2000 XP wont go above 30 MPH, please help

[RebuiltSeadooBaffles]

Ok, when I bought my XP in Jan and lake tested it it ran perfectly, I have since then in the last couple months replaced the wear ring and all the fuel lines, I did make certain that the lines were put back into the correct spots, I also pulled 1 of the carbs apart (the FWD one) to check the screens and they were clean, I could not get the aft carb apart to check cause the screws were on too tight, I get it on the lake today, fires right up, idles good, I let it warm up and then nail it and it screamed to 60 mph for about 5 seconds then wham, it cut out down to 30 and no WOT power. If I let it idle for a couple seconds and then punch it from idle it pulls hard, rpms go to 7k for a second then back down to 4700 rpm and it wont go over 30 mph, WTF do you guys think is causing this? Pulling the choke at any throttle position only makes the motor stall, also moving the fuel selector to reserve does not help at all. Has brand new plugs and fresh 100% gas. Pulled the plugs and as you can see below the are different colors in 2 different spots on each plug (the top plug is the FWD cyl and bottom plug is the aft cyl):

 

[Kozerxp]

Try cleaning the rave valves it sounds like one is sticking

 

[RebuiltSeadooBaffles]

those were already cleaned, also the fuel screws on the carbs are set to factory settings.

 

[Bills86e]

A black wet piston can indicate no ring sealing, low compression, ect because it cannot compress the fuel mixture enough to burn it all.

99% OF THE TIME, this problem is fuel system related, Suggest you read up on carb rebuilding. What was last worked on the ski?

 

[brandon32689]

Ya also I had a problem similar to you. Mine turned out to be a air leak in fuel system. Make sure all of your hose clamps are tight and then check your water separator I put a new oring in there and problems were gone. Not sure this is your problem, but easer to do the simple things first to eliminate.

Also mine ran on the trailer just fine and reved up fine because its not under load and don't need to much gas. As soon as it got in water problem was back. Good luck to you man.

 

[JBSportTrim]

Put a new RECTIFIER modual in. This happened to me a few years ago and it took me 2-3 years before I decided maybe it was electrical, I have two 96 XP's so I switched the electrical boxes and the problem switched to the other ski. The rectifier was bad, which is the square thing that looks like it has a computer chip in it inside the box. Hope that helped. We bought one from the dealer but you could prolly pick one up cheaper through the forum or ebay maybe. I think it was like $75 new.

Mine would do the exact same thing yours was doing. It would idle fine and never shut out on me but would never go full speed and rpms would go really high but only going like you said 30mph. Bleh it sucked! I thought something was major wrong with it. Sometimes it would run 60mph when I would first start out and then bog down and sometimes pick back up when it felt like it...there was really no pattern to it, then it just got worse and would do it all day. Im not the type to bring it to a dealer to fix because I really dont think they would have caught this because we brought it in to 2 different places and spent about $500 on getting new seals and some other crap they said was wrong, of course when they would test it, it would run fine for the toseconds they would run it around the lake or in their tank but not enough time to actually see the problem happen. Later we found that it wasnt any of that at all.....well i guess at least everything is new in it now, we bought new motors for them too cuz the cases cracked on both seadoos shortly after we bought them from someone else so I know it didnt have nothin to do with the motor part of it. Hope this helped. Let us know what it was when you figure it out.

 

[Bills86e]

Common ignition problems are having to replace the rectifier/regulator to get it to run good at higher rpm, even though the rectifier/regulator is not a part of the ignition, per se, but if bad it emits electrical noise that will disturb the ignition at higher rpm causing it to spark erratically. It sits inside the front electrical box right next to the CDI.
The ignition in that model is digital, not analog, it gets power directly from the 12Vdc battery, not the magneto stator. The ignition is triggered by an ignition pickup next to the mag flywheel in the magneto housing. It could be broken or covered with bits of old worn off metal particles from gear teeth off of the starter ring gear on the flywheel. Lot's of things can cause erratic running engines. Some are very simple mistakes like installing non-resistor sparkplugs. This motor needs NGK BR8ES sparkplugs. Not B8ES. Notice the "R" ? That means resistor type sparkplug.
If your looking to test the magneto and regulator/rectifier..........all you need to do is have a cheap, digital multi tester. You can hook your ski up to the hose, start the motor, start the water, then set the meter on 20 VDC or higher, depending on your testers range. Then, put the positive and negative on the battery post. IF all works, you should have anywhere from 13.8 to 14.2 VDC on the battery terminal. You don't have to rev it to 5k for this. If you only get 12 VDC while the ski is running, you got a problem. More than 15VDC (at 5500 rpm) the rectifier/regulator is bad. The XP are finicky about voltage and need a fully charged battery at start-up. That said, start your ski prior to heading to the launch. It only takes a minute to open the seat and look-smell for any gas fumes in the engine compartment, open the hatch and check the water separator/filter for water & contaminates. Always use a conditioner like Marine Sta-bil because of ethanol in today's gas.

 

[davidlangenderfer]

My 2000 XP did this as well. The clamp on the manifold to tuned pipe was loose. Once I tightened the clamp it ran its normal 55-60 mph. Since it was towards the end of the year I waited to replace the copper washer until over the winter.