well, it's an old school, lead acid, NAPA battery. I guess I have good luck with batteries, the battery in my boat was 2005 Walmart battery, and still going strong, I replaced it this year just because it was a 2005, it's a full size starting battery. I probably should replace batteries more often than I do, but like Harry Truman said "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Lou
 
I'm like Lou... My batteries last for years compared to most everyone else's. I had my Polaris ski's for 11 years and replaced the battery once in each ski. I am on my 4th season with my Seadoos and so far good to go...
 
Yeah except, seems like those small ski batteries are easy to ruin by cranking too long while it takes a good bit of foolishness to damage 1000CCA brutes like the Everstart MAXX (Made by Johnson Controls). Problem is, it's impossible to shoehorn one of those into a ski bilge.

I'm still starting off a couple Motorcraft batteries I picked up new back in 1995... One of these I haven't tested this year, so maybe it doesn't count...
 
That's what I've got in the boat and Everstart MAXX, hmmm maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to replace the 2005 battery. The replacement size 24, was still under 100.00.

I know the guys complain about Never Start ski batteries, but I've had excellent service in their car and marine batteries.

Lou
 
Checked the fuses up front and all good there pulled the plug on the Maggie housing and it was in there snug, put it back in. Have a brand new battery laying around waiting for this one to die, but with it on the tender all the time figured it'd last me forever. I'll toss in the new one and head to the lake. I've left the battery disconnected over night hoping it'll clear up.
 
Put in the new battery and no change as predicted. Checked with 1983's leads and it held constant at 14.0x volts at mid idle without much fluctuation. Tossed it in the water and it rode like a bat outta hell......until I started futzing with my carb adjustments. The highs were super lean I found out doing plug chops. Then I started messing with my lows( why I have no idea as it would take off like stink when I hammered down on it) and it started bogging when trying to take off. Almost like it did when I had rectifier issues. So either I blew another rectifier, good possibility, or I need to go back to the specs I had before, even better possibility. Soooooo what else could I have messed up? Guess I need to bust out the manual.
 
I guess I've lost track of this thread, I thought the original problem was a low 12 volt warning, now we've got carb. problems? If you have to adjust the Hi a Lo needles more than 1/4 turn you need to rebuild the carbs., or you have other problems. I've done my share to tinkering with the settings and I have found I always go back to the factory settings.

Lou
 
CReynoldsMIZ said:
Why would you mess with your lows if it was taking off perfect? Guess I don't understand that one
Click to expand...

More or less cause I am an idiot. Was doing some plug checks and theorized I needed more on the low side to match the high side. When in reality I should have left the lows alone. Highs I def needed more as the plugs were almost white when doing plug chops. I think I have them where they need to be now. Now need to fix my lows back to where they need to be.
 
LouDoo said:
I guess I've lost track of this thread, I thought the original problem was a low 12 volt warning, now we've got carb. problems? If you have to adjust the Hi a Lo needles more than 1/4 turn you need to rebuild the carbs., or you have other problems. I've done my share to tinkering with the settings and I have found I always go back to the factory settings.

Lou
Click to expand...
That was the initial problem and still technically is.
 
Went back to my original settings on the low speed. Runs great!! There's a weird stumble if I slowly open the throttle RIGHT before the raves open. At this point I'll do some plug chops and if they look good I'll deal with it.

Back to the original problem.....no idea what is messed up with the light as it runs great, charges fine, but the battery light stays on. Maybe I busted the gauge who knows?

Otherwise if I hammer down at any point it flies even from idle.
 
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Suke you got a beautifully restored ski which isn't modded at all. Every time you go out there your fiddling with the carbs because your running those aftermarket filters. The filters really only do stuff if you have other mods. I know I've said it before, but why not go back to the stock air box and stock settings an be done with it.
 
CReynoldsMIZ said:
Suke you got a beautifully restored ski which isn't modded at all. Every time you go out there your fiddling with the carbs because your running those aftermarket filters. The filters really only do stuff if you have other mods. I know I've said it before, but why not go back to the stock air box and stock settings an be done with it.
Click to expand...
That issue ended up being my rectifier. It really runs great and I'm really being nit picky cause I'm a perfectionist. I'm pretty certain even if I went back to stock id have the same issue. I think it's just the way these skis are. There was a stock gtx out there this weekend fully restored and it had the same sounding stumble right before the raves open.
 
Figured I should update this in case someone evers does something like this. I've put quite a few hours on this since. Apparently the only thing I managed to do was trip something to make the light come on permanently. Since that's the only downside I don't even care trying to track down the reason. Figure maybe in the fall finding a way to just cut the signal wire or something to make it go off if it bothers me that much. At the moment I just wanna ride!!!!!! 3 years of trying to get this thing sorted is enough. :)
 
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