ScarabMike
Jetboaters Admiral
- Messages
- 2,223
- Reaction score
- 2,061
- Points
- 302
- Location
- Green Cove Springs, FL
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2022
- Boat Model
- AR
- Boat Length
- 19
This is for all of you Rotax powered boats, and PWCs.
This weekend I finished some good TLC on my Scarab. I washed it, and was going to run the engine to check my fluids. I ran into this problem, and the solution was cheap, but not easy to find at all. I figure I would pass this along.
Let me give you a back story so you guys can read the symptoms.
Over the winter my boat got minimal usage. I would run the engine once a couple weeks to get some fluid though it. About 2 months ago, I started to notice that there was times where my boat would not fire or crank on the first try with the key. I would finally get it to go after a couple, sometimes a few more.
Finally this weekend it wouldn't crank at all.
I checked the breakers in the battery switch panel, and checked all of the fuses, and connections. All good.
I checked all of the grounds, and cables from the battery to the starter. This lead me to believe that the starter solenoid was bad. This is located on the rear fuse box, and has 2 red cables attached to it. You can bypass this, and test the starter by touching both sides of it. This will make your starter turn. If this happens, then you know your starter is good.
Ok, so that led me to believe that my starter solenoid was bad, no biggie. You can get a new one online for a few bucks. Here is what it looks like. (but this was not the problem)
Now, here is here i found out that even though it had all the symptoms, the solenoid wasn't the issue.
If you place your key on "run" position, and you bypass the solenoid, the engine will crank and start IF the solenoid was the issue, guess what, it did not run.
Here was the solution after a few hours troubleshooting......
In the rear fuse box, there are two relays. They will both click. This will make you believe that they are good to go. One says engine ignition, the other says boat electrical or in my seadoo it says Canbus relay.
To test these you have to physically pull them out. shake them and listen carefully. If one of these fail especially the boat electrical one, the engine will prep itself, the cluster will sweep, and then it will not crank.
Here is a picture of this relay. It is a $4 part, and the dealers will want to charge you $40-50 for it, plus 2 hours of labor to replace it.
I advise all of you to keep a couple handy in your emergency equipment in your watercraft. These will cause you some headaches, and a ton of cash to fix. Especially with Scarab, Glastron, and Chaparral dealers that are not knowledgeable as they should be.
This weekend I finished some good TLC on my Scarab. I washed it, and was going to run the engine to check my fluids. I ran into this problem, and the solution was cheap, but not easy to find at all. I figure I would pass this along.
Let me give you a back story so you guys can read the symptoms.
Over the winter my boat got minimal usage. I would run the engine once a couple weeks to get some fluid though it. About 2 months ago, I started to notice that there was times where my boat would not fire or crank on the first try with the key. I would finally get it to go after a couple, sometimes a few more.
Finally this weekend it wouldn't crank at all.
I checked the breakers in the battery switch panel, and checked all of the fuses, and connections. All good.
I checked all of the grounds, and cables from the battery to the starter. This lead me to believe that the starter solenoid was bad. This is located on the rear fuse box, and has 2 red cables attached to it. You can bypass this, and test the starter by touching both sides of it. This will make your starter turn. If this happens, then you know your starter is good.
Ok, so that led me to believe that my starter solenoid was bad, no biggie. You can get a new one online for a few bucks. Here is what it looks like. (but this was not the problem)
Now, here is here i found out that even though it had all the symptoms, the solenoid wasn't the issue.
If you place your key on "run" position, and you bypass the solenoid, the engine will crank and start IF the solenoid was the issue, guess what, it did not run.
Here was the solution after a few hours troubleshooting......
In the rear fuse box, there are two relays. They will both click. This will make you believe that they are good to go. One says engine ignition, the other says boat electrical or in my seadoo it says Canbus relay.
To test these you have to physically pull them out. shake them and listen carefully. If one of these fail especially the boat electrical one, the engine will prep itself, the cluster will sweep, and then it will not crank.
Here is a picture of this relay. It is a $4 part, and the dealers will want to charge you $40-50 for it, plus 2 hours of labor to replace it.
I advise all of you to keep a couple handy in your emergency equipment in your watercraft. These will cause you some headaches, and a ton of cash to fix. Especially with Scarab, Glastron, and Chaparral dealers that are not knowledgeable as they should be.
