1992 XP No Spark!

[JDolson 22]

This is my first post, so if i messed up please let me know! Ok, I have a 1992 seadoo XP that me and my friends bought for $100, knowing it needed a drive shaft seal and carb cleaning. The seller was very helpful and informative and didn't seem to be hiding anything. Anyway, we attempted to start it and it cranked over nicely but there was no spark. I changed the plugs and still no spark. I pulled the gray box apart and it looked brand new inside, i checked the fuses and they were good. i changed the ignition coil and yet again, no spark. The seller was surprised when i told him about the no spark issue. I believe the ski was left out in the elements uncovered, so could it be a switch? When i turn it over and hold the stop button, the starter motor stops. Does anyone have any ideas that be helpful? Thank you in advanced!

 

[Dr Honda]

Do you have a lanyard on the post?? The early skis will crank with it off... but you won't have a spark.

 

[JDolson 22]

Do you have a lanyard on the post?? The early skis will crank with it off... but you won't have a spark.

There is two posts, one to start and one the safety lanyard goes on. The ski won't crank without the saftey post pushed in.

 

[RodInEscondido]

No magical solution here; look at the electrical diagram in the service/shop manual (here as premium member or on-line). Could be magneto area, MPEM, connections, grounds. A common hint is to pull plug wires out of sparkplug connector and cut back about 1/4 inch and reconnect, probably not if no spark on both plugs but good to do anyway.

 

[Bills86e]

Unplug the connector with the clear sleeve between the mpem and coil. If it now has spark, its a bad MPEM.
I'd suggest a '93 or '94 580cc replacement.

Bills86e

 

[JDolson 22]

-I did cut 1/4" off the wire ends and there was no luck, I changed the ignition and that didn't work either.

-This clear connector you are talking about is in the gray box, correct? The MPEM is the ignition coil itself?

I will be looking at the ski tomorrow since I have off, so hopefully I will have some luck.

 

[Bills86e]

Yes. Remove the battery, then pull back the tab on the floor shoe to release the box, cut any zip ties that may prevent you from lifting the box up to the top of the magneto housing where you will split the box open to access the contents.

Bills86e

 

[JDolson 22]

I'm not sure what happen, but my friend and I went to test it again last night and there was a strong spark on both plugs. I didn't change anything and i did the same procedure as i did in the past. Thank you for the input everyone and i will keep your ideas in mind for the next ski that loses a spark!

 

[Minnetonka4me]

I can tell you right now its going to be intermittent. Ive delt with this before. You will need an MPEM. As Bill said the 92 MPEM sucked. I have a 93-94 in stock if/when you want to replace it.

 

[tomski]

I had a weird situation where ,when I cranked over the engine, I didn't have a spark....until I ,for one reason or another,hit the kill switch, would have spark till the engine wound down...I changed the mpem unit out from a '93...all systems back to normal except lost the rev limiter. This machine ran like new before the loss of spark issue then the mpem change out. I wonder if the loss of the rev limiter in that mpem unit will cause this machine not to run as well as it did 2 seasons ago.

 

[mikidymac]

At some year they changed the switch from normally open to normally closed or maybe it was the other way around. This could be causing your symptoms.

Also seadoo made a lot of year to year electrical changes so in general it isn't a good idea to swap MPEM's from year to year.

 

[tomski]

Would you know where I could find a MPEM for the '92? ...it had 10 leads coming off of it and the '93 has 9 leads that's where I had some confusion but the wiring seem to be able to go together....