An old friend brought me his 2003 SXr 800. No start situation. He had suspected the electric box solenoid and had replaced it. When activating the handlebar start button, clicking at the solenoid, but no power to the starter. I load-checked the battery and it's fine. I disconnected the starter cable from the electric box and put my known-good 800sxr starter onto it to test. Clicking, but no activation of my starter. I opened up the top of the electric box cap that contains the plugs from the engine. The voltage regulator plug with the black and brown wires was partially melted. Brown burn tint to those opaque white plugs. I noticed a lot of corrosion dust. Electric box removal was next. Once opened up, immediately obvious was the fact that there's been a large amount of water inside the electric box for a good amount of time, so much so that the spacer plate between the igniter box and the coil beneath it was thoroughly rusted. Furthermore, the four prong plug from the ignitor that goes up to the top of the electric box cap had several of the wires melted to the point that the insulation of the wires was gone, exposing the inner wires (which were quite corroded looking). It was obvious that something along the way had caused a short circuit and a large amount of heat transferred, hence the melted insulation on the wires as well as that voltage regular plug plastic being melted. This then caused me concern about what might have happened to the stator. I took the small plastic pug off the stator cover and everything looked fine inside (from what little is visible through that small hole). However, I definitely smelled the gas/oil smell that is indicative of a blown front seal.
The seal and other mechanical issues are no problem for me to fix. However, I am in no way qualified to do any testing of any of the fried electrical components I found. There are numerous aftermarket versions of that electric igniter for sale anywhere from 50-60 bucks all the way to maybe $300. OEM Kawasaki at Parzilla is a whopping 627.59! The voltage regulator wiring, surprisingly, despite the plastic plug being melted, has its insulation intact. Replace it? I'm wondering about that stator and any of the issues that caused the burning of the electric box wiring hurt the stator too. Any thoughts on which direction to tell him to steer to get this thing back on the water?
The seal and other mechanical issues are no problem for me to fix. However, I am in no way qualified to do any testing of any of the fried electrical components I found. There are numerous aftermarket versions of that electric igniter for sale anywhere from 50-60 bucks all the way to maybe $300. OEM Kawasaki at Parzilla is a whopping 627.59! The voltage regulator wiring, surprisingly, despite the plastic plug being melted, has its insulation intact. Replace it? I'm wondering about that stator and any of the issues that caused the burning of the electric box wiring hurt the stator too. Any thoughts on which direction to tell him to steer to get this thing back on the water?
