No Spark Verified... Culprit?

[Th3 VVay]

Hi all,

New member here, although I have been lurking around the forums for some time. I bought a 1990 Superjet 650 last summer and now I'm hooked. Most of the time I can get my questions answered by searching, but this one has me a little stumped. I just pulled the ski out of storage a month ago and its been giving me starting problems on and off. First time I took it out for the year, it ran great even with the old gas (winterized and stabil added before storage). When I woke up the next day, I filled up with a fresh tank and it ran great for an hour or so. Went and ate lunch and came back to it not starting. I figured maybe the plugs fouled (I was running it hard though so they shouldn't have). So I ran into town got a new set and replaced them. It started back up and ran fine the rest of the day. The following morning I go to start it and it does the same thing and won't start even with another set of new plugs. I trailer it home and use an inline spark tester and find no spark. I went outside today and it started right up again. So I'm thinking its stator or CDI is going bad. So here's my questions:

1) Anyone ever have them go in and out like this before failing completely?
2)Right now its running, so if I measure resistance or voltage over the various coils, will it show that they are bad?
3)What kind of values am I looking for on the exciter coil and do I measure resistance (ohms) or voltage and over what wires? I believe this part is responsible for feeding the voltage to the CDI before being turned into spark by the pulsar coil (correct me if I'm wrong).
4)When checking the pulsar coil, what kind of voltage or resistance am I looking for and what wires?
5)How do I check the CDI, again what wires am I looking for what values when taking a measurement?
6)Are all of these components (minus the CDI) part of the stator? So I would remove the flywheel cover to find them?

Any input would be appreciated. I know I have the ability to fix this if you all could point me in the right direction. I've tried to narrow it down as much as possible by searching and doing my own legwork to give everyone a good idea as to whats going on with it. Thanks.

 

[simofx-1]

could be the start/stop seems to be a common spark related problem, i wouldnt bother pulling ebox untill that was cheaked, and you mite want to cut back your spark leeds as well to get a fresh conection

 

[Th3 VVay]

Okay I will try cutting the spark leads the spark leads. But I did read about the kill switch, but I thought when they go bad it just prevents the kill switch from functioning. So if I would pull the lanyard or hit the stop button it would continue to run. Your saying when they go bad it causes the scenario I described above?

 

[Th3 VVay]

So I borrowed a buddys start/stop switch that is known to work and tested that out. Still having the same issues with it starting occasionally and other times not. Each time it won't start, the spark plug tester indicates no spark present. So I tore into the ebox and found quite a bit of corrosion. See photos below...

In these last two pictures, I see what looks like grounding screws. The rusted screw below the blue one actually had arc damage and part of the Philips head insert was actually welded shut from the arcs apparently happening.

So now I'm stuck. I am thinking my best bet is to just find a good condition used ebox on ebay. I'm sure I can find the exact part that is going bad but who's to say something else won't go bad next. Whats everyone's thoughts? Try to restore this or just get a new box with all working components? Is there a possibility that its still a stator issue or do you feel pretty confident my issue is within the ebox? HELP PLEASE! Thanks!

 

[Th3 VVay]

Thanks for the help guys I got it figured out. It ended up being the killswitch (go figure, should have been the first thing i checked). The problem was with tether portion. When the tether is pulled from the clip, it springs inward and compresses a set of contacts to kill the engine. When I would reinsert the tether, the contacts would only spring back halfway. In this halfway position it allowed the engine to turn over but no spark would occur. I disasembled with portion of the killswitch, sanded and cleaned the contacts and filled with dielectric grease. Works great now.

On a side note, I have been using quicksilver full synthetic that I purchased at walmart, and have run a gallon that through it. I just realised this is not tcw3 oil. Only their semi syn is. Could this cause any damage to the engine I should watch out for? Ill be switching to quicksilver synthetic blend or penzoil that is tcw3 rated.