Hey guys, thanks for all the kind words and follow ups....I am just short on time beyond belief this week as I was at the lake all weekend and back to work for a couple days then back to the lake tomorrow after work...busy busy.
Here is the skinny from my last posting where I set my pop off pressures to around 35psi-ish from what I recall.......Well, I thought that was going to fix the issue and it did, NO more hard starting BUT....what had happened was that at 35-36psi pop off, I was then starving the engine for fuel under load. I got out there, engine fired first every time. BUT, under throttle, I would bog and not be getting enough fuel. SO, man was I pissed off.......I had to drag the ski home and tear out the carbs for what was going to be the LAST time. I now knew exactly what was going on. I reset my pop offs on BOTH carbs to exactly 23psi each...the lowest of the low spec...and it is now absolutely perfect. It fires up like it used to.....now if it does sit for 10 min or so, I do hold the throttle about 1/4 open and crank and it has to spin over a couple times before it catches, but it is basically immediate compared to what it was. This is how it used to be and it bothers me none. I have plenty of fuel on acceleration and wide open, engine runs great. If you let it only sit for a couple minutes, you can stab the button and she fires immediately and rests at idle like it should.
SO guys, the key it seems with this engine is to make SURE that both pivot arms in each carb are flush EXACTLY with the surrounding carb bodies AND set your pop off pressures NOT on the high end, more on the low end of the spec range and you will be fine. This was a learning process for me and the sad thing is it is simple to adjust, but pulling the ski home and out of the water, tearing out the carbs and adjusting, reinstalling and going back to the water is a PAIN IN THE ARSE! I did it 3-4 times to get it right where it should be.
Here is another neat little thing you can do so that you have some adjustment ability while you are on the water. As we all know that have the 787, the air box makes it IMPOSSIBLE to get to any of the screws on the carbs while the air box is bolted in the ski. If you are floating on the lake and want to tweak low speed or idle, GOOOOD luck.....So, I took some very flexible vacuum tubing with a small inside diameter and stuck it over the head of all the screws (low speed and idle) such that I could reach it while on the boat in the water. This was very helpful when I got back on the water because my idle was a little too low (1K rpm) when I put her back on the water and it was barely ticking over while the impeller was loaded in the water. I just popped the seat back and reached down there and turned my vacuum tubing. It's a great way to make little adjustments to the carbs because these ones are so hidden with the airbox. Low speed does not require much adjustment long as you are set within spec. This vacuum tubing is great for idle speed screw.
On my way to the lake tomorrow, I am looking at a 1997 GSX with the 787 and it has 130 hours on it. According to the owner, it is pristine and immaculate, zero sun exposure damage and just in top notch shape. (we all know how that goes..can't wait to see how it compares to mine, LOL) He want 2,500 and I might pick it up if everything passes my test and we work a deal. I have a 1996 and it's been a fantastic machine.....as of this weekend and with it finally running like new again, I got it to the lake house and it's 160 miles from my house on it's lift and covered and tarped.....this 1997 would be the "at home ski" for the river here. For 2500, what do you all think?
I hope I answered everyone's questions that were interested because you have similar issues. I'll be back next week....

:cheers::hurray: