Ski won’t start

[E350]

The only thing that should come out of the pulse line is air. Take your spark plugs out and disconnect them from the spark plug wires. Disconnect the pulse line from the carb and crank the engine over and see how much gasoline comes out of your crank case. Be careful. It could ignite.

You may want to see what these guys said about my fuel in the pulse line issue here:

Fuel in Crankcase

My highest use on any forum is to ask the stupid questions. This post displays my stupid actions so that others may learn. I am not sure of the cause, but my guess is the answer is found in @JC-SuperJet 's post below. Over the two years which we haven't ridden the 550sx, the ambient temperature...

www.x-h2o.com

 

[ECXJ5280]

The only thing that should come out of the pulse line is air. Take your spark plugs out and disconnect them from the spark plug wires. Disconnect the pulse line from the carb and crank the engine over and see how much gasoline comes out of your crank case. Be careful. It could ignite.

You may want to see what these guys said about my fuel in the pulse line issue here:

Fuel in Crankcase

My highest use on any forum is to ask the stupid questions. This post displays my stupid actions so that others may learn. I am not sure of the cause, but my guess is the answer is found in @JC-SuperJet 's post below. Over the two years which we haven't ridden the 550sx, the ambient temperature...

www.x-h2o.com

Thank you! Drained my bottom end which had much more fuel than I thought. Put a good carb on it, swapped back the other electronics and it fired right up! Need to rebuild my original carb(think too much fuel is going through) and probably a top end soon, but for now I’m happy it is running. Once again, thank you for the help!

 

[wmazz]

This must be a 1986 to 1990 JS550

Ran when the guy jumped it and started it.

Brought it home and I have been trying to get it to run but it won’t. It has spark, air, and fuel.

It runs, you saw it running. You just don't know the
secret handshake

This is what happens with 550's. Only their owners know
how to start them.

If you let a friend ride it, you start the ski and your friend
has a great time on it until he falls down and the engine
quits before it circled back. Then you tow your friend
back to shore.


Bill M.

For those that think an air leak will cause a seizure, look
at 440 and 550's that will happily run WOT all day long
with massive air leaks and not seize.

Although 86' thru 90' 550's have several problems besides
air leaks.

 

[E350]

I want to take my '93 550sx to Riverside and have @wmazz tune it!
(But $5/gal gas makes that impractical...)

 

[mthomps]

This must be a 1986 to 1990 JS550



It runs, you saw it running. You just don't know the
secret handshake

This is what happens with 550's. Only their owners know
how to start them.

If you let a friend ride it, you start the ski and your friend
has a great time on it until he falls down and the engine
quits before it circled back. Then you tow your friend
back to shore.


Bill M.

For those that think an air leak will cause a seizure, look
at 440 and 550's that will happily run WOT all day long
with massive air leaks and not seize.

Although 86' thru 90' 550's have several problems besides
air leaks.

Well that solves it. Throw them out or make your worst enemy ride it

 

[fastgtfairlane]

Piston port 550s are quite finicky especially with the "bn" carb on it. They have a very weak pulse signal especially the 44 carb. Wouldn't be a bad idea to look for an adapter and swap to a sbn 44 carb. Has a much better fuel pump, internal restrictor, and tunable jets. All around better, more reliable setup and worth doing asap. Since it's atleast 32 years old, if the engine hasn't been gone through with 100psi per cylinder I'd expect to be going through it sooner than later. Stock piston port should be in the 120-130psi range. A low reading could be a gauge issue though. Main concern is each cylinder reads the same or within 5 psi.

 

[ECXJ5280]

This must be a 1986 to 1990 JS550



It runs, you saw it running. You just don't know the
secret handshake

This is what happens with 550's. Only their owners know
how to start them.

If you let a friend ride it, you start the ski and your friend
has a great time on it until he falls down and the engine
quits before it circled back. Then you tow your friend
back to shore.


Bill M.

For those that think an air leak will cause a seizure, look
at 440 and 550's that will happily run WOT all day long
with massive air leaks and not seize.

Although 86' thru 90' 550's have several problems besides
air leaks.

It is an '85. Slowly learning the handshake but I got it to start pretty well before tearing it down for a top end and carb rebuild.

 

[ECXJ5280]

Piston port 550s are quite finicky especially with the "bn" carb on it. They have a very weak pulse signal especially the 44 carb. Wouldn't be a bad idea to look for an adapter and swap to a sbn 44 carb. Has a much better fuel pump, internal restrictor, and tunable jets. All around better, more reliable setup and worth doing asap. Since it's atleast 32 years old, if the engine hasn't been gone through with 100psi per cylinder I'd expect to be going through it sooner than later. Stock piston port should be in the 120-130psi range. A low reading could be a gauge issue though. Main concern is each cylinder reads the same or within 5 psi.

That was my thinking. I went ahead and tore it apart after getting it running and am putting a new top end in it. Tested both cylinders with two different compression testers and got the same results. On the hunt for a nice sbn44, but for now I'm gonna rebuild the bn and ride it until winter.

 

[fastgtfairlane]

Before putting too much effort in the piston port engine, consider doing a 650 or 750 swap. 650 will be simplest and 10x more reliable. Adapter plates can be found pretty inexpensive. Will just need a 650 exhaust, stock pipe will work fine and can be modified relatively easily for more power. Then would just need a good skattrak stainless 18-19 pitch impeller to put the power to the water.

 

[wmazz]

It is an '85. Slowly learning the handshake but I got it to start pretty well before tearing it down for a top end and carb rebuild.

Half measures is only going to get you more problems
and headaches.

We know what causes the problems. We know how to
fix them right,. We know how to make them reliable,
last for years, and be confident to let a beginner ride
it because they can thrash it, screw up, and have a great
time without any problems.

We may have different opinions of what our favorite
550 consists of, but that is ok.


Bill M.

 

[totor93]

J'ai acheté ce ski hier matin. Couru quand le gars l'a sauté et l'a commencé. Je l'ai ramené à la maison et j'ai essayé de le faire fonctionner mais ça ne marche pas. Il a une étincelle, de l'air et du carburant. Quel pourrait être mon problème ? J'ai ajusté le timing au réglage approprié, mais pour une raison quelconque, il ne se retourne pas. Des idées?

Bonjour, moi en france je fais si j'ai de l'étincelle. Je retire les durites au carbu je met un petit peux d'essence mélanger a l'huile dans les cylindres le jet devrait démarrer quelle que seconde. Si il démarre = probleme carbu si il demarre pas du tout = probleme Piston et/ou cylindre et/ou segments et/ou villebrequin. Par contre si tu n'a pas d'étincelle probleme électrique (bobine haute tension / stator / cdi etc...)