2003 Seadoo GTX Limited 185 Tops Valve causing no run condition

[hypoxia]

Hi all,

There's been some discussion about faulty TOPS valves across the boards however I haven't ran into an issue like mine.

Summary:

I bought a ski that's been neglected and sitting outside for years. Before attempting to start or anything I did the prerequisites.

-Drained/replaced oil
-Drained and put in fresh fuel
-New starter solenoid
-Removed supercharger and rebuild
-Replaced spark plugs

Primed the fuel pump and she fired up. I put it on the hose, checked for leaks and then finished the oil change procedure. I put in total of about 10 mins of idling/revving out time. I verified it hit 7k on the trailer.

The next day I went to the lake and sure enough it wouldn't stay running. It starts for about 5 seconds before it cuts off as if you unplugged the DESS key, on or off the trailer. What happened? Out of just random troubleshooting I found if you unplug the TOPS valve solenoid (2 wire) the ski stays running just fine but is in limp mode. I thought maybe the TOPS was faulty so I pulled off the tops valve off a known running ski. It did the same thing. The ski runs for 5 seconds before it dies.

Then I found in some other threads some test procedures out of the shop manual. Pics attached



-Ohm'd both of the tops solenoids and it's in spec
-Checked voltage for pin 1 with DESS key in. According to the shop manual, pin 1 should show 8 volts. I get 12.6, maybe that's the problem!

The work sheet says to check continuity between pins A13 and battery ground. It has 10k of resistance but it's there. Next step would be to replace the ECM, right? Well I pulled one out of another 185, and sure enough I have the same results. I inspected the wiring harness in detail and don't see any breaks or shorts. It appears to be in great condition.

Anyone else run into this?

[r1goombah]

i believe there is a tip sensor under the tops valve, check that out

[hypoxia]

i believe there is a tip sensor under the tops valve, check that out

I found out that it wasn't the TOPS valve, in fact there is a blown capacitor on the ECM. I put another one on the ski and it solved the problem. I'm going to attempt to repair that capacitor but it's hard to see if there's any other visible component damage on these ECMs. It's also hard to troubleshoot these without causing more damage.