550 Starter Problems

[ger87410]

'87 JS550

Pull the spark plugs...
The engine turns by hand.
Push the start button, and it acts like the battery is dead. The starter will just barely engage, and will not turn over even a slight bit.
Short the starter directly to the battery and she'll turn over fast.

It still might be the battery. I'm thinking maybe the other electronics are taking enough juice from the battery for the starter to work right. Can I take a jump starter for a car and try starting the battery, or will that jack the electronics?

If it's not the battery, what else could it be? The solenoid?

 

[32vickie]

Check for a good ground at the starter.

 

[ger87410]

Thanx for the reply!

I should have mentioned that the ski used to work until very recently when it started having those problems. I first blamed the battery...

I would hope it's got good ground at the starter. The starter is bolted directly to the engine. It only has 1 wire going to the starter, and that's the positive wire coming off (I think) the solenoid. Is it suppose to have a ground wire running to it?

I will kinda take your advice and verify the ground wire for the engine is good.

Thanx for any and all input!!

 

[32vickie]

Check the ground wire at the block, try to start it. then take a wire from the negative battery to the bolts on the starter and see if it turns over if it does then the area between the starter and the bell housing needs to be cleaned with sand paper to get a good ground. If it doesn't turn over fast then check all of the positive wires. Keep us informed as to how it is going.

 

[Endo]

Also check the positive where it attaches to the e-box and then exits to the starter. These area's are prone to corrosion build up. And as jumping seems to work I would say it is in that electrical path somewhere.

 

[ger87410]

Thanx for the reply!!

I pulled the wire going to the positive end on the starter to short it to the positive battery terminal and I did not notice any type of corrosion. I'll check it again when I get home.

I was thinking that since it works fine when jumped, it probably wouldn't be the ground wire either. I'll check it anyways. I'm blaming something in the path the positive takes, but am unclear what's involved. My next step, after running those tests and seeing if the starter switch is the culprit, is looking at a wiring diagram and testing each component in the path.

I was hoping this would be a fairly common problem that someone would jump in and say 'oh, just do such-and-such and she'll work perfect again'. That type of thing's a pipe dream, huh?

I'm at work now and don't get off for another 5.5 hours, and it's raining here. I'll do my best to run those tests before bedtime...


Thanx for the input!!!

 

[Scraggly]

corrosion is sneaky, it can be up in the wires under the shielding and you will never see it.

 

[ger87410]

Thanks for the tip, X2!!!
I got a tiny bit of testing in yesterday.

I tested the switch and that was fine.

I Tried shorting the starter out to the battery again, and this time the starter wouldn't budge. It's a new to me Goki starter. The battery was on the charger half of Sunday and all of that night. It hasn't been on the charger since yesterday morning. I don't think the battery is holding a charge.

The wires are extremely clean. I didn't even see the slightest sign of corrosion. I'd have to cut the heat-shrink to get a better look at the wires themselves. I'm not ready to do that just yet. I'm going to try replacing the battery first.

I'm blaming the battery at this point.

Thanx guys! I'll post again after running the rest of those tests tonight.

 

[ger87410]

Well, there's the problem...

Got a new battery today and this is what I found out.

My new to me goki starter (I bought it last month from the other forum) doesn't work. :banghead: I never got it to work right. It doesn't work pulled from the engine and hooked straight to the battery. Drat!

The original starter jumped like I hit it with a defibrillator when I hooked it up to the battery out of the engine.

Now I have to hook everything back up and see if she starts right. The starter's already turned the engine, so that works hooked straight to the battery.

This has been a learning experience...

 

[ger87410]

It was the battery.....

That also means that my wife's ski's battery is also dead. That was the battery I put in there to test it when this problem first happened...

Oh well.... Anyone know how much it costs to refab a starter?

 

[Scraggly]

you can pick up a used one pretty cheap i just sold one for 30 bux.