let's discuss flywheel/stator failures

[McDog]

So a little saltwater got in my flywheel compartment. Culprit was slightly warped sealing surface with cover from shipping damage causing gasket not to seal. Going to oring cover and hoping for the best.

So after tearing through 3 different ignitions I have come to discover that it was either the flywheel or stator in this picture causing no spark on otherwise fine ebox system. My backup stator and flywheel was no better. After getting a third complete system I discovered that the issue was definitely not any of my ebox's.

Can a flywheel even fail? What causes a stator to stop sparking altogether after saltwater exposure? The stators all looked fine.

 

[Harbor]

Going to oring cover and hoping for the best.

Just an FYI, I run the oring cover and add a gasket. Without the gasket it still seeped.

 

[Freakrider]

You can fix a front cover by oil wet sanding it on a flat surface, been there done that, works. Or get a good front cover they work fine.

 

[Citizen]

Hows the clearance on your pickup? I had a small bolt on the stator come loose and bent my pickup back just slightly, was enough to cause same issue it sounds like you are having. I would make sure its in spec and not corroded. Also not sure, but if there is corrosion on the flywheel magnets maybe the pickup isn't getting enough signal to tell your ebox to fire?

 

[McDog]

My cases are bent from shipping damage because it didnt have a flywheel cover on it when shipped to me and must have been dropped. It didnt leak with old oring cover I had on it in last ski but it did with the current setup when I tried to use a regular cover and gasket.

 

[McDog]

They are 62t flywheels so you cant really see the magnets. None to be seen though. Stator had no corrosion either. Nothing bent. My answer has always been buy another system but I'd like to know what is trash and what is good of my left over parts and understand what's going on.

 

[Harbor]

My cases are bent from shipping damage because it didnt have a flywheel cover on it when shipped to me and must have been dropped. It didnt leak with old oring cover I had on it in last ski but it did with the current setup when I tried to use a regular cover and gasket.

Oh ok... got it...

 

[McDog]

Where are my electrics guys?

@augustaf

@waxhead

@The OCD Garage

@JetManiac

 

[Req]

Where are my electrics guys?

@augustaf

@waxhead

@The OCD Garage

@JetManiac

Daytona Free Ride. Dont expect getting any questions answered fast, festivus has commenced.

 

[OCD Solutions]

Well I'm still working...neck deep in engineering drawings and ratty control panels...

 

[McDog]

Daytona Free Ride. Dont expect getting any questions answered fast, festivus has commenced.

No doubt. Especially from jetmaniac. It's his black Friday weekend.

 

[McDog]

Sometimes water makes it into the Flywheel Casing via the Starter interface.

The Yamaha Starter only has one o-ring (as opposed to Kawi Starter with two o-rings) to seal this potental water entry point.

A local rider who builds super reliable engines always places a solid bead of 3 Bond 1211 Sealant on the face of the Starter where it butts-up to the Flywheel Casing. This will prevent any water from entering the Flywheel Casing even when the Engine is completely submerged.

I do the same except silicone works fine too.

 

[TheBuzzard]

salt water in the front cover is not any different than fresh water as far as making the stator stop working
stator windings go bad either by an open circuit(broken wire) or incorrect resistance in the windings. visual condition has nothing to do with nothing. it either does or does not ohm out within the correct specs. I've seen an 09 SJs stator get an open circuit after 3 hrs of use. it looks brand new
if the flywheel magnets lose or don't have enough strength, it wont generate enough spark.
I've heard of a bunch of TBM flywheels not having enough magnet strength, but never a stocker, but its possible. I've heard of old 440/550 jetinetics FWs going bad
i'm not even sure that rusty legs or magnets affect the spark generated. I've seen plenty of rusty crusty crap run just fine.

 

[lil_stewie7]

I had a messed up thread on my cases that caused mine to leak (think old silicone caked in had something to do with it). One helicoil and ran a tap through the rest and dosent leak anymore, I hope.

 

[G-Body]

If anyone is going to sand a cover or set of cases flat so they will seal, the best flat surface to use is a mirror. The thicker the better and tape your sandpaper down to it. Then sand in a figure 8 motion. The figure 8 will keep you sanding an even amount of material off of all the sides and the mirror is almost perfectly flat since any change in thickness of a mirror would distort the reflection.

 

[JetManiac]

salt water in the front cover is not any different than fresh water as far as making the stator stop working
stator windings go bad either by an open circuit(broken wire) or incorrect resistance in the windings. visual condition has nothing to do with nothing. it either does or does not ohm out within the correct specs. I've seen an 09 SJs stator get an open circuit after 3 hrs of use. it looks brand new
if the flywheel magnets lose or don't have enough strength, it wont generate enough spark.
I've heard of a bunch of TBM flywheels not having enough magnet strength, but never a stocker, but its possible. I've heard of old 440/550 jetinetics FWs going bad
i'm not even sure that rusty legs or magnets affect the spark generated. I've seen plenty of rusty crusty crap run just fine.

Agree with buzzard, oem flywheel is unlikely to be the problem and work fine when crusty. Disagree that saltwater is like fresh on a stator. Stator provides grounding for ebox and saltwater corrosion can cause grounding issues with stator to cases, stator ground connection to plate, and coils to plate.

Test stator coils to spec. If you have a no spark condition and it is caused by the stator, then either the charging or pulse coil will read open. Weak or erratic spark is harder to diagose.

 

[TheBuzzard]

sure salt water is more corrosive and will erode metal faster than fresh, but it wont cause instant failure on any of the components behind the cover, any different than fresh. I sold a 440 stator to this idiot that didn't check the air gap . when the stator rubbed, it heated up and unsoldered the wire and it lost spark. is the stator rubs the magnets, excessive heat could cause failure.

 

[Big Kahuna]

I think you have bigger issues when you forget to hook your lanyard up to it.

 

[///M5]

I know this thread is a little old, but I thought I would mention my recent issue to hopefully help someone else out.

I have been working on a 760 Blaster 2 for a week now, and no matter what I did I could not get spark. Using an inline spark tester I could see a very faint signal, which told me its working but not nearly enough juice to spark.

Here is a list of what I did, and none if it fixed my issue.

1. New Plugs. GOOD
2. Removed every component of the E-Box, and cleaned and tested with DMM to factory specs. GOOD
3. Cleaned all the grounds, and checked harness and and stator for bad wiring. GOOD
4. Tested the start stop switch on running skis (also unplugged the black plug). GOOD
5. Took a good running GP 760 removed its electrical, and put the B2's COMPLETE Electrical on it and it fired right up. Took the GP Electrical to the B2 and... NOTHING!
6. I pulled the engine out to see if the starter could have been shorting out. Swapped it with a good known running unit. NOTHING

After doing all of that over and over, and asking people to come over to take a look, nothing I did worked. I finally gave in and dropped my motor and complete electrical to a friend at another shop to take a look at, 30 minutes later he called me to pick it up.

It was the FLYWHEEL...

I couldn't believe it considering mine was in good condition. The flywheel he put in was in the same condition as the one that came out, but mine was somehow bad. He previously told me to try changing it because he ran into an issue like this with a 62T FW, but that one had rust so I didn't think it could be my issue. I wasted days diagnosing this thing, and even threw some cash at it.

Anyway, all is good now and I will always swap out the flywheel if everything else checks out good.