97 gsx seadoo..787 motor I believe they call it. Last used it ran fine after being water flooded and drained. Next year seemed harder to turn engine over. After new battery didn't help, assumed we had a starter that was weak. Replaced with a new one and same. Spins okay by hand on op shaft with reasonable compression. Spins fine with starter with plugs out and by hand on op shaft ( not at all stiff) But with plugs in, it turns till compression and stops..starter stalls engaged. No oil ( or water) comes out when cranked with plugs out so not oil locked. 146 psi in each cylinder. ( when I did get it to turn over a short while back.) wondering if my " cheap " replacement starter is weak. I cleaned and checked ( not with meters) the old one and returned it to motor. Same result again. Put power direct to both starters with new jumper cables and same result..in case of wire problem.My only conclusion would be weak battery, but they are charged and reading high 12's, ( actually started using a car battery to test) or the cheap starter as I said, is no good. It did turn over fine for about 10 sec. One post I saw in my search said these motors are hard on starters so I assume a high torque one is necessary. Do I buy an OEM one at $200 + ?
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Rebuild your old starter assuming if it is an OEM item. Normally requires only a brush kit which is cheap. OEM used starters are almost always better then aftermarket starters.. Get the battery load tested.. Just reading the volts means very little as you may have a bad cell and it could easily drop into the 11 volt area under a load.
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Will check connections but my final test of new jumpers direct to the positive and ground ON THE STARTER and still this starter stall condition rules out connections...for now...The new starter is not OEM and did turn it over for 10 secs, then when I tried again it didn't. Did clean up the old starter but no indication on it of it's origin...may not be original either...it just would be my "luck" to have a bad starter and then get a new one that is defective or as I say, cheap..$49.99 and is no good anyway. Really screws up the trouble shooting.
I can't say I rebuilt the old starter or whether it's OEM either..no tags or markings on it...Just cleaned the commutator with 600 grit..lightly and the brushes were surprisingly good with much spring movement left..good loaded contact. Typical of my fix-its, I may have screwed up my ground when I lightly silicone greased the o-rings since I had no new ones. The ground of course, is thru the starter body which I may have isolated but hard to believe it did with the thin coat I used. I guess I wondered if there were something I missed with crankcase pressure?? or whatever. I would have guessed a decompression valve if I didn't see there is none...and it hadn't turned over so freely for 10 secs with the new starter before quitting. The battery is from a car and is fully charged...took it after I gave up on the ski and put it in a 4 cylinder Toyota Celica which had been sitting for 2 months and it started right up.?? So I kinda rule out battery ....sorry to post such long posts but I don't want you to waste your time with troubleshooting questions that I have tried...spent some time on your forum searching answers before I thought I would ask anyone. Thanks for the effort. Having read that these 787 ( 782 cc) engines eat starters made me wonder if this was a typical problem.
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