94 Seadoo SPi; TIGHT Impeller to Wear Ring

[nsoley]

Bought a 94 SPi. Reason the guy was selling was cavitation; he even gave me a new wear ring when i bought it off him.

I have removed the impeller. The impeller fits great in the new wear ring when they are both (impeller & wear ring) on the table top; the impeller slides right in and is a tight fit, but can spin freely. (see attached picture) This leads me to believe this is the correct impeller & wear ring combination.

Once i put the wear ring into the housing, the impeller is very very very tight in terms of fit. It feels WAY too tight. (I oiled and soaped the crap out of the wear ring as well)

I did tap the impeller in with a 2x4, and torqued down the impeller shaft to the impeller, but the impeller would not budge unless i had a breaker bar on the impeller remover tool to spin it. I am afraid this will wreck my starter and the engine itself wont be able to spin the impeller.

I am debating shaving down the impeller fins ever so slightly to get some clearance.... Any idea why they fit great on the table top but not when the wear ring is inserted into the housing? I dont feel like a new wear ring will do me any good as the new one i have fits on the table as i show in the attached picture and spins great with what seems to be just the right amount of clearance between ring and impeller. Thoughts?

 

[DanSquires]

Was the wear ring hard to install?
If your pump is aluminum (should be) and the wear ring is for a plastic pump, it was probably extremely difficult.. this is because the OD of a plastic pump wear ring is larger than the OD of one meant for aluminum, and it's just not going to work

 

[nsoley]

Hi @DanSquires

The wear ring was provided with the ski when i bought it, at which point, the seller showed me his ebay purchase. It was in fact a 140mm ID wear ring for a '94 Seadoo SPi. The wear ring was "typical" not super easy to slide in, but went in with some loving. (hammer and 2x4 method)

The pump housing is aluminum. Im debating either:
a) tear out the wear ring and sand down inner surfaces of the housing ($$ for a new wear ring)
b) shave off outer edges of impeller to get it to fit. (free solution, but question robustness of an impeller with sanded down fin edges. My guess is I would only have to take ~0.1 to 0.2mm off in total)

thoughts?

 

[DanSquires]

Personally, I've only ever had to stick a wear ring in a freezer for an hour, and it falls right into the pump with maybe a little push. The only time I ever had to use a hammer and 2x4 was when I discovered the difference between aluminum and plastic pump wear ring thickness.
Do not shave down the impeller... tear that one out, buy the correct wear ring (buy from SBT) and have a great day.

 

[nsoley]

Personally, I've only ever had to stick a wear ring in a freezer for an hour, and it falls right into the pump with maybe a little push. The only time I ever had to use a hammer and 2x4 was when I discovered the difference between aluminum and plastic pump wear ring thickness.
Do not shave down the impeller... tear that one out, buy the correct wear ring (buy from SBT) and have a great day.

Thanks @DanSquires I am going to stick the whole unit in the freezer and try to pull the wear ring out without damaging it. If i can get it out, ill sand / smooth down the inner surface of the housing to see if a slight 0.1mm could be squeezed out of it, if so, I would guess the wear ring will slide in much easier.

 

[artr]

I had a 96 SP that needed a new wear ring and impeller. I bought a delrin wear ring (hard white plastic) and a new stainless steel Solas impeller. I remember when I installed them, the impeller was very tight to the wear ring. I secured the pump and sprayed some lubricant into the wear ring. I then spun the impeller with a breaker bar and it shaved away the interfering plastic until I felt the engine would be able to start up and finish the job. Because the impeller was new with sharp edges and the wear ring was solid plastic this worked for me. If your wear ring is the seadoo brand then it is covered with a softer layer that would probably tear and this probably would not work. Also if your impeller is older aluminum you may damage it if you need to apply to much force. Just a thought of what you might try if the wear ring does not come out without damaging it.

 

[mikidymac]

Make sure you did not crush the thrust bearing when installing the impeller. This is the typical reason that the impeller becomes hard to turn once installed.

 

[nsoley]

Make sure you did not crush the thrust bearing when installing the impeller. This is the typical reason that the impeller becomes hard to turn once installed.

I know about the thrust bearing "pinch" issue and I am 100% confident that it was NOT pinched. It was just too tight of a fit between impeller and wear ring. (It was super tight before the bearing / shaft was even put into place"

Housing + Wear Ring in the freezer now; hopefully i can get the wear ring out without damaging it. From there i will lightly sand the inside surface of the housing to ensure there was no corrosion build up that is either causing issues with the wear rings circularity or making the ID of the wear ring "technically smaller."

 

[nsoley]

Just got in from the garage. The wear ring was just too tight to remove without damaging it. Had to permanently damage the wear ring to remove it. I sanded down and REALLY cleaned up the inside of the aluminum housing; so i am hoping my new wear ring will slide in with relative ease and have an overall better fit.

