ski just shut down

[bigJake]

So I'm riding the '97 GSX today, it's running fine then suddenly just shut off in the middle of the lake, no bogging or stumbling first just flat shut off. Try to restart, it cranks but won't start. Pop the seat for a look see, gas gauge stopped working last year, but I'm never more than a 10 minute ride from my dock so not a big deal. but I notice the gas looks pretty low so I switch to Reserve, still no start. Then I notice the inline fuel filter I inserted before the carbs is dry. So I start wondering why am i not drawing fuel. The Doc had my carbs apart just a couple weeks ago, so I know they are good, so I ruled out a pulse diaphram issue and i reached down and verified the pulse line is connected. Now I crack open the gas filler cap and get a bit of a swish of air, so ok maybe just a fuel tank check valve issue, but it still don't start and still not drawing fuel into the inline filter. so next thought is an air leak at the o-ring on the water seperator, or plugged filter in the water seperator. I just remove the filter in the water seperator, crank again, still not drawing any fuel into the inline filter. Now by this time i had drifted into shore, as luck would have it just a few hundred feet from my buddy's dock. i manage to slowly drift my way to his dock. Now i dump out the gas in the water seperator, put it back on and crank, check the water seperator again and it is still empty after cranking, so still thingk o-ring air leak, I get some vaseline from his wife, put on the o-ring, crank again, still get no fuel. at this point the only thing i can think of before I tow it back to the house is to swap the water seperator with the one from my '96. so my buddy rides me back to my dock on his boat, I grab the water seperator from the '96 and drive back to his house. now this is where things get a bit weird. I go to swap out the water seperator but it is now full of gas and the inline filter has gas in it, both were dry when I left 20 minutes earlier. I swap the seperator, and crank, now I can watch the fuel being drawn from the inline filter but engine is still not firing. So now the suspicion switches to no spark. I tow the ski 45 minutes back to my house. Now pitch black outside house but I hook up a light and do a compression test just to make sure nothing catostrophic happened. 150 on both cylinders. Breathe sigh of relief. Next I try to check for spark but can't find my spark tester in the dark shed so that is first up tomorrow. If i find out tomorrow that I don't have spark, where do i go from there? It just occurred to me that I think I had a similiar issue a couple years ago, ski shut down but it immediately seemed electrical and I opened the rear e-box and a wire had come loose. I have not looked inside the e-box yet. sooo, assuming I don't just have a loose wire in he e-box again (hopefully i do), then what? Stator? coil? what tests to I do?

 

[benjilafouine]

You can test spark without a tester. Unscrew the plugs, connect them again to the wires and make them touch the top of the motor and crank a few times (not too long). You should see right away if your plugs fire (don't do that in hard sun or you'll see almost nothing). I was told that white/blue fire is good and that yellow fire is bad. I was told testers are good (like more safe) but they do not show the color of the fire (learned that from a mechanics).

This test will also reveal if you have water in the engine. If it did, it would spit water from the holes.

Good luck.

Benji.

 

[1of500]

You can test spark without a tester. Unscrew the plugs, connect them again to the wires and make them touch the top of the motor and crank a few times (not too long). You should see right away if your plugs fire (don't do that in hard sun or you'll see almost nothing). I was told that white/blue fire is good and that yellow fire is bad. I was told testers are good (like more safe) but they do not show the color of the fire (learned that from a mechanics).

This test will also reveal if you have water in the engine. If it did, it would spit water from the holes.

Good luck.

Benji.

That test you described can cause an explosion. If there are any gasoline vapors in the hull.

 

[bigJake]

no water in the engine, first thing i did was pull the plugs and compression test

 

[Dr Honda]

That sucks. (my XP and Polaris are still up for sale. LOL)


Anyway.... if it felt "Electrical"... then it probably was.

When you get a chance... check for spark, and open that black e-box. I'm guessing you will find your answer in there. And... if the spark is gone... and everything in the box looks good... it could be that the pick-up broke loose from it's mount.


FYI... a lot of times the inline filter will look empty. It's kind of normal. Air will get trapped in there... but fuel will still flow past, and into the engine.

 

[benjilafouine]

Yeah... Do not mix gasoline with spark... There is always a bit of a good sense in there. Make sure there are no vapors, no leaks, etc. I even make sure the bottom of the hull is completely dry before proceeding (just to be on the safe side). And as I mentioned, just a bit of cranking (like a few seconds only). But you can wait for you test light.

Benji.

 

[LouDoo]

Doc's 96XP is looking better all the time.........

Lou

 

[bigJake]

Well the whole time I was towing it back list night I was thinking if it is something significant I would get Doc's Polaris.

BUT - a picture says 1000 words. Now I'm kicking myself for all the time wasted towing it back. As soon as it shut down so abruptly I immediately knew it had to be electrical, BUT i got distracted by the low level of fuel in the tank and not seeing anything flow into the inline filter. Plus the water seperator was not filling up with fuel either so not sure what was going on there. Anyway, as Uncle Willie (on Ma's side) says: On The Road Again!

And why am i just getting thumbnail pics, their used to be an option to select the inline picture size or a thumbnail, what am i missing in the interface?