Kawasaki ZXI 900 no start troubleshooting

[ZXIINNJ]

Hello Friends,

The 1995 ZXI 900 has a fresh battery and will not start but did momentarily after coming out of winter storage. Here are some details:

Winterizing: Battery on tender all winter. Ski winterized properly, stored indoors in garage.

Starting procedure I followed:'

Plug wires disconnected on ground poles in ski.
Ignition off.
Battery installed.
Plug wires connected.
Ignition switched to on.


No start - no power to gauges and no engine turning over. Seems like power is getting to the trim motor (which does not work) as I can hear a "click" when the trim function is activated at the left handlebar switch.

My initial thought was bad battery - swapped for a brand new battery of same - still no start.

At this point I through maybe I the wires to the battery reversed - disconnected them and touched battery at opposite ends with ignition on to see if gauges would get power. No luck. Returned wires to initial position.

After a few ignition switch on and offs, gauges got power and the ski turned over. I through, good!. Tried again and no start or power to gauges, but still hear the "click" of the trim motor.

Any troubleshooting suggestions appreciated. Feel free to punch me in the stomach for the battery wires switching when troubleshooting. Heading to the bay now - this ski will get wet but just stay on the trailer while the other two have all of the fun.

[steve45]

Sounds like you may have dirty contacts on the orange switch, or corrosion in the electrical connectors. Also, check that both ends of the battery cables are scraped clean and connections are tight.

[ZXIINNJ]

Thanks Steve! i'll go through the connections one by one. I'm guessing that a little dielectric grease on the contacts after cleaning is a good thing, right?

[steve45]

That would be OK.

Here's a link to working on the orange switch: http://greenhulk.net/showthread.php?t=266529

[ZXIINNJ]

Thanks, Steve!

Here's where we put in:



Rode the ZXI for the first time in a year. So great to drift and toss around. Took the Ultra LX across the bay. it did well in windy, choppy conditions. The body is feeling it today though.

Took a hit coming in, unfortulately. We couldn't see the submerged Triton aluminum trailer and the bottom of the Ultra LX rode up on the left rear corner of the trailer. I have to get that covered with something soft and
rounded.... It just gouged off the black exterior coat - I think I read here in Greenhulk that it's not gelcoat on these Kawasaki's, but I'm not sure what it is. Here's the damage:



It did not get into the glass - just scrapped off the exterior. I'm thinking some epoxy resin thickened to stay in place, with some black pigment to fill it in. Sound about right?

[steve45]

The Ultra LX is gelcoated on the bottom. I spent a grand getting mine repaired when the previous owner beached it on rocks.

Your ZXi has a painted bottom. They had a lot of problems with the purple (or red) paint peeling off in sheets.

[ZXIINNJ]

The Ultra LX is gelcoated on the bottom. I spent a grand getting mine repaired when the previous owner beached it on rocks.

Your ZXi has a painted bottom. They had a lot of problems with the purple (or red) paint peeling off in sheets.

Thanks, Steve! I'll get some epoxy resin in there and get it sealed up.. Next trip down we'll put in on the other side of the road at the "proper" ramp. Much calmer there.

[ZXIINNJ]

Update as of 8/31/22

The '95 900 ZXI has been down all summer. Fresh battery, tested, plenty of juice. Turned over for just 2-3 seconds when I first put the battery in, then nothing.

I have checked all of the contacts and connections for corrosion. Everything is good. Very little crud at all.

I replaced the orange ignition switch.

Opened up the box with fuses and computer brain - black box - looks very, very clean. Nothing I can see that is corroded or detached.

With the ignition in the "on" position to the far right, I get a "click" at the trim motor housing when I toggle up or down trim. No dash activity of any kind. Won't turn over or do anything else.

Next steps? Starter? Stator? Other likely wiring issues? Thanks for any suggestions for what and how to troubleshoot!

-Scott

[steve45]

I had a similar problem on an STX 1100. I found intermittent operation of the orange switch, as well as intermittent operation of the start button. However after cleaning the contacts and testing and testing some more, I thought I had it fixed. It quit on me about 20 miles from the boat ramp. Completely dead. I spent almost 2 days going through every harness connector, switch, etc. and finally found a bad solder joint on the bottom of the round fuse block. It had been repaired before, so I'm guessing that this is a fairly common problem. Don't know if vibration gets it or what. I see that the same round fuse block is used on your model, so take a look there. As I remember, you have to remove the fuse block, then disassemble it to see the solder joint inside.

[ZXIINNJ]

Thanks, Steve! I'll give that a look today.

20 miles from the ramp is lots of paddling!

Update:

Found this ignition switch wire solder failure:

[steve45]

Bingo!

[Hurricane1000]

Great tip!

[steve45]

Thanks, Steve! I'll give that a look today.

20 miles from the ramp is lots of paddling!

We had two 'Skis, so we towed it with the running one--until we ran out of gas. I had planned to transfer fuel from the dead one to the running one in the event of such a problem, but the water was over my head where we were. (Normally, the water is 3-4 feet deep and doing something like that wouldn't have been a problem). We tried to paddle against the wind to shallower water for about 2 hours, then a guy drove by on a Waverunner and stopped to help.

[ZXIINNJ]

That's a nice break! Yamaha to the rescue.

Back to the repair - did the solder job, fired up the ski, which turned over and started. Ran it for about 10 seconds and shut it down. Buttoned everything up, including reinstalling the ignition switch in the opening. That's not a lot of fun. Seemed to be fix'd.... Then no start, and the same condition as before, with audible switching "clicks" at the trim motor enclosure, but no power to the gauges and no start.

Pulled the orange switch out - the solder had held. maybe I loosened something in the process of pushing the wiring back into the 'ski? If so, I have to start digging into the depths of the wiring harness. Or is the starter button switch also failing? Trying to think about what could have changed during the process of reinstalling the orange starter switch.

[steve45]

Like I mentioned, my starter switch and my orange switch were intermittent. I put the meter on them and switched them a bunch of times and they would each fail about 1/4 of the time. Scraped the contacts clean, etc. I think I got the start button to work reliably, but I ended up replacing the orange switch & key.

Take a look at the fuse box if you don't find something else wrong.

I ended up making a special wrench to remove the nut on the back of the orange switch. That thing is a pain to get to on some models.