Weak Spark

[pwgsx]

I am working on a 96 GTX that had a trashed motor. I got a replacement and cleaned up everything. I went to check for spark before starting to button everything down and at the time I didnt see anything. Later in the evening I checked again and the spark is very faint, orange in color. On all my other skis, the spark is white/blue, very visible. The flywheel is clean, the stator and everything inside the front cover is clean. I plan to clip the wires back 1/4 inch on the plugs and charge up the battery. What else could the issue be?

 

[mikidymac]

Check all of your grounds. Clean and tight.

 

[IDoSeaDoo]

Yep. Grounds, especially the one on the coil itself. I had one rust out once. What's your battery voltage while you're cranking?

 

[Chester]

Will it not start?

Chester

 

[pwgsx]

Grounds clean and tight, perhaps I should get a new main ground wire from the battery to the motor? I ordered a new coil, wires and boots. It sounds like it wants to start but doesnt. Its also a new motor that was just replaced so it has never ran yet.

 

[Eddie84]

I had an issue similar to this on a 96 xp with a 787 motor and found the rectifier was bad. I changed it out and worked fine. At times the spark was orange in color and other times the spark was blue and bright. I would run a test on the stator and rectifier first before placing new electrical parts.

 

[IDoSeaDoo]

You can disconnect the rectifier red wire to see if it makes it better. If so, I'd replace it. I wouldn't replace the coil just yet, they're rarely the issue. You can test the ground wire by getting a jumper cable and attaching one end to the motor, like on the spark plug base, and the other to the battery neg terminal.

 

[Mekanix]

Weak spark:

1 caps, Resistors rattle to death and you get open circuit, Check for 5k ohms across the cap
2 coil primary and secondary resistance checks. (cant remember the numbers but it would lead to a bad coil)
3 wires going into coil rust out the pin coming from the coil <- my vote. Spark jumps in there instead of the plug.
4 weak CDI module output or input voltage.
5 I think the 96 GTX had an all in one mpem didn't it ? which was less susseptible to voltage drop while cranking.

 

[pwgsx]

Grounds clean and tight, perhaps I should get a new main ground wire from the battery to the motor? I ordered a new coil, wires and boots.

Weak spark:

1 caps, Resistors rattle to death and you get open circuit, Check for 5k ohms across the cap
2 coil primary and secondary resistance checks. (cant remember the numbers but it would lead to a bad coil)
3 wires going into coil rust out the pin coming from the coil <- my vote. Spark jumps in there instead of the plug.
4 weak CDI module output or input voltage.
5 I think the 96 GTX had an all in one mpem didn't it ? which was less susseptible to voltage drop while cranking.

I will check these things out. The 96 still has a separate mpem and cdi module. really hope its not the cdi as those are kinda pricey.

 

[pwgsx]

Update, fresh battery and no change. I installed the new coil, wires and boots and she is back in business. Nice blue spark !! Also check that the battery was getting charged while running which it is. Thanks for all the help and ideas.