97 Sportster not starting - possibly relay

[jnf426]

Hi All!
We bought this cute little jet boat that has been nothing but a money pit. Hoping someone can help with the newest issue...

Left the battery hooked up by accident before sitting for about 45 day. Battery died but we recharged and went to start before we took it out on the water. Turned over a few times but never started up and then got weaker like the battery didn't have enough juice. Charged again and even tried to jump but now it won't turn over and just does a single click when ignition button is held down. The place that worked on it last just had a policy change and won't work on this year of boat anymore. They said over the phone that it sounded like a relay so before I pull my hair out is this something that a person with basic mechanic skills could change out? Or any other ideas of the problem. So frustrating that it turned over at first and just couldn't catch.

Help! I just want to get on the water

 

[anmut]

I would start with a new battery, sounds like that thing might be dust. Also, make sure none of your battery connections are corroded, clean them if they are. Make sure all your black (negative/ground) connections in the boat are solid.

 

[Scottintexas]

glad to have you on board, update your profile with your location so we know where your at,

sorry to hear you have a money pit,

I wouldn't put much stock in what they told you on the phone, they wanted to say anything to make you hang up and go away, normally a "relay" is an easy thing to change.

I agree with anmut, test your battery or better yet just replace it so you know you have a good starting point,

if you don't want to do things yourself you could try a jetski shop since your boat is basically a big ski, they may be more likely to work on older stuff since there are still a lot of 2 stroke skis around, I wouldn't start the conversation with "do you work on boats" because that will get you a quick "NO", I'd start with "do you work on 2 stroke sea-doos"

 

[jnf426]

Thanks for the advice. I swear this boat is out to get me. Used to start no problem but had an impeller issue that finally was fixed and now this. Was reading some other posts and wanted your opinion... We had hooked up the hose so we wouldn't run it hot in the driveway here in 90 degree temps. Someone said if it didn't turn over we could have backflowed water into the engine. Could that be the problem? Does that happen and how do you tell/fix?

 

[Scottintexas]

I'm not a sea-doo/brp 2 stroke guy so I can't answer that intelligently, I'm not sure if it's different than Yamaha 4 strokes.

if they do function that way it could create that issue, If it was an issue you could take the spark plugs out and crank the engine, if water came out of the spark plug holes you'd know that you had a water ingestion issue,

how long did you have the hose running before you turned it off? 2 minutes or 20 minutes? Do you have strong water pressure?

right now I think I'd at least test the battery if not replace it,

Don't you have two engines? is each engine doing the same thing?

 

[Tina O]

I bought a1997 seadoo challenger myself about 4 months ago and it's been a nightmare. One thing after another. I just changed the battery, plugs, cables, solinoid and now it makes no click at all. So frustrating. Now its stuck outing the water