In need of Electrical/Ignition advice/guidance/help

[jgnutz]

Ski: 89 Kawasaki 650 SX-Stock

Problem: Kill "Red" Button will not kill engine

Started having problems during the summer when the red button would sometimes fail to kill the engine. Just kept hitting button and usually would end up killing the engine. However, by end of summer the red button completely failed. Green button still fires ski right up. No air leak as this isn't a case were the ski revs out of control. Engines idles and operates fine.

Thought it was a faulty switch. So I got one off a running ski and installed. Green button fired the ski right up...red button failed to kill the engine. Now I am at a loss. The switch has 4 wire set up.

The electrical assembly box is actually 2 boxes on this ski. One box with the battery cables has the relay switch and some other stuff I have no idea. The 2nd box is the CDI ignition box with the 2 spark plug wires. Could not find a lot of info on the web about the fix. I spoke with one "self proclaimed" expert and he thought I should just replace the CDI Ignition box so I found one for $160 on line. However, another guy said he never heard of the stop feature failing in the CDI Ignition Box and thought I should look elsewhere for the solution.

Could it be the CDI Ignition Box or should I be looking elsewhere for the fix? Bad Relay? Something else?

Any advice or even an explanation of what I should be looking for to diagnosis the problem would be greatly appreciated!

[jgnutz]

I was pretty bummed that no one had any expertise or insight...so I just went to work on the ski:

I switched out the CDI Ignition Box (which is the small box with the spark plug wires) I purchased a used unit on Ebay.

Replaced the CDI and reconnected the 4 wires: Ski fired right up and the red kill button killed the engine. Verified 2 more times.

Appears the CDI Ignition Box was faulty: The CDI is sealed and cannot be worked on or refurbished...ArielTek makes a new OEM replacement...but if anyone has the same problem be aware that the spark plug wires are not comparable to the stock.

Problem solved for now!

[steve45]

Sorry we weren't able to help, I haven't worked on one that old myself.

Glad you got it fixed and thanks for posting the solution.

[Myself]

Sorry, just finding this. YES, once in a great while that can happen. I also have had one that the internal rev limiter went bad and kept losing spark.