1997 1100 stx kawasaki jet ski killing battery...

[RandyJ]

I've been using a multimeter to check continuity and voltage. Here's some of the things I've done... still either can't find the problem or not sure what I've found. I don't want to buy a new relay unless that's for sure what the problem is.
With the battery connected to the starter relay and the cable to the starter disconnected.. 13 volts to the starter cable, 11 volts to its terminal on the relay. I get the same readings if I unplug everything. With the ohm meter I can't read it because the measurement is so small but I do get some movement of the needle when I connect across the terminals or from either of the terminals to ground. Does this sound like the relay is the culprit draining the battery?

I've tried disonnecting one wire at a time and get no change in voltage readings.

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: 1997 1100 stx kawasaki jet ski killing battery...

Typically most DVM(multimeters) have an amp meter on them its very low power normally 10 amps or less this is plenty for you so long as you do not try to start the PWC with the amp meter in line. You may have to attach the DVM Leads in a different place to use the Amp meter function.

What you do is this,
Disconnect the positive lead from the terminal on the battery, attach the positive terminal of the DVM to the battery lead and attach the negative DVM lead to the positive battery post.

Then you should get a reading, this should be in the milliamps area, too much and you have an issue.

Let us know what you see...

 

[RandyJ]

Re: 1997 1100 stx kawasaki jet ski killing battery...

CORRECTION..... I disconnected the rectifier then the voltage between battery & relay dropped to 1 volt. When I reconnected the voltage jumped back up to 12 volts.... .so, is it a bad rectifier?

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: 1997 1100 stx kawasaki jet ski killing battery...

not necessarily, you may have just completed the circuit. In order to determine what is drawing off your battery you need to use the amp meter function of the multimeter.

 

[RandyJ]

Re: 1997 1100 stx kawasaki jet ski killing battery...

This meter is a cheap Walmart special... 250 mA max. I hooked everything back up then tried the amp meter, at first I found that I had a blown fuse in the meter... but when I put the spare fuse in the ohm and dc volts function worked.... but I'm not getting a reading at all on the amps when connecting as you suggested... might be time to go back to wally world for another meter.

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: 1997 1100 stx kawasaki jet ski killing battery...

250 milliamps is 1/4 of one amp so you can see how this could be a problem, if I measured the draw of a car that was turned off and I got 300 milliamps I would consider that normal for a modern car, but it will blow the fuse on your DVM. Look at it this way, you get to go buy some more toys!!

If you can find a meter with a 10 amp amp meter then your doing great but anything around 5 amps I think will work

 

[RandyJ]

Re: 1997 1100 stx kawasaki jet ski killing battery...

Let's see if I'm understanding you correctly... put the "amp meter" in line with the battery cable & starter relay?

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: 1997 1100 stx kawasaki jet ski killing battery...

Well in order to get an accurate reading on the amp meter, it has to be in line, in other words all circuits you wish to see the draw on have to go through the amp meter.

So, take everything off the positive battery post, attach the negative side (should be black wire) of the meter to the positive battery post, then one at a time attach one wire (that was attached to the positive battery post) to the red wire on the meter, Write down the results, then hook all of them to the meter and write it down. Let us know.

If this were a car I would tell you to hold the wires attached to the amp meter for 30 seconds and then write the number down, today's vehicles have computers that need to boot quickly so you will get an initial reading followed by the real standby reading.

Clear as mud?

 

[RandyJ]

Re: 1997 1100 stx kawasaki jet ski killing battery...

I'm glad that I'm getting the education and experience in using an amp meter! Here's what I found...with everything disonnected.. cable on one terminal of starter relay (solenoid as we call it)..zero amp.
when only starter cable connected to other terminal of solenoid, I got up to .09 amp...
when I connected only the plug with brown & black wires from rectifier to magneto I would get a reading of .02 which faded to zero (bled down to zero).
I put much faith in the accuracy of the readings from this OLD cheap digital multimeter... but it is at least giving me readings with some indication of what's going on. Sounds to me like some kind of ground/short in the relay or the starter. I would think the starter is supposed to complete a circuit but the relay shouldn't unless it is energized.

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: 1997 1100 stx kawasaki jet ski killing battery...

Your only seeing 9 milliamps? thats miniscule, it would take a month to drain even the dinky battery in a PWC with those readings, Have you measured the battery voltage while the PWC is running? Is it possible the alternator is not charging to specs?

 

[RandyJ]

Re: 1997 1100 stx kawasaki jet ski killing battery...

As mentioned before, I wouldn't trust the accuracy of these meters. With the analog meter I get no reading unless I reverse the meter wires as you describe for the DVA (red to positive of battery) then I'm getting about 25 ma reading. I can't get more than about 2 ma draw showing on the digital meter.
When this ski came to me the main fuse was blown. I opened the electronics box and emptied out the water, dried it out, cleaned the corrosion out, put in a new fuse and got the ski cranked. It starts and runs good on the trailer. I had intermittent problems with power to the switch and instruments. The red & red/black wires to the post of the relay which the battery cable attaches had a rusted/corroded terminal. Once I cleaned that up it eliminated the intermittent power problem.
Silly me came home with a new analog meter rather than a decent digital meter.. maybe I'll carry it back in a day or two and get a worthy digital meter... all I've got that is good is a big one for big time electricity and only has a function for a/c current.
I hooked everything back up, left the battery connected and will check the battery voltage again tomorrow.

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: 1997 1100 stx kawasaki jet ski killing battery...

HA Now that's funny, I still have my old analog Simpson for very specific situations as well. I think we should see if Silvertip has any suggestions on this as I am not very educated with jet ski's and I really don't see a problem with the numbers you saw, of course if your concerned about the accuracy of your meter that's an issue as well...