Starter / Slave Solenoid / 2004 Seadoo Islandia Mercury 240hp 2 Gen

[SeptemberC]

Saturday evening after a few hours on the water and everything was fine, we turned the engine off. After about 30 mins we attempted to start it. Just turned the key 2 times and gave up. NOTHING from the starter and the starter was HOT! Got a tow home.
Sunday we replaced the starter and had same result. Nothing from the starter. Attempted to jump starter by crossing the slave solenoid and we burned up the (yellow/red) wire going to the starter.
We replaced the wire and replaced the slave solenoid today. When we turned the key the yellow/red wire burned up again.
Engine spins freely. Not hydro-Locked. Jet pump is clear. This is definitely an electrical issue.

The yellow/red wire should be the ignition wire….

We are STUMPED as to what to do now. What do we check? What went bad to cause the original no starter problem? What’s wrong now that the wire keeps burning up?

Please give me your thoughts.

UPDATE: I can’t stress this enough! READ your service manual. FOLLOW the wiring diagram! It’s hard to tell from my pictures but we had power direct from battery to the slave solenoid instead of to the starter where the manual CLEARLY shows it!
I need to tell myself… calm down, follow the manual, don’t assume anything.

 

[ripcuda]

Same result with a new starter... hmm. I'd be pulling the spark plugs and ensuring the engine is able to crank over smoothly/easily with no compression. If still struggling to crank... possible jet pump issues. Maybe something jammed in there. Or bad-case... jet pump gear failure.

Good luck.

 

[Tim75]

Update: Issue #1 - the solenoid on the starter we just put on was rotated 180°. Therefore when the wires were put back on (matching what was just taken off) they were essentially backwards.

#2 - we still had no start. We ran through the checklist I’m attaching in the pictures and when we got to Test 6 the ignition failed. We now have an ignition on order.

Solenoid not wired right. The 2 large primary cables definitely do not belong on the same terminal.
Solenoid in only a relay to use key switch current to control starter current. The solenoid is an old Ford design and should be wired the same.

 

[Tim75]

Tim, I know this is a dumb question but I’m not near my boat at the time? What’s your guess that those 2 leads are?

The 2 large red wires --
one goes to the battery (or master switch), the other goes to the lug on the side of the starter near the bottom end.

(based on my 2.5L EFI Gen 1 engine.)

After studying pix again----
It looks like you have a starter similar to old style GM with integrated solenoid.

Your (old Ford) style solenoid is just a relay. The solenoid on the old GM style starter did what the other solenoid did AND pull the starter gear into the flywheel.

I have never seen a system with 2 solenoids.

OK, again looking at wire diagram----
Large black wires from + battery should be red. like on the engine.

2 primary wires to solenoid on starter, on the same terminal. One primary goes back down to slave (Ford style). The yel/red wire from slave solenoid up to starter energize terminal. At this point, the yel/red wire should only be carrying the energize current to starter solenoid.

Key switch controls the slave solenoid. The slave solenoid activates the starter solenoid, which activates the starter.

More parts lead to more failures. Overly complicated.

 

[Tim75]

Update: I had the starter rebuilt. The shop told me that the solenoid on the starter failed and engaged and practically melted everything inside.

We now have a problem that the starter is getting grounded and burning up the yellow wire with red stripe. We have searched and searched for where it’s getting grounded.
Help! Anyone else ever had this problem?

First thought is y/r wire is pinched somewhere. Is there an extra loop that is pinched behind something?
Maybe the other y/r wire to the start-in-gear switch in the shifter is touching something it should not be. If it touches the shift or throttle control cable, those actually do ground to the engine.