1996 GTS Issues

[blakekrone]

I have a 96 GTS that ran fine last year and was fine this year up until the 4th. A little background last year I cleaned the fuel filters and replaced the gray lines. All new plugs with the correct gap and trimmed the wires back a 1/4". It would start, hesitate on throttle, no biggie just took a little bit to warm up and run.

Now on the 4th my brother had the ski out and it just died on him, would not start. Pulled the plugs it was spitting water, so got it back to the dock. Got all the water out of the cylinder, replaced plugs went to fire it up and it popped and shot water out the back, did this a few times. Still wouldn't start, seemed like a fuel delivery problem so I again cleaned all the lines and rebuilt the carbs while i was at it. Still nothing...

I checked compression, 120 in the back, 150 in the front, yikes. Quite the variance there. Pull the plug and ground the wire from the rear cylinder and it will start and run on one cylinder. I'm wondering if there is anything else I can look at to get it to run for the rest of the season at least and then decide if I want to do a top end or an engine swap.

Strange thing I noticed is that it seems like there is a TON of exhaust smoke coming out of the carb.

 

[timmyboy76]

i'd pull the intake manifold/rv cover off, and check to make sure, the rv is turning with the crank.

 

[blakekrone]

Thanks timmyboy76, I've been reading a lot of your responses on other threads the past few days t/s this issue.

If I turn the PTO shaft I see the RV valve spinning. There seems to be a lot of rotational play in the RV shaft, probably a good inch from counter-clockwise to clockwise stop positions, is that normal?

 

[timmyboy76]

hey blake....there is "some" play, but memory serves me, 1in in rotation, seems abit much.

Probably, pull the intake stud, then turn pto, to get mag piston at TDC, then inspect the position of the rotary valve. Should be covering the pto port hole, with the edge around the "arrow" marking on the case.

 

[blakekrone]

I talked to a PWC shop owner locally and he said an inch is way too much and that the engine probably seized which caused the sudden engine stop.

I'll probably just have to bite the bullet and do a rebuild/replace on the engine. Looks like when you order from SBT you get all you need for the engine minus the gaskets for exhaust and such. I think if I do the engine swap I'll replace the oil pump as well.

I just put a new jet pump in it last year so I don't want to just get rid of it, but at the same time the hull needs some work. Decisions decisions...