Suggested brands of Wear Rings? Cheapest one on eBay? LOL

 

[DanSquires]

SBT delrin wear rings are great.
Definitely do not go with the cheapest one on ebay

 

[nsoley]

Just got in from the garage. The wear ring was just too tight to remove without damaging it. Had to permanently damage the wear ring to remove it. I sanded down and REALLY cleaned up the inside of the aluminum housing; so i am hoping my new wear ring will slide in with relative ease and have an overall better fit.

Suggested brands of Wear Rings? Cheapest one on eBay? LOL

SBT delrin wear rings are great.
Definitely do not go with the cheapest one on ebay

I ended up going with OEM / SeaDoo. For the extra $9, i thought it was the safe bet. Ill circle back and let this thread know about the fit. My theory is that the old (Non-OEM / Non-Delrin Wear ring) was the culprit.

 

[mikidymac]

I use the OEM ones on all my skis. I do have some friends that have used the cheap ebay ones with no issues as recommended by @Matt Braley but he only suggests ones that actually ship from the USA.

 

[nsoley]

I use the OEM ones on all my skis. I do have some friends that have used the cheap ebay ones with no issues as recommended by @Matt Braley but he only suggests ones that actually ship from the USA.

@mikidymac Welp. Glad I went OEM, seems the safest. I hope my wire wheel / light grit sand paper on the inside of the housing surface will do the trick. Part arrives Monday. Ill circle back with results. *fingers crossed

 

[Poormanracing]

Back to the thrust washer and thrust bearing pinch.make double sure that bearing and washer are correctly installed.

 

[nsoley]

Back to the thrust washer and thrust bearing pinch.make double sure that bearing and washer are correctly installed.

Yes. I double checked the manual and made sure the order of shaft / washer / bearing was correct.

Still waiting on the wear ring… supposed to be here Monday.

 

[Poormanracing]

It's not the order of them.when you install the impeller shaft into the housing the thrust bearing can fall off the shaft into the groove on the impeller shaft

 

[Poormanracing]

It's not the order of them.when you install the impeller shaft into the housing the thrust bearing can fall off the shaft into the groove on the impeller shaft

 

[DanSquires]

It's not the order of them.when you install the impeller shaft into the housing the thrust bearing can fall off the shaft into the groove on the impeller shaft

if the wear ring is too tight, the wear ring is too tight. No amount of jacking with the thrust bearing will change that.

 

[Poormanracing]

if the wear ring is too tight, the wear ring is too tight. No amount of jacking with the thrust bearing will change that.

No shit I'm just posting to look out when putting it back together to make sure it doesn't get over looked good luck

 

[Jtamaro]

Bought a 94 SPi. Reason the guy was selling was cavitation; he even gave me a new wear ring when i bought it off him.

I have removed the impeller. The impeller fits great in the new wear ring when they are both (impeller & wear ring) on the table top; the impeller slides right in and is a tight fit, but can spin freely. (see attached picture) This leads me to believe this is the correct impeller & wear ring combination.

Once i put the wear ring into the housing, the impeller is very very very tight in terms of fit. It feels WAY too tight. (I oiled and soaped the crap out of the wear ring as well)

I did tap the impeller in with a 2x4, and torqued down the impeller shaft to the impeller, but the impeller would not budge unless i had a breaker bar on the impeller remover tool to spin it. I am afraid this will wreck my starter and the engine itself wont be able to spin the impeller.

I am debating shaving down the impeller fins ever so slightly to get some clearance.... Any idea why they fit great on the table top but not when the wear ring is inserted into the housing? I dont feel like a new wear ring will do me any good as the new one i have fits on the table as i show in the attached picture and spins great with what seems to be just the right amount of clearance between ring and impeller. Thoughts?

Fit the shaft and turn over by the crank to free it up, also leave the back bolts alittle loose until it’s free. Try that maybe

 

[POPPS]

Sure sounds like a locked thrust washer.

 

[nsoley]

Got the new SeaDoo OEM wear ring. Fit like a glove. The impeller spins with a perfect amount of rub to the wear ring.

NOT a thrust bearing issue; yet again non OEM parts doing people dirty. SPEND THE EXTRA $10 PEOPLE!

 

[DanSquires]

Got the new SeaDoo OEM wear ring. Fit like a glove. The impeller spins with a perfect amount of rub to the wear ring.

NOT a thrust bearing issue; yet again non OEM parts doing people dirty. SPEND THE EXTRA $10 PEOPLE!

It's not an OEM vs aftermarket parts issue, it's having the right part. Aftermarket is just fine, as long as it's a quality aftermarket.

Glad your issue is resolved.