TL trouble shoot

[Pablo]

Ski was running great (has been for 2 months). Got a analog TL. Batt w/ fresh charge. Was jumping wakes and landing without sub-ing or anything special. Landed on last jump and dumped it. Went to start and had no spark. My bilge was still spinning, but couldn't get the starter to turn over and the brain light would flicker a little bit. Haven't had time to mess with it all week and tomorrow is Saturday (a.k.a time to ride).
I know I need to inspect all my connections, but where is a good place to start and what is the best path to take to systematically rule out common probs? On initial glance I don't see any severed connects or seperated splices. All my connects are soldered and coated with heat shrink.

 

[Waternut]

First thing I would do is lay both plugs on the head and physically see if they're sparking when you crank it. If nothing, check the pickup wires. If you don't see any problems, Connect an ohm meter to the pickup wires...set the scale to the 100/200 range (not any higher) and turn the engine slowly by hand (plugs out so it's easier). If the resistance jumps a tiny bit when the flywheel pickup passes over the TL pickup, that means the pick up is good and the problem is somewhere else.

I'll try to drop by later this afternoon and see how it's coming.

 

[Pablo]

The ski won't turn over. No juice anywhere except to the bilge. I'm gonna get into it (hopefully) around 2pm. I'll be in the yard.

 

[Waternut]

Are all your power wires still hooked up to the solenoid? Might be as simple as the wire from your starter button fell off.

 

[augustaf]

Yamaha bat ground cables have a nasty habit rotting off at the terminal which attaches to the upper starter motor lug( the one you can't see under the xhaust) . A quick test for that is to run a temporary jumper cable from bat negative (-) to anywheres on the engine. The battery might have failed internally too -even though it still runs the bilge. Just hook up jumpers and try again to test for that.

 

[McDog]

Yamaha bat ground cables have a nasty habit rotting off at the terminal which attaches to the upper starter motor lug( the one you can't see under the xhaust) . A quick test for that is to run a temporary jumper cable from bat negative (-) to anywheres on the engine. The battery might have failed internally too -even though it still runs the bilge. Just hook up jumpers and try again to test for that.

That's a good idea. Remember when my starter wouldn't turn and it turned out to be the negative battery cable? I have an extra by the way, let me know if you need it.

 

[Pablo]

all right, I've been giving the ski a looksee this afternoon and can't find a loose connection. Batt still has a good charge and brain LED comes on and off with the toggle switch. However when I connect the lanyard to the start/stop the brain light goes off as if I had just flipped the toggle. WTF? The bilge still spins great and the brain LED is bright (not flickering or dim). Any suggestions are welcome. I want to ride bad.

Thanks

 

[Talsivar]

did you try what was sugessted above about the ground wire? the connection doesn't have to be loose for the ground wire to be bad. they rot out from the inside. I've had to replace them in both my superjets this year.

 

[crammit442]

all right, I've been giving the ski a looksee this afternoon and can't find a loose connection. Batt still has a good charge and brain LED comes on and off with the toggle switch. However when I connect the lanyard to the start/stop the brain light goes off as if I had just flipped the toggle. WTF? The bilge still spins great and the brain LED is bright (not flickering or dim). Any suggestions are welcome. I want to ride bad.

Thanks

Try unplugging your stop switch(black/white).

 

[Pablo]

found it boys...I had a corroded lead (black wire) from the start/stop to the solenoid. It had broke loose inside the wire housing/heat shrink tubing. Thanks for the replies. I did check the starter lug connection first and worked my way backwards from batt to eventually find it.