DESS issues with 2007 Wake 215

[Titaniumboy]

I only did two cycles of starting and vacuuming out oil on my recent oil change instead of 3 or 4 cycles because the ski only gave one long beep when attaching the lanyard.

I had the same problem a couple of weeks ago where I would only get one long beep instead of the normal two beeps. Eventually I got the normal two beeps with a bunch of lanyard attachment attempts. I could tell no difference between the normal key and the learning key.

Now I am getting about a 20-40% success rate when attaching a lanyard. Sometimes I will get a long beep initially, but can get two beeps to occur if I immediately wiggle the key.

I have the 2008 service manual (this manual seems to be the correct one for my 07 GTX 215 Wake) and am trying to follow the procedure for testing out the DESS post. I have disconnected the six pin connector in the front compartment, but I am not sure how to probe that connector in order to take resistance readings. The connector has a white rubber membrane with six holes in it so I can’t actually see whether there are male or female pins.

What are others using on this connector when they are testing the DESS post?

 

[Titaniumboy]

The six pin connector turns out to be a Deutsch connector and the white membrane is really orange. There is an orange rubber membrane and also a plastic orange piece on top.

 

[Titaniumboy]

The orange plastic piece is called a “secondary lock”. It is easily removed by wedging a small flathead screwdriver between the secondary lock and the orange rubber, and then twisting. The orange rubber is not damaged by this because the screwdriver is going in a little past the orange rubber and so never gets pried on.

Once the secondary lock is removed, the terminals are out in the open.




All the DESS post tests in the service manual came out great except for the two tests where resistance is measured between the Deutsch connector pins and the DESS post and ring. Resistance between these two points is supposed to be essentially zero ohms. Depending on where I was on the post or ring I would get either get zero ohms or dozens of ohms or anything in between.

The DESS post looks shiny and pristine, but is acting like there is an invisible oxide layer that is giving inconsistent resistance measurements. I figured I would hit the DESS post with some contact cleaner and see what happens.

I reconnected the two Deutsch connectors in the front compartment and now the DESS keys are giving me two normal beeps virtually all the time. I went from a 20-40% success rate when attaching the key to at least a 90% success rate. And that is without using any contact cleaner yet.

Not sure what happened exactly, but I am now a happy camper.