Solved: SeaDoo Won't Start 

Yes, a huge mess! You should see how bad the housing was corroded from salt water exposure. Here's the autopsy and repair: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WMmMT0N-fmU.html

Glad it helped out Danny. There's something about a damp bilge that raises heck with electrical connections.

I’m so happy to hear that it helped out. We played around a lot filming this one and I probably could have shared more details but at least the main idea came across. I have now personally encountered this problem on four occasions, all on 20+ year old skis. It drove me crazy the first time until I figured it out.

Thank you Joseph. It's great to have you here.

Good luck! I see variations on the design from time to time and some of them are way better than my attempt. Would love to see how yours turns out!

Awesome! What do you say we sneak over and camo Ed's mower with orange highlights when he's not home?

See that, Ed? She likes the orange!

The dude with no sense of style...I love it!

Congrats. Plenty of summer left to ride too!

My ski gives me multiple clicks when I hit the button not just one

Bryan, Your ohm meter will answer the ground wire question fast. You will want to make sure that the engine and jet pump can be turned (even a little bit) by hand. If one is siezed you could get a click and no start. Good luck!

Thanks Aaron. I needed that.

I made and installed a new ground wire on both of my 97' GTI's.......both were about rusted through

Sweeet!

You know we would!

That was a fun video to make. Probably should have focused more on the project at hand, but we were enjoying ourselves. Thanks for watching!

Thank you Mr. President. He's a hoot!

Looking forward to seeing how they turn out. Gonna replace that drift charm on your WRX with a trailer hitch?

Picked up 2 different skies for a good price! both look good and run great! and the funniest part is I'm looking into that ! but your video restoring this thing inspired me to get my own!

LOL! I subbed so that I don’t miss an STI with a trailer if it happens. Great channel BTW.

Would love to see your ski when it's done! BTW, somebody in my family advised me that the color is closer to Auburn orange. War Eagle! Seriously though, any SEC orange will make your ski 5-10 kts faster.

Thanks Hilton!

Red lead goes on the battery, black lead goes on the engine (spark plug base works great, or you can put it where the ground wire attaches to the engine). Voltage should read the same as when you put the meter directly across the battery terminals. If it's lower reading from engine to battery, then there is extra resistance somewhere.

Donna Price, did you ever figure out what was wrong with your seadoo?

I’m having the same issue right now. What was the issue?

Will do Brian. Every time somebody comments about the orange I give him grief. For the record, I am copying your comment exactly and texting it to him right now.

That's two up-votes for orange...Ed.

Find a free PDF copy of the service manual online and check out the schematic diagram on page 07-01-3. You can see that the stop switch is normally closed and the dead man is normally open. A complete circuit is required for the ski to run and an open circuit kills it. Your situation is that the circuit is always complete which suggests that both switches are bad. I think that's highly unlikely. It could be that you have a bad control module but you should be able to isolate it to either the module or to the wiring/switch circuit outside of the box by disconnecting a bullet connector inside the box. It has black/yellow wire on one side and two wires (black/yellow and black/white) on the other side. With that bullet connecter disconnected the ski should not run. It should crank but not run. Try that and let's discuss. You can also email me if you like. My email is in my profile. Good luck!

"C'mon, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going into Wisconsin." Sounds like an idea for the next video. Thanks for watching!

I’m not sure I understand where you are seeing the oil but I haven’t seen brown gunk buildup on any of mine. You might try checking a couple of forums that specialize in Kawasakis. Good luck!

You should flush the system with fresh water at the end of every day. This is essential in salt water and good practice in fresh water. Some ommon ways to get water in the engine are (1) leaving the flush hose running after shutting off the engine and (2) towing the ski above 5mph without pinching off the correct cooling line. Were you able to get the water out and get it running again?

Sorry I don't. Try the SeaDoo forums or ebay.

Yes it’s the ground wire from the battery. Good luck!

@@StevenVigus I will post a comment after I swap it with the outcome/issue, thanks for the video

If its the sound you hear at 0:23 the answer is I replaced the ground wire from the battery to the engine block.

