Sportster-2001-951C-Stock
Well-Known Member
Umm, how about "seafoaming" that thing, or something like that?
Finally, I have some new news. The problem is solved at last.:thumbsup:
It was indeed the starter. I replaced the starter this afternoon & ran it until it was hot. Turned over perfectly each & every time. While I am happy to have this dilemma solved, Nothing about the original starter showed signs of failure or fatigue. Pretty safe to say that the armature was overloaded during the early events with the flywheel & assumably seized jet pump.
The compression in this engine averages 187 per hole cold. When the engine nears the 195 degree mark the compression rises to 200PSI. +/- This 7% jump was just enough of an increase to be more than the starter could overcome. As far as the carbon build up, hopefully its from years of little to no use, & heavy winterizing oil. Dennis had a good point, & felt the ski could have been fogged each season through the throttle body, causing long term build up of oil in the manifold & that makes a lot of sense. But, as it turns out, the carbon had little to do with the hard starts, and to some degree had me looking down the wrong path, because of the abnormal amount that was visible.
Now, back the starter. When I brought the armature to a rebuilding shop, they told me it was fine. But, given the short time they spent on it, I didn't think they were very thorough. I am always wrenching on something in the shop, & I decided to purchase a used Growler. On my tests, both armatures checked out identically. No shorted windings, no open windings & each field produced 19 Amps of current. all the way around the commutator. So, as I installed the new starter, I was not very confident of finding any change at all. But, to my surprise, it was a complete change, & the problem was corrected.
Pretty safe to assume now , the windings got hot & they have since lost some of their ability to produce strong magnetic fields. But according to my tests on the growler, it should have been fine. Short of some sort of motor dynamometer, I am not sure how this could be tested any further.
Thanks for hanging in their with me.
Might be able to measure starter torque. Is this a permanent-magnet starter by any chance? Permanent magnets can be remagnitized, just as they can lose magnetism over time. I just assumed it was a series-wound starter.......
Didn't most seadoo's use permanent magnets in the housing? Cold be a magnet problem, I didn't consider that possibility. I have no problem tossing it in the garbage can & probably will. I just have a brain that doesn't know when its a good time to quit wondering.