Scarab 195 will not start

[Carlos Alfonso]

Hi Everyone,

I am wondering if anyone has had any issues with the ignition switch of a Scarab 195 2014 or similar.

About a couple months ago, the switch started giving trouble. Although I had the throttle handle in neutral, and the safety clip in place, I had to move the handle back and forth and try several times until the engine turned on. Battery is fine.

Last week that little trick did not work any more and the engine will not start at all. A friend checked the sensor but found no trouble with it. He was even able to induce the start signal to the engine and start it.

Any ideas what could it be? What else can I check?

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide me.

Carlos

 

[Yan Masse]

I am sorry to say that I have no idea.

I guess you are still under warranty, I would use it and have them pay.

I find loose bolts and nuts after almost every rides, today it was the plate with the 2 stainless inserts where the throttle lever is located that went upside down.

Mine will be going to the dealer for the 10 hours maintenance probably next week, I will bring a bag with all the nuts I have found and ask them to reinstall all of them with before / after pictures as proof.

 

[JetTech72]

Does it crank & doesn't fire up, or it just doesn't crank at all? If it doesn't crank at all but feel you have electrical power going to engine with ignition on. issue could be in your throttle controller neutral safety switch. If you don't have electrical power to the engine when ignition is on, then issue could be from ignition switch, safety lanyard or main breaker from the breaker panel.

 

[Carlos Alfonso]

Yan Masse and JetTech72, thank you for your responses. I decided to take the boat to the dealer. Here is the summary, in case it helps someone in the future.
Great service by the way, engine parts covered by warranty.

Checked Battery: OK
Checked Relays and found faulty: both removed and replaced.
Tech bypassed started solenoid - engine runs.
Checked signal to solenoid - no good.
Trace and pin out cranking circuit, after fixing neutral safety switch, reinstall control and check operation
Starter solenoid now clicks but doesn't connect starter
Remove and replace solenoid.
Engine starts OK

In addition, rather strange, it was found that the throttle handle in neutral position was not giving the signal of neutral. Handle was disassembled and realigned.
​

 

[Otnelico]

I reposted this from Scarab Mike. This was the solution for my 2016 Scarab. I went through all the same steps includ8ng replacing the solenoid. I did not replace the relays cause I though they were good. Clicking just as Mike mentions. Then I found the post below on a different thread went to autozone up the street and purchased a Duralast relay part #19271 with a lift8me warranty for $25 which is comparable to the Omron relay in the boat. It then started right up. Thank you Mike!

mike’s original post,

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.