Check out the PWC or SeaDoo forums. Each has a section called "sticky" that contains FAQs and troubleshooting guides. Good luck!

I knew it! Wait 'till I tell Ed that we found one subscriber who likes the orange! He thinks thinks that I have a fixation with that color because I used to be in the Coast Guard. OK, maybe a little...

Lots of ideas. Too many to include here - I need to make an ignition troubleshooting video. Start with a schematic and trace the signal from the magneto pickup all the way to the plugs is about the best way to summarize. Common problems are the wire from the magneto to the CDI box and bad ground at the CDI box (the wire that goes directly to the battery). Sorry I don't have an easy way to walk you through all the possiblities. You might try one of the SeaDoo or PWC forums.

I’m not the expert but you can probably find one at seadooforum.com or pwctoday.com. The old timers there can tell you what the most common problems are and how to troubleshoot them.

Could be but take a look at the impeller. You could have something wrapped up in in causing cavitation or impeller itself could be damaged. Check out my video on replacing a jet pump.

I would suspect the carb. Rebuild kits are cheap and and it’s a good idea to go through them every few years. That’s going to be a fast ride!

Do you know of a link to a 1996 seado sp fuel line diagram

It's a wear ring that allows for a tight clearance between the outside edge of the impeller and the inside surface of the nozzle. This tight fit makes for maxium thrust. As sand and debris pass through the nozzle over time, the gap gets bigger and eventually you have to replace the wear ring to restore power to the jet. In this case, the plastic (delrin) ring was apparently damaged and it came apart in chunks when we started the engine.I guess it was physically touching the impeller. I picked up this ski super cheap because it wouldn't start. There's another video on my channel that shows what it took to fix the problem. In the end it worked out fine.

That's strange. Sounds like he tried pretty much everything. Sometimes that wire from the stator to the ecu will be corroded or the connector pins will be corroded. It looks like you are getting signal through but the crappy wires have such high resistance that current won't flow. On one of my skis that signal wire was black when I peeled back the insulation, just like the ground wire in the video. Good luck.

Steve Vigus so trying some oem wires? He said it had little bit of spark but not enough! Maybe wrong spark plugs??

If the spark is weak I would look at wires and the spark plug boots. Since he already changed them ask him if he made a fresh cut to the end of the plug wires before screwing in the boots. It might be worth checkin the resistance between the engine head and the battery ground. Shoul be zero. The signal wire from the magneto is usually either good or bad, not in-between since it simply fires the electronic ignition. I don't know if a corroded signal wire could cause a weak spark or not. Never had that problem. If you have any spark I would try a fresh plug and some starting fluid sprayed into the carbs. That will tell you if it's a fuel problem and will allow you to confirm that the spark and timing are good.

Steve Vigus he just put the spark plug wires in. No cut,

Lance, Why do you think it's the crankshaft?

Steve Vigus I can't turn the crank all the way. It hangs up and is really tight.

+Lance Beauchamp that's going to be a fun one. I got lucky - my hang up was caused by the jet pump. Disconnected it and the motor turned over with plugs out and some oil in the cylinders. Sorry I can't recommend a video but let me know how it goes!

I'm thinking of selling it for parts with the trailer. I'm looking for getting another ski hopefully this weekend. It is about 2 hours away but the price is right and the pictures look good. I will keep you updated

Thanks for your help and can't wait to see the next video

Wish I could tell you for sure. I recommend that you join an online forum and read the posts from other people with your exact seadoo model and problem. Somebody will have a troubleshooting flow chart that’s better than the one in the service manual.

Might have to open the bilge and let some ohms drain out. Seriously, I haven't put my hand on a bad ground while cranking. It would be worth the time to test the resistance if you have a mult-meter.

Yes, sorry if that wasn't clear. I found this same problem on two skis.

