Hello all I have a stock 96 superjet when I go to start it sometimes if it doesn’t start right away after a few seconds of cranking the positive wire from the ebox starts smoking and becomes hot, all my connections and grounds are clean and good and corrosion free, but my battery is starting to go bad and doesn’t hold much of a charge and doesn’t crank at full force could a bad battery itself cause this or is there a different underlying cause? Any info on this would be great thanks
Super Jet Starter wire smoking
- Thread starter Afed24
- Start date
- Location
- Western NY
Might be more likely that your battery is fine and your starter is going bad, making it crank slow and draw a ton of current. If you have a multimeter you could check battery voltage and starter motor resistance
If the whole length of the red cable is getting hot....u can be sure the battery is pushing a crap load of amps out....meaning the starter motor is binding or engine is tighter than normal so check that. or, if only a localised part of the cable is getting hot...either just after the battery lug, or just as it goes into the ebox. or after the ebox toward the starter.....then likely there is a high resistance joint at either end....meaning sulphation inside the lugs has occurred which = bad joint.....cut lug off and re-do.
- Location
- South Africa
Try new cables 1st, could be rotting internally
Thanks for the responses guys, I’ll try checking cables and getting new ones. Also the cable gets extremely hot at the end near the connection on the starter itself but only warm by the ebox so I’m guessing that means the end by the starter is bad?
- Location
- Granbury, TX
Sounds like your cables are fit for the garbage. Replace the power and ground cables.
Ok so I took the starter out and I also tested the cable going from the ebox to the starter and I cut it back about 1” bc the end so was badly corroded it was getting flashy readings of up to 4.04 resistance but averaged in the 3.xx. I’m assuming that much resistance is extremely bad and was part of the problem. Is there a way for me to test the starter with it out and know if the starter is bad? I will replace the battery cables if necessary but all of them are clean now and reading 0.00 on resistance. Haven’t gotten to put the starter in and test it like that but I don’t want to since the starter is out unless I can bench test it somehow. Any help is appreciated thanks
- Location
- Granbury, TX
If the starter was still turning fast enough to crank your ski it's probably good. You can always bench test with jumper cables and your ski battery.
Great, I can bench test now and see. How will I know if it’s good during the bench test? Also where can I get a good set of all new cables for the ski for a decent price. Gonna replace all battery cables and starter cable while
I’m in there
- Location
- Western NY
If your cable had 3-4ohms that was probably your problem.
Awesome. Good to hear, gonna order some cables tonight then. What company sells some for a good price or where can I get some if there’s an alternative? Thanks.
- Location
- Canberra, Australia.
Jet Maniac (on this site) or Jet Ski Solutions will get you fixed up.