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Seadoo gtx 1997 doesnt start (sometime....)

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justinsrad98

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I'm working on a Seadoo 1997 with the 787 engine. the engine will sometime fire-up and sometime there is no spark at all (but the engine turn over). The engine start easily and two minutes later it doesn't start. Than an hour later, it's working again.


I'm suspecting some wire in the hood... sometime I have two beeps and sometime no beep at all!


Any suggestion? I cut the wire near the sparkplug, charged the battery, put some dielectric grease at all connections, unplug the rectifier...
 
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I just had a similar problem with mine. It was the relay in the gray electrical box with the 5 AMP fuse. On mine though, sometimes I would get 4 long beeps indicating the CDI was not communicating with the MPEM. Other times it would crank and crank but not start (no spark) This relay's purpose is to turn the CDI on and off. Whenever I tested it with an ohm meter, sometimes it would read open, sometimes it would read a high resistance sometimes it would read a low resistance. It was very erratic. I bought a used one on ebay and it seems fine now, although I haven't run it on the lake yet
 
After the battery is fully charged (12.6 volts). I still a battery low message. When it crank, it goes down to 11.5 v. Doesn't want to start this morning.

Maybe the battery voltage is to low to trigger the coil?
 
justinsrad98 said:
After the battery is fully charged (12.6 volts). I still a battery low message. When it crank, it goes down to 11.5 v. Doesn't want to start this morning.

Maybe the battery voltage is to low to trigger the coil?
Click to expand...

Your battery is questionable. It should measure closer to 12 when cranking. At 10.8 volts most skis can't start as the MPEM requires near 11 volts to operate properly.

After you crank it a few times, where does it read when cranking?
 
jjsinaz said:
I just had a similar problem with mine. It was the relay in the gray electrical box with the 5 AMP fuse. On mine though, sometimes I would get 4 long beeps indicating the CDI was not communicating with the MPEM. Other times it would crank and crank but not start (no spark) This relay's purpose is to turn the CDI on and off. Whenever I tested it with an ohm meter, sometimes it would read open, sometimes it would read a high resistance sometimes it would read a low resistance. It was very erratic. I bought a used one on ebay and it seems fine now, although I haven't run it on the lake yet
Click to expand...

As and FYI, the 97 MPEM is totally different with an integrated CDI and other electronics. Not sure if that relay is in play on the 97.

And beepers come and go so I would be cautious on using that as my only indicator. The battery has to be good for all to work. Not sure if that is your issue, but at least test with a good battery. I did have an intermittent CDI on my 96 GSX that actually uses a 97 MPEM. It behaved a little different though. And the 97 MPEM is really expensive so it is not an easy one to test. It could be the trigger coil in the mag. They have a known issue of breaking off. Yours could be partially broken. I know it is a common 96 issue, not sure about 97.
 
Stator is good as I just install a used ( almost new oem), pick up coil is in great shape ( I just did the whole engine tear down). I will try with another battery tonight.

I also have a speedster 99 with twin 787, I might swap the coil from the boat to try it...
 
Redit all my ground near the coil and I got rid of all the corroded terminal in the coil box. No luck still spark on and off. I think I will shop for a new coil.



310.jpg
 
I thought about something. I painted the engine whiteout the starter. So I guessing I don't have a good ground from the starter to the engine. Do you have another place to place the ground on this engine?
313.jpg
 
When you say it doesn't start do you mean it doesn't crank? Do you get 2 beeps with Dess key installed?
 
XP 787 said:
When you say it doesn't start do you mean it doesn't crank? Do you get 2 beeps with Dess key installed?
Click to expand...

The engine always crank, just no spark sometime. Yesterday it ran fine for 10 minutes ( 2 x 5) and 10 minutes later doesn't have spark. I'm thinking I have a bad ground between the starter and the engine since I painted the engine whitout the starter. The only electrical connection would be the bolt holding the starter but the case have been painted so their isn't much electrical connection...
 
OK got it. Well you can always test the ground by hooking up a test light to the positive on your battery then touch the bolt/wire with the tester. If it lights up ground is good. Do this next time it doesn't start.
 
The engine is grounded but I think when the starter is doing is job, their isn't much ground connection for the engine to run. That why when the engine is running everything is fine.
 
Check for a white powdery substance coming out of wire also this means wire is corroded internally.
 
A simple test would be to use a jumper cable to go from the bolt on the starter to the negative post on the battery
 
Ground wire are all new. Swapped the coil with my boat and no luck. Grounded the engine with a new ground wire and no luck. I m starting to get pissed!

Only thing I m thinking is the mpem.
 
I feel your pain I was really starting to get pissed at mine whenever that relay was going bad.however, as Soccerdad pointed out earlier, the 97 has the newer MPEM with the electronics for the CDI built into it, so I don't think you have that relay like my 96 does. Since you've checked everything else, that would lead me to lean toward a MPEM going bad.
 
Still no luck I made a new ground wire for the mpem, by pass the white wire from the mpem to the coil, still no luck. It was running fine the yesterday after I cleaned the ground near the rectifier but tonight it's dead. One thing that I noticed is the clock. When the engine is starting fine, the clock is working fine, keeping the hours since I connected the battery. when it doesn't work, it's start back at 12h00 even if I didn't disconnected the battery.
 
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