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no spark

J

Jerseyrider

Free Member
Engine gets no spark. Bought the 2005 rmk 159 sled a couple of weeks ago from a guy who said the engine overheated and caused piston, cylinder, and head damage. The engine was out of the sled and most of the electrical wires disconnected. This is my fourth one and thought it would be a good project for my 14 year old and I to put it back together. Well we got it back together but no spark. Good compression but no spark.

Checked the resistance on the stator pick-up wires and solenoid and they were good. Disconnected the kill switch and still no spark. The guy added a tether so I disconnected it and still no spark. Also disconnected the engine switch...no spark.

Any ideas? If it overheated is there something I need to rest? Could the stator need replacing? If so how do I get the flywheel off? Do I need a special tool remove the flywheel/

Thanks
 
There is also another type of kill switch integrated into the throttle. Not sure exactly how it works but if it is pulled at a certain angle and then you try to apply the throttle it will shut down the motor. Not sure if it will not allow it to start if it is stuck but it may be worth looking at. Also, they make flywheel pullers if you would happen to have to remove yours, search around on SLP or other websites to find them.
 
Coil

There are two double pronged connectors heading off the harness from the CDI.

One goes to the coil (black/white) and the other goes to the temp sensor (brn/blk) in the top of the head.

Sounds like you have the wires all disconnected at the throttle end of the handlebars as part of your troubleshooting.
 
The temp sensor connects to two short male/female plugs coming right off the harness down by the recoil housing.
The other 2 coming off the TPS harness connect to the leads up by the mag side exhaust valve.
Make sure these are connected correctly
 
checked the temp plugs and they are in the right place. Was playing with it today and have some more information.

Check the 3 yellow wires that go from the stator to regulator and they have the correct resistance. In addition when I touch one of the yellow wires with the meter and one to the chassis ground I get no connectivity...so I think the stator and stator connection are good.

I switched the solenoid with one of the ones on my other RMK and the solenoid worked perfect on my other RMK...and the one from my other RMK did not work in the machine I am trying to fix. So probably not the solenoid

If i put the volt meter on the wires that go to the solenoid and turn the engine by hand I get a voltage reading. The amount of volts is a function of how long and fast I can turn the engine. I did the same thing on my working RMK and got the same readings.

What am I missing? Can not get spark to those plugs...Keep the ideas coming
 
YOu forgot bad wire or wire connection. If sled ran before engine was pulled I would be leaning towards this.
 
I think the stator is OK. I put the Ohm-meter on the stator and the readings came back per spec. Man those connections near the ECU were hard to get to.

I think the coil is OK. In my previous post I said I exchanged the solenoid with one of my other 900's, I meant coil. The coil from the working 900 did not work in the non-working 900. And the coil from the non-working 900 worked in my working 900. So i do not think it is the coil. The weird part to me and maybe not you guys is I am getting current to the coil (I put the meter on the wire that supplys power to the coil and turned the stator and got voltage readings) but not getting the spark at the plug even though the coil is good.

How would I check the ECM?

Any particular place to start checking the wiring? I have the service manual but just not sure where to start
 
Last edited:
start by checking all wiring connections that were disconnected to take the engine out. Look inside every connector too, to make sure nothing got broken.
 
swap the ECM into your other sled and see if it runs if you want to check ECM.
 
I was afraid you were going to say that. That means the engine has to come out...mostly because for some reason all the connections off.

Still wonder why I can have power to the coils and no spark since the coils are tested good.?

I will start today and keep posting. I may end up buying your 159 if I can not get to the root of this. Wanna trade
 
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Took the engine apart enough to get to all the connections. Cleaned all the connections with electrical contact cleaner and a tooth brush. They were "dirty" so maybe that was contribution to the issues. Checked the resistance of all the wires from the stator and they were basically on target. All were slightly lower than the spec. Closer to the -15% in the spec.

Checked resistance on exhaust air temp, engine temp, intake air temp sensor and they were all good.

Tomorrow I will open the flexible accordion sleeves that cover a few of the electrical runs to see if there is any split/frayed wires.

If I had a digital wrench would it be able to pinpoint the problem?
 
Jerseyrider said:
I was afraid you were going to say that. That means the engine has to come out...mostly because for some reason all the connections off.

Still wonder why I can have power to the coils and no spark since the coils are tested good.?

I will start today and keep posting. I may end up buying your 159 if I can not get to the root of this. Wanna trade
Click to expand...

Im sure you may have done this,,,, but you said you have power to coils.
Is that voltage steady: on first pull does your meter say 13v,, then second pull still 13 or 12.5,,etc.. does it drop to 8v or anything ?

If steady: Then have you looked at your plug wires ?
it worth removing the wire from coil,, snip 1/4" off wire,, turn it clockwise on peg .. do same on the wire to plug boot,, snip then spin back on... You gotta eliminat that before you go deeper into this.
 
Try using dielectric grease on all of your connections. That may not help innitially but will keep water and corrosion from causing connection problems.
 
Ttreewalker -- I switched the coil with one from my other RMK and the coils worked fine and the coil from the good RMK did not work in the sled I am fixing so I do not think it is the coils. Thanks

Z-Man -- How hard is it to get the ECM out? Looks like I need to get it from the tank side so would the gas tank have to come out?

Have cleaned all the contacts with electronic cleaner and an old toothbrush. When I removed the accordion harness I did not see any splitting anywhere. So I hope to get it back together tomorrow and to get spark. Hoping that the problem was dirty connections.

Ran out of time today. Worked with my son to take his front radiator out and added a Skinz Bumper to his 900. If you are taking the front radiator out the in-line coupler you need is a 1/2 coupler. It is the grey one that is typically used for sprinkler systems. I replaced the top hose with a 1" radiator hose from the auto store (only needed about 4") and then capped it with a 3/4" plug. The same grey sprinkler system type plug. I got the plug and coupler from Home Depot. Radiator delete and new bumper went smooth. Only leaked about 1/4 cup of radiator fluid.

Keep the ideas about the lack of spark coming.
 
OK found it...ever find the problem and say why didn't I check that first? Boy am I stupid?

After putting it back together for the third time I decided to see if I could check the resistance of the female end of the kill switch. My thought was maybe something was shorted in the kill switch circuit. So I went to my other RMK to get a reference reading and the kill switch connector did not look the same. The issue was the female end of the kill switch connector and the female end of the brake light switch was reversed on the machine that was getting no spark. So when I unplugged the kill switch I was really unplugging the brake light. The kill circuit was really connected to the brake ...and since the brake has resistance so the engine was always killed. Once I pulled the connection from the brake connector (which was really the kill switch) I got spark.

So the person I bought it from must have started putting things together and got them reversed.

Thanks for all the advice and help.

Now it turns over just won’t stay running. But that is easier to work with than the electrical issue.
 
I'm glad that you have found your problem. Electrical problems can cause a big headache and most times they are usually something simple that get overlooked like in your case. Happened to me when I was trying to find out why my speedo didn't work.
 
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