1997 Sea-doo xp 800 outer crankshaft seals

[TWirth]

My friend has a 1997 Seadoo XP 800. He had it in the shop last year getting work done on it. Shop ran him over $2000 in charges. Got machine back and still wasn’t running right. Took it back in and was told that the outer crankshaft seals need to be replaced to fix the problem. Was an air leaking causing it to not idle/run correctly. Told him it would run him another $2000.
I’ve looked around to see if it’s possible to just replace the outer seals without tearing into crankcase but haven’t found much about replacement of the outer seals. I saw a video that someone posted pulling them out to just replace the outer seal.
Anyone ever replaced these? Any help is appreciated!
I’ve rebuild a motor on Polaris 700 but never went into the crankcase.

 

[racerxxx]

You can replace the front cause that's in the mag housing but not the rear. That one is held in with an aluminum washer that fits into a groove on the crankcase, the seal and the aluminum washer are in the groove. Gotta split it. Download the factory service manual, you can pressure test the bottom end to verify its leaking. In 20+ years I've never seen a bad outer crank seal on a seadoo.

 

[TWirth]

You can replace the front cause that's in the mag housing but not the rear. That one is held in with an aluminum washer that fits into a groove on the crankcase, the seal and the aluminum washer are in the groove. Gotta split it. Download the factory service manual, you can pressure test the bottom end to verify its leaking. In 20+ years I've never seen a bad outer crank seal on a seadoo.

 

[JeremyD615]

Well $4K is way too much to be into a worn 787! I think I’d just order a whole new rebuilt motor and install it before I paid that kind of money for something that already has hours on it... $1200 and an afternoon will get you a zero hour engine and all new gaskets, seals, and fresh carbs.

 

[TWirth]

Well $4K is way too much to be into a worn 787! I think I’d just order a whole new rebuilt motor and install it before I paid that kind of money for something that already has hours on it... $1200 and an afternoon will get you a zero hour engine and all new gaskets, seals, and fresh carbs.

I showed him that and he was surprised how little a rebuilt motor was (from sbt) compared to what he just got charged. That is a possibility yet just was curious if I could try to fix it for him without needing to take it to the shop.
if the motor was rebuilt or apart before. Dealer noted that there was gasket sealer all around the motor. Could it be leaking at one of the motor gaskets to make it fail the test they did?

 

[TWirth]

You can replace the front cause that's in the mag housing but not the rear. That one is held in with an aluminum washer that fits into a groove on the crankcase, the seal and the aluminum washer are in the groove. Gotta split it. Download the factory service manual, you can pressure test the bottom end to verify its leaking. In 20+ years I've never seen a bad outer crank seal on a seadoo.

I currently have my friends seadoo in my possession now. He said that when it started up it struggled to stay idling high enough to stay running. But when it opened up and got riding it would run fine.

He had them rebuild carbs prior to this.
When you say download the factory service manual, will that be different then the Clymer’s manual?
Thanks for your response

 

[JeremyD615]

The factory service manual is different. You can google the year, model, and service manual to find a free download.

As far as fixing it, I’d take a compression reading with a good (not harbor freight) gauge. Let’s see if it’s even worth digging into, as youd have to split the case to fix the seals.

 

[GGuillot]

I currently have my friends seadoo in my possession now. He said that when it started up it struggled to stay idling high enough to stay running. But when it opened up and got riding it would run fine.

It can't be that simple the shop didn't do it, but it sounds like the idle needs adjusting. For it to be idle reliably, book recommends 3K rpm out the water and it should drop to about 1500 under load in the water.