Hey guys, sorta new here. I've been browsing without an account for a while now, and I'm finally giving in to asking for some help. Prepare for a short saga.
10 (?) years ago, a relative was purchasing new SeaDoos, and didn't want anything to do with his old 96 GTS. Since he tends to have a lot of disposable income he simply gave it to us, for free. My mom and dad had some issues over it, and my mom ended up rolling it into the backyard under pine trees, where it would sit for the next nine years. Last spring break I got tired of seeing it sit unused, so I decided to make it my project for the week (well, at least that's what I thought it was going to be at the time). It was in horrible exterior condition, and fuel and oil had sat inside for the entire time.
I did some reading, and decided to replace all of the old (tempo) fuel lines, they had a whole bunch of built-up green gunk on the fittings and such. I replaced them with automotive grade tubing, and stainless fittings. I made sure I had the right sizes and such. I took out the whole fuel baffle and replaced every tube coming off of the thing. I cleaned out the gunk from the fuel selector as well.
(This image is corrupted for some reason, oh well. I love how this thing looks like an octopus.)
I took out the oil and gas tanks, cleaned them inside and out with degreaser (and made sure they were rinsed well). I replaced the spark plugs, replaced various bits of tubing (the bilge pump tubings, I forget what else), replaced the battery, and tidied everything else up. Here's what it looked like when I got it out to the lake on the first day.
It ran spectacularly. Absolutely no hiccups. It had some cavitation problems, which I suspected was due to a faulty wear ring, but other than that, it ran extremely well. I'm not exactly sure how many hours I put on it until I started noticing problems. It was really peculiar, at anything above 50% throttle the engine would die out back to idle. If you kept the throttle down, it would either stall, or hesitate for a few moments, and then rev back up. It would occasionally stall if you didn't pull of the throttle. It sounds like the engine is being suffocated for a moment (not in terms of what's actually happening, but as if you held your hand over your mouth and tried to talk).
Without doing any investigating, I figured it was probably about time for a carb rebuild, so I bought a kit, and I rebuilt the carburetor. I didn't see any terrible signs of gunk inside the carb, in fact, it was incredibly clean. There was some of the green gunk that I saw at the fuel line connectors in the fuel intake ports, but not too much. The only oversight I can think of would be not testing the pop-off pressure for the needle valve when re-assembling the carb. I reattached the carb, and I wasn't able to get the carb tuned right before I had to go away for school.
This spring break, I took it to a local Sea-Doo shop. I told them about the tuning problems (and of a leak somewhere in the drive line). They replaced the wear ring, and then told me that repairs would cost me almost a grand, which was outrageous. I asked for the jetski back in whatever condition they had it (which was half disassembled with a bag of nuts and bolts). They said they had tuned the carb for me. I got it back together this first week of summer (two weeks ago).
I actually had (or so I've been told by another shop in the area) an older drive-line system installed, with the grease-filled seal carrier. I was told that the carbon seal type was superior, and what I was actually supposed to have on my ski (which was true, the carbon ring seal was what was shown in my shop manual and all of the blow apart diagrams). Either way, I no longer have to stop on islands and tilt the ski backwards to tip all of the water out (which is fairly nice
).
I got it out on the lake this summer, and surprisingly, it's ran spectacularly. No more cavitation issues, the thing doesn't hesitate at all, it's actually able to pull a single-person tube, and it's been such a blast exploring the lake. I put about 10 hours on the ski this summer.....
And then we get back to the same old problems. It happened once or twice within those 10 hours, either right when I'm getting going, or after an hour or so of running. It will completely die back to idle, and either stall, or rev back up after a few seconds of hesitation. This past weekend, I had ran it almost at complete full throttle for an entire hour, and it did it once, and then I ran it again for a half hour at full throttle and it happened once more. I let some friends out on it, and it started stalling out on them. I took it out myself, and it ran okay, with a stall or two near the beginning of my run.
Here's what the spark plugs looked like when I took them out to replace them. Again, I believe these plugs hadn't been replaced since sometime last summer.
