95 speedster upgrades and repair

[krazybob738]

Hey everyone i am looking for some help /advise. I just picked up this 1995 speedster with
twin 657 engines. Ok so here we go this is gonna be kinda long!

I have a list of upgrades i wanna do to the boat like switching to single big batt for the engines
but have heard this is bad for the mpem is this true?

Also i would like to add a second batt for a stereo and speakers and maybe an amp not sure yet.

I will be putting in a batt switch to manage the batts.

I also wanna add some led lights to the boat. (inside and outside and engine compartment)

I also wanna add some hydro turf for sure.

I also wanna add at some point a bimini top.

I have a friend who does decals so at some point i will be replacing my decals.

Any other suggestions are more than welcome!

Ok for the short list of things to fix are.

I have a loose throtle cable if i let go of the stick it just falls back to idle.

I need to add new wear rings and will prob replace the props i have massive cavitation issues.
what do you think of using sbt props? How hard is this job i am kinda scared to tacle it?

Also my boat is taking on water for a hole on the back of the boat what is this hole for?
(pic below) the only reason i suspect this is i decided to put water inside the boat add
see where it leaks out from and this is the place i had the water level just above the carbon
seals and nothing. I i also thought maybe water was coming in from the bilge but still not a
100% sure yet. Let me just add the water never goes higher then the bilge pump is this normal?

I am gonna put in new upholstrey this winter.

I have no speedo unit on the back of the boat the po removed it but the gauge is still there so i
will be looking for a new one of those.

I also need to get my fuel baffle fixed i have no fuel reading.

 

[Matt Braley]

The 94 and 95 boats have cavitation problems. They draw the water in from a large single grate and force it out two holes. The two sides can draw water away from each other. They are also bad about drawing air in. I can see from the pic that the left pump seems to be siliconed in. I would do that again after new drive shaft bearing/seals and wear rings.

On your 95 the impellers are a different pitch and the reduction nozzles are different sizes so be careful not to swap that stuff. This was Seadoo's attempt to deal with the problem but the real fix is 96 and later when they changed to separate intake areas for each engine.

I would bring all the service needs up to the top of the list before dropping coin on the cosmetics. Those MPEM's are bad about popping easy when the cables are crossed, when it's jumped from a boosted source, or charged with a high amp charger.

Your going to run two batteries anyway it sounds like. Just get good AGM's with over 300cc each. This way you can still utilize your switch that combines the two if one is run down(with fancy lights or something haha).

That drain is your deck drain. It is separate from the water in the engine compartment(you need a good working bilge pump for that) and it will back wash and wet your feet if you don't clean it out and flip the flapper regularly.

 

[krazybob738]

Hey matt!

Thanks for the reply I am going to flip that rubber thing first thing in the morning.

the po said he did the wear rings before he sold it but didn't have any paper work so I figured I would pull it apart and see.

As far as the batts go I was thinking to put 2 deep cycles in the boat but the whole dual batts and pulling the pumps apart kinda scare me I have never done anything like this before and I really don't wanna blow to mpem or pull the pump and not beable to put it back together again.

 

[Matt Braley]

Today you can get better batteries then you could 20 years ago. Hacking your engine compartment up to throw in tons of extra weight is not really an "upgrade in my opinion. I think you should buy good batteries and keep them on a trickle charger