RESTO 94 Speedster Disaster Resto

[noooby]

Well, here we go. Finally got my Scooter Boat sorted out, so now it's the turn of the Speedster I picked up cheep cheep in November.

Some people should not be allowed to own boats. Or at least, try to fix boats.

The wiring is a mess. There is even a wire alligator clipped in, so I guess they were trying to bypass something.

First step is engines out. Bilge has 6 or 7 years of crud in the bottom. After engines will be the fuel tank. It has a crack (bugger!) that will need sorting. On the plus side, the fuel gauge works!

I put two new batteries in to see what would work and what wouldn't. Lights and fuel gauge work. That's about it. If I shift out of neutral I get the 4 beeps but I get nothing when I put the lanyard onto the DESS. If I push and hold the starter, I'll get one long beep. The lanyard doesn't seem to sit properly on the DESS. How hard are you guys pushing it on? Mine pushes on but can be cocked off to the side easily.

Also looks like the fuel vent has busted.

 

[noooby]

No, I haven't given up. Still plodding away. MPEM off at Westside Powersports getting replaced. New cranks being built up (old cranks both had bearing failures). Cylinders getting re-bored locally.
Rebuilding the carbs myself with OEM kits.

But on to today's drama. LOL.

The bilge. This boat had a water line half way up the engines. The bilge was a mess. Water was up to the locker door in front and up to the top of the fuel tank in the back when I got it.

Used my shop vac to suck all the nasty water out. I say water. More like muddy oil infested water. But the bilge kept filling up. I'd have to vacuum out water every day. I wanted to replace all the bilge/deck drain lines and that meant pulling out the fuel tank. That was fun.

Under the gas tank is a stainless plate, riveted on in 3 places and the bilge pump line runs underneath it. Got those rivets out and ripped up the stainless cover. It was full of mud under there and a drowned rat (which blocked my shop vac!).

What does that stainless plate actually do? I'm thinking I won't put it back. The bulkhead between the engine bay and the bilge pump bay has a big soft spot in it and that is where my water keeps coming from. Poked a hole in there with my screwdriver and I keep sucking the water up once a day. Oh well. Once all the water finally drains out of all the polystyrene foam, I'll seal up the whole lower bilge area.

How common is it for water to get into the floatation areas?

Oh, and I'm replacing the bilge pump as this one is seized. They don't make one that fits the holder so I ground off the rivet heads and popped the old holder off. Is there foam under the bilge floor? Can you drill through the glass a wee way and install new rivets? There is definitely some room under there because the bilge is flat and the hull is a vee.

 

[BarryH]

My son recently purchased a 1994 Speedster and I was looking at the wiring in the picture you posted of the grey box. Specifically, I was looking at the 3 solenoids. Could you do me a big favor and tell me where the thick red and grey cables go? I'm sure they go to the battery and the starter, but which color goes where? I'm guessing that the grey wires go to the battery? On my son's Speedster, I believe the left and right solenoids aren't wired correctly.

Also, the center solenoid appears to connect the two grey wires together. Do you have any idea what this is for? Does it connect the two batteries to the single starter when the starter button is pushed?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Barry

 

[noooby]

Ugh. Seadoo why do you do this to me!

Cylinders are bored out and matched to the new 0.5 over pistons. New cranks arrived from CVT AAB. They look super nice. But they didn't come with wrist pin bearings. So I ordered bearings from another vendor. Everyone says the 657X uses the 717 wrist pin bearings and when you go to most online stores, that is what they say also.

Yeah, no. Bearings arrived and they fit nicely on the pin and they're wider than the original bearings and fit nicer side to side in the piston. But the OD is only 24mm instead of the 25mm original bearings.

My original cranks were Seadoo 657X pinned cranks. Cylinders and pistons were OEM standard size. Wrist pin bearings were 20ID x 25OD x 21.717 wide, which is NOT what the 717 runs.

So then I went hunting for Seadoo parts books because I wasn't happy that my engine didn't seem to conform.

The 1994 Speedster parts book shows Wrist Pin bearing 290832440 installed on the 657X crank 290886557.

The Seadoo parts books (and they could very well be wrong) say that EVERY 657 and 657X uses the same 290832440 Wrist Pin bearing, which is NOT the 717 Wrist Pin bearing (290832420).

I checked the 94 & 95 Speedster, 94, 95 & 96 Explorer, 95 Sportster, 94 & 95 SPX, 93 & 94XP, 94XPI, 94 & 95GTX

There was only one exception I could find. The 1993 XP has a 657 (non-X) engine and runs the 717 Wrist Pin bearings. All the other engines in the above list ran non-717 size Wrist Pin bearings.

But I really didn't like the side to side play in the original bearings. Width wise they are 21.717mm but the gap across the piston is 24.206. That is nearly 2.5mm gap! So I went hunting and found that Wiseco do a slightly wider bearing. Instead of 20x25x21.717, they do a 20x25x22.8. Which will leave a 1.4mm gap.

The 717 bearings (if they would work on the con rod!) would leave a 1.05mm gap.

So, has anyone else run into this? Tribal Knowledge told me that the 657X and 717 shared rods and bearings but this does not seem to hold true.

Anybody need some new 717 Wrist Pin bearings? Brand new unused. The freight back to the place I bought them is more than the refund I'd get.