On a whim, I replaced the spark plugs (made sure to the best of my ability that they were gapped right), topped off the oil tank, and then took it out again. This time, I couldn't get the ski past 25-30% throttle without it wanting to stall. If I idled for a few seconds, I could gun the throttle and it would run at full speed for 4-6 seconds before dying back down to idle and stalling unless I let off the throttle.
I called up the shop that helped me get the drive line back in order, and one of the techs told me that I should check the compression. I ran the engine for about five minutes this morning before checking the compression, and the compression is at 135psi in both cylinders (literally exactly the same pressure in both cylinders), so I have a hard time believeing that it's my problem. I checked the fuel filter before running it this morning, and saw a good bit of gunk in the filter (it hadn't been cleaned out in a while). I also checked the spark this morning, but on each plug, not with the same plug (the wear on the newer plugs was a tad different), and the spark on one plug seemed just a tad stronger than the other.
Here's what I saw in the fuel filter. The entire little circular cavity at the bottom of this filter body was filed with the gunk.
What was interesting about running it this morning (before doing the compression test) is that the tune of the engine seemed to follow a beat (where one stroke would be louder (or something) at a regular interval). Also, when I would squeeze the throttle a tad, it would be reluctant to come back down to idle. I ended up stopping the engine because it ran away after I gave the throttle a good tug and wouldn't idle back down.
I am honestly at a loss here. My only ideas are the coil packs, or an incorrectly tuned carb (though, I'm really what could cause such intermittent issues, eg. once every hour). Possibly the intermittent issue was the clogged up fuel filter? And perhaps the shop could have tuned the carb with fouled plugs, making the high-speed adjustment over-rich and flooding the engine in the higher throttle ranges? Maybe I need to take the carb off and check the pop-off pressure? Maybe there's a faulty coil pack? Please help me D:
I love this ski so much, and my only desire right now is to have it back out on the lake and humming along. I'm learning so much right now (I'm studying electrical engineering, never been a huge mechanical car/engine dude). The guys at the shop keep telling me to bring it in and just pay then 105 dollars an hour to fix it up, but I really enjoy having this 2-stroke because it means there's a lot more I can do myself.
Thank you guys so much in advance!
10 (?) years ago, a relative was purchasing new SeaDoos, and didn't want anything to do with his old 96 GTS. Since he tends to have a lot of disposable income he simply gave it to us, for free. My mom and dad had some issues over it, and my mom ended up rolling it into the backyard under pine trees, where it would sit for the next nine years. Last spring break I got tired of seeing it sit unused, so I decided to make it my project for the week (well, at least that's what I thought it was going to be at the time). It was in horrible exterior condition, and fuel and oil had sat inside for the entire time.
I did some reading, and decided to replace all of the old (tempo) fuel lines, they had a whole bunch of built-up green gunk on the fittings and such. I replaced them with automotive grade tubing, and stainless fittings. I made sure I had the right sizes and such. I took out the whole fuel baffle and replaced every tube coming off of the thing. I cleaned out the gunk from the fuel selector as well.
(This image is corrupted for some reason, oh well. I love how this thing looks like an octopus.)
I took out the oil and gas tanks, cleaned them inside and out with degreaser (and made sure they were rinsed well). I replaced the spark plugs, replaced various bits of tubing (the bilge pump tubings, I forget what else), replaced the battery, and tidied everything else up. Here's what it looked like when I got it out to the lake on the first day.
It ran spectacularly. Absolutely no hiccups. It had some cavitation problems, which I suspected was due to a faulty wear ring, but other than that, it ran extremely well. I'm not exactly sure how many hours I put on it until I started noticing problems. It was really peculiar, at anything above 50% throttle the engine would die out back to idle. If you kept the throttle down, it would either stall, or hesitate for a few moments, and then rev back up. It would occasionally stall if you didn't pull of the throttle. It sounds like the engine is being suffocated for a moment (not in terms of what's actually happening, but as if you held your hand over your mouth and tried to talk).
