Running great, now won't start 97 spx

[nditiz1]

So you all helped me to get my ski running at the start of the season and I call upon your expertise once more.

I have a 97 spx that had a new Deka sealed bettery installed at the start of the season. I ran the ski 3 seperate times maybe a week apart with no problems. 4 weeks went by since my last ride and when I went to start her she seemed like the battery was dead. The starter or whatever it is to start her up clicks, clicks, turns over over over, clicks, clicks, clicks. I tested the voltage on the battery and it is 12.6 V. I even brought the battery back to Battery Warehouse. The guy tested it said I had good amps and that it was almost fully charged. I had him put it on the charger anyway. I tried it again and now it won't even turn over just clicks. I even tried a 200AMP jump box with the battery disconnected to see if that would start it, but it just clicks as well.

Please help guys!

 

[brock1]

sounds like you have a bad solenoid... the clicking that you hear is coming from the solenoid its in the black electrical box. take the cover off the box and youll see the solenoid it has wires going to and from it with two posts on it that have wires (like the ones on the batt) connected to it. Take a insulated screwdriver and lay it across both of the two prongs at the same time and it will arc if the starter engages then the solenoid is bad if the starter does not engage then its the starter (most likely)

 

[B_PWC]

what brock said.... mine did the samething in the middle of the lake. It is a easy thing to test and easy to replace. hopefully it is just the solenoid.

Also, it is not a good idea to use jump boxes or boosters as it can damage the MPEM.

 

[nditiz1]

Ok, so I tried to arc it and no go. I don't even get a click like I normally do when I press the start button. The battery says it is at 12.3 volts. When I test from the one post to the other (in the black box) I get 10 volts??? Anyway is this still a starter issue? I'm not sure why I can't even bypass the selenoid to get the starter going. One thing to note is before when I first tried to get it started it would turn over a few times then click, click, click. Could this battery acutally not have enough juice to start up? I only say that because it seemed like it almost had the power to do it and now it doesn't or did I fry my starter trying to get it started? I have no faith in the dude at battery warehouse.

 

[B_PWC]

what does the voltage of the battery say when you actually hit the start button? If voltage drops below 10 volts you have a weak battery.

Then I would test the solenoid voltage on the thick wire towards the starter when you press the starter button. If it goes from 0 volts when the button is not pressed to 12 volts when you do press the button; then you have a bad connections on the starter or the starter is dead.

What happens if you pull the spark plugs and try to start it? Does it turn over then?