I would look at the impeller for obstructions (sea grass, fishing line, etc.); check the condition of the impeller and the wear ring; if you have gray fuel lines, see if they are gummed up (I'll save you some time - they are gummed up); rebuild the carbs. Those are the most common culprits.

Touch question. I suggest that you find a support community like GreenHulk or PWCToday. The experts who hang out there have seen virtually any problem that you might encounter. If you do go this route, start out by reading the "stickies" which answer the most common questions, like "Why doesn't my jet ski start?"

Ok thanks

Watch out for gray fuel lines. They flake off and clog up the carbs. If found, I'd suggest replacing with transparent fuel line which won't flake off and also allows you to see fuel cloudiness (water in fuel)

Yes! Gray fuel lines are evil! Whoever decided to put ethanol in our gas should be obligated to come to my garage and replace them all. I run clear lines on motorcycles but I prefer to use marine-rated lines on the ski. It's probably not a big deal since they don't get much UV exposure but I'm conservative when it comes to anything related to fuel in the bilge.

Steve Vigus I also make my own battery cables, due to the issue you found. Hex crimp and adhesive 3:1 shrink wrap, no solder. I've seen not-so-cheap cables at a farm store that had exposed copper at the lug. Buy that and you are a guaranteed return customer.

Ouch. That was the Delrin wear ring. It was crunchy and chunky and it failed as soon as the impeller started turning. There's another video on my channel that shows how to replace the wear ring. No big deal. The part is around $30.

Steve Vigus thanks for the answer and yes I ran into the video very much appreciated !!

Thanks!!

Sorry about that. The cable runs from the negative terminal on the batttery to a bolt on the motor. zit usually corrodes where it attaches to the motor but you can't see it because it's out of the way. Honestly, even if you could see it you probably wouldn't suspect that it's corroded. I go ahead and replace both the the red and the black cable whenever I get a new (20 year old) ski.

Thanks for your reply! Your videos are so helpful and entertaining!! You have an exceptional tv voice and personality. I enjoyed your buddy in the video too. We are buying new skis because we had so many problems last year. But, we also didn't take care of them - never lifted out of lake, never covered, there was always water in the hull. They always took about 5 minutes to start - never figured that out and we had 2 mechanics look at them. Just had to turn it over every 20-30 seconds for about 5 minutes and they would finally start. They always restarted right away after they warmed up, it was just that initial start... I'm going to work on the old ones, if I can get them running I'm going to try your detailing - makeover technique.

Good luck with the new skis. I'm thinking seriously about trying a modern, closed-loop cooled machine one of these days. Problem is, I probably enjoy tinkering with machines as much as I enjoy riding them. No so with my son - he's a speed demon. There are plenty of troubleshooting resources out there but if you get stuck feel free to drop me a note in the comments or via email and I'll see what I can do to help out. Thanks for watching!

Michael atc not much info to go on but I would check the battery, battery connections, ground cable, red cable, connectors/corrosion on both ends of each of those cables, and then move on to the solenoid, lanyard switch, and the cable itself. Assuming the battery is good, then there's a fair chance that something in the circuit is corroded. Do you ride in salt water?

Hey, any luck getting that ski running this weekend?

Your starter could be bad

Idle is probably too low on engine 2, it should be at 2500 out of the water with the hose attached. Does engine 1 have spark?

@@ifixthings86 well got the issue fixed rebuilt carbs new cables took it on water drive for 3 hours boat started acting wierd kinda like choking up at full throttle now have to have new stator which is all the way on the bottom of engine bout done with this thing lol

Lol, yea sometimes boat life can be a pain, stick with it, this boat is a blast! I have a few issues with mine as well. I need to replace a starter this winter, rebuild carbs, and replace at least one wear ring. Hope you get it sorted out!

Ohm that baby out before you give up on it. Corrosion gets into lots of wires on these old skis, not just the ground. Put one lead from your meter on the negative battery terminal and the other on the exposed metal part of the spark plug. It should read less than a few ohms. If it's a big number then you know what the problem is. Good luck!

LOL! Could you tell?