Without doing any investigating, I figured it was probably about time for a carb rebuild, so I bought a kit, and I rebuilt the carburetor. I didn't see any terrible signs of gunk inside the carb, in fact, it was incredibly clean. There was some of the green gunk that I saw at the fuel line connectors in the fuel intake ports, but not too much. The only oversight I can think of would be not testing the pop-off pressure for the needle valve when re-assembling the carb. I reattached the carb, and I wasn't able to get the carb tuned right before I had to go away for school.
This spring break, I took it to a local Sea-Doo shop. I told them about the tuning problems (and of a leak somewhere in the drive line). They replaced the wear ring, and then told me that repairs would cost me almost a grand, which was outrageous. I asked for the jetski back in whatever condition they had it (which was half disassembled with a bag of nuts and bolts). They said they had tuned the carb for me. I got it back together this first week of summer (two weeks ago).
I actually had (or so I've been told by another shop in the area) an older drive-line system installed, with the grease-filled seal carrier. I was told that the carbon seal type was superior, and what I was actually supposed to have on my ski (which was true, the carbon ring seal was what was shown in my shop manual and all of the blow apart diagrams). Either way, I no longer have to stop on islands and tilt the ski backwards to tip all of the water out (which is fairly nice
).I got it out on the lake this summer, and surprisingly, it's ran spectacularly. No more cavitation issues, the thing doesn't hesitate at all, it's actually able to pull a single-person tube, and it's been such a blast exploring the lake. I put about 10 hours on the ski this summer.....
And then we get back to the same old problems. It happened once or twice within those 10 hours, either right when I'm getting going, or after an hour or so of running. It will completely die back to idle, and either stall, or rev back up after a few seconds of hesitation. This past weekend, I had ran it almost at complete full throttle for an entire hour, and it did it once, and then I ran it again for a half hour at full throttle and it happened once more. I let some friends out on it, and it started stalling out on them. I took it out myself, and it ran okay, with a stall or two near the beginning of my run.
Here's what the spark plugs looked like when I took them out to replace them. Again, I believe these plugs hadn't been replaced since sometime last summer.
On a whim, I replaced the spark plugs (made sure to the best of my ability that they were gapped right), topped off the oil tank, and then took it out again. This time, I couldn't get the ski past 25-30% throttle without it wanting to stall. If I idled for a few seconds, I could gun the throttle and it would run at full speed for 4-6 seconds before dying back down to idle and stalling unless I let off the throttle.
I called up the shop that helped me get the drive line back in order, and one of the techs told me that I should check the compression. I ran the engine for about five minutes this morning before checking the compression, and the compression is at 135psi in both cylinders (literally exactly the same pressure in both cylinders), so I have a hard time believeing that it's my problem. I checked the fuel filter before running it this morning, and saw a good bit of gunk in the filter (it hadn't been cleaned out in a while). I also checked the spark this morning, but on each plug, not with the same plug (the wear on the newer plugs was a tad different), and the spark on one plug seemed just a tad stronger than the other.
Here's what I saw in the fuel filter. The entire little circular cavity at the bottom of this filter body was filed with the gunk.
What was interesting about running it this morning (before doing the compression test) is that the tune of the engine seemed to follow a beat (where one stroke would be louder (or something) at a regular interval). Also, when I would squeeze the throttle a tad, it would be reluctant to come back down to idle. I ended up stopping the engine because it ran away after I gave the throttle a good tug and wouldn't idle back down.
I am honestly at a loss here. My only ideas are the coil packs, or an incorrectly tuned carb (though, I'm really what could cause such intermittent issues, eg. once every hour). Possibly the intermittent issue was the clogged up fuel filter? And perhaps the shop could have tuned the carb with fouled plugs, making the high-speed adjustment over-rich and flooding the engine in the higher throttle ranges? Maybe I need to take the carb off and check the pop-off pressure? Maybe there's a faulty coil pack? Please help me D:
I love this ski so much, and my only desire right now is to have it back out on the lake and humming along. I'm learning so much right now (I'm studying electrical engineering, never been a huge mechanical car/engine dude). The guys at the shop keep telling me to bring it in and just pay then 105 dollars an hour to fix it up, but I really enjoy having this 2-stroke because it means there's a lot more I can do myself.
Thank you guys so much in advance!
