DeFreitas Enterprises
New Member
Hey folks.
New to the PWC world, but pretty experienced mechanically, mostly with motorcycles and small engines. In April of 2019 I traded one of my motorcycles for a 1997 Seadoo XP 787. The hull was in great shape, and she ran on a hose in front of me, and the P.O claimed she ran great the few times they took her out. It was a man in his 50s and his son was 16. The son wanted a motorcycle since you can ride on a permit before getting a car license here in MA.
Anyways, I bought her, and the first ride out she ran like a top. 55-58 mph easy, great acceleration. No bogging down through the powerband. She never really did well with 20-40% throttle opening, so maybe some of the low speed jets are a bit dirty. But I'm more of a WOT (wide open throttle), full speed ahead kind of rider so that never bothered me. She ran great for about 6-8 hours of use, over the course of April - yesterday (July 3rd).
I was out on the river and stopped at a beach. After 15-20 minutes or so I turned her back on, and headed back at WOT. After 5 minutes or so she suddenly died, and since I was standing up I almost went over the handlebars. Talk about heavy deceleration! I immediately thought, "that's strange". I tried pressing the starter and nothing happened, or maybe one beep happened. Here's the first clue. She would only crank when I took out the lanyard / key and put it back in. I would then get the two beeps and she would crank over. After priming it again she finally turned back on, I went slow for about 5 seconds and she would die immediately again. Same thing, out with the key, in with the key, two beeps. She would start, but die after 5 seconds of running.
This happened over and over and I was essentially adrift in the middle of the river. Thankfully MA requires you to have a paddle when registering, so I had a cheapo amazon collapsible paddle to help me get to shore and to a nearby boat ramp.
Once off the PWC, I did what I always do, I hit google search and the forums. It brought me here, where there are already some threads of Seadoo XP's stalling just like mine did, some even the same exact year lol. The suggestions varied somewhat. Fuel system pressure leaks, spark plug replacements, carb cleans, ya know the usual. But one tidbit caught my attention. A couple members said that if the PWC won't start unless you take out the key, then it is having an issue with the DESS post. Bingo! So I am in the process of looking up how to replace this, since I am pretty sure this is my issue. However I have not done a thorough tuneup of the vessel since acquiring, so I would like to do that as well. I am not ripping apart the carbs since I had no signs of carb issues before, aside from some low throttle opening choppy behavior. I will be replacing the plugs, and doing a compression test.
If anyone has any other thoughts / suggestions, they are greatly appreciated! I will document my repairs / work here to hopefully help out someone else down the road.
P.S. Love the vessel, I'll upload pics once the forum allows me to (3 posts).
-Alex
New to the PWC world, but pretty experienced mechanically, mostly with motorcycles and small engines. In April of 2019 I traded one of my motorcycles for a 1997 Seadoo XP 787. The hull was in great shape, and she ran on a hose in front of me, and the P.O claimed she ran great the few times they took her out. It was a man in his 50s and his son was 16. The son wanted a motorcycle since you can ride on a permit before getting a car license here in MA.
Anyways, I bought her, and the first ride out she ran like a top. 55-58 mph easy, great acceleration. No bogging down through the powerband. She never really did well with 20-40% throttle opening, so maybe some of the low speed jets are a bit dirty. But I'm more of a WOT (wide open throttle), full speed ahead kind of rider so that never bothered me. She ran great for about 6-8 hours of use, over the course of April - yesterday (July 3rd).
I was out on the river and stopped at a beach. After 15-20 minutes or so I turned her back on, and headed back at WOT. After 5 minutes or so she suddenly died, and since I was standing up I almost went over the handlebars. Talk about heavy deceleration! I immediately thought, "that's strange". I tried pressing the starter and nothing happened, or maybe one beep happened. Here's the first clue. She would only crank when I took out the lanyard / key and put it back in. I would then get the two beeps and she would crank over. After priming it again she finally turned back on, I went slow for about 5 seconds and she would die immediately again. Same thing, out with the key, in with the key, two beeps. She would start, but die after 5 seconds of running.
This happened over and over and I was essentially adrift in the middle of the river. Thankfully MA requires you to have a paddle when registering, so I had a cheapo amazon collapsible paddle to help me get to shore and to a nearby boat ramp.
Once off the PWC, I did what I always do, I hit google search and the forums. It brought me here, where there are already some threads of Seadoo XP's stalling just like mine did, some even the same exact year lol. The suggestions varied somewhat. Fuel system pressure leaks, spark plug replacements, carb cleans, ya know the usual. But one tidbit caught my attention. A couple members said that if the PWC won't start unless you take out the key, then it is having an issue with the DESS post. Bingo! So I am in the process of looking up how to replace this, since I am pretty sure this is my issue. However I have not done a thorough tuneup of the vessel since acquiring, so I would like to do that as well. I am not ripping apart the carbs since I had no signs of carb issues before, aside from some low throttle opening choppy behavior. I will be replacing the plugs, and doing a compression test.
If anyone has any other thoughts / suggestions, they are greatly appreciated! I will document my repairs / work here to hopefully help out someone else down the road.
P.S. Love the vessel, I'll upload pics once the forum allows me to (3 posts).
-Alex
I hit the start button and it fired right up. Took fuel well and I rode a bit at 1/2 speed and went to Wide Open Throttle again. After a couple of minutes.... DEADER than a dead cat. Two tries and it fired right up again. I rode it a few more times at WOT but not for a long time.... ski did good. The way it is shutting down sure doesn't seem like fuel. I'm gonna change my DESS post just for good measure. Good Luck with yours !!
