Trim issue

[Rapptorman]

Hello all. Just picked up a 94 XP yesterday. Never owned a Ski and have only ridden one once in my life.
I’m trying to figure out why the trim doesn’t work. Is it more common for the fuse to blow or for the motor to go out?
I’m also trying to figure out where this hose goes. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[GGuillot]

Hello all. Just picked up a 94 XP yesterday. Never owned a Ski and have only ridden one once in my life.
I’m trying to figure out why the trim doesn’t work. Is it more common for the fuse to blow or for the motor to go out?
I’m also trying to figure out where this hose goes. Any help would be greatly appreciated

What's common with the trim is it gets water inside and corrodes everything, open it up and look. Ck the rubber boot at the nozzle area for dry rot, you can by a new one fairly cheap. And ck the fuse..

I'm not an expert with the 94' XP, but both of my skis have the battery vent running up front, it looks like what that is. You can download a SM at SeaDoo Manuals - FREE PDF Download! to double ck how right should look.

 

[Rapptorman]

Thanks for the reply. What are you referring to when you say the rubber boot at the nozzle area?
The trim assembly looks extremely clean and doesn’t appear that it’s ever had any real exposure to water. Is there supposed to be a hose attached to the end of what appears to be some sort of filter!

 

[GGuillot]

Thanks for the reply. What are you referring to when you say the rubber boot at the nozzle area?
The trim assembly looks extremely clean and doesn’t appear that it’s ever had any real exposure to water. Is there supposed to be a hose attached to the end of what appears to be some sort of filter!

Looks like your 94' is a little different, just look on the outside at the gasket or cover, maybe take it apart and see if there's any water damage. Other than that, if the fuse is good you may need to get another one.

 

[AKnarrowback]

Funny you should ask about that hose.

It goes to what looks like a little filter that is attached to the vts (trim) motor. I was just tinkering with my 94 xp yesterday and was tracing things out with all the hoses under the dash.

You can find out if your motor is any good. If I'm remembering right there is a three wire plug going to the vts motor, one common and two hots. If you have a steady hand you can unplug the motor and jumper into the plug with 12v dc, just don't short things out with the leads so close together. One common for the negative and swap the positive between the other two to change the motor direction.

Sending a PM.

 

[AKnarrowback]

Try this before you go any further.

Remember, in order for the vts motor to operate the tether cord must be in place, or at least be pushing the tether button in. Tap the start button to start the timer in the mpem (electronic brain), you have about 7 seconds to run the trim buttons before the mpem shuts off power to the trim circuit.

If you have the battery in the machine and are just hitting the trim buttons nothing is going to operate. You either have to have the gas motor running or "trick" the mpem by having the tether button held down and tapping the start button just enough to hear the starter kick.

There is a timer circuit that kills power to most of the electronics after a few seconds if the motor is not running. The early DOOs did not have this function and had battery draining problems.

 

[GGuillot]

You either have to have the gas motor running or "trick" the mpem by having the tether button held down and tapping the start button just enough to hear the starter kick.

Must have been a change later after the 94' XP but on my 96' GSX I can operate the VTS without the tether or DESS lanyard on the post. Just push the start button to activate the gauges and the VTS will work.

 

[AKnarrowback]

Got me on that one. I was heavy into Sea-Doos from 89 to mid summer of 95, it all ended with one phone call, after that I became an Electrician, got married and was out of them until two summers ago.

Talk about culture shock to go from a snowmobile based motor grafted into a hull to seeing 4 stroke supercharged.....

The 94 XP does have a timer in it and it made it a pain to trouble shoot things some times......

 

[Rapptorman]

Excellent! Thanks for the tip! I will give it a try when I get home!

 

[NickCawks]

Something that was not mentioned.

The VTS is operated by several glass reeds that open and close to actuate the motor.

Along with the potential for water getting into the VTS box and destroying everything the box could still be perfectly sealed, but the glass reeds have broken.

First, you need to continuity check the VTS switch just to make sure you're not bypassing the issue and fixing things that don't need to be fixed.

Second, pull the VTS motor out and bench test it on a battery. As AKnarrow suggested. If the motor is in good working condition there is only two ways to fix the issue. Source and replace the VTS assembly with a pre-owned one off eBay OR (and I think this is a much better solution) go to this link and purchase "The Trim Fix". This will eliminate the glass reeds altogether and if you follow the directions closely it will work just as it did before.

 

[Rapptorman]

Thanks AKnarrowback! Ignorance of function was definitely my problem. Simple push of the starter button did the trick. Hope to get the first lake test this weekend. Thanks again

 

[AKnarrowback]

Good to hear it turned out simple.

 

[NickCawks]

awesome, definitely better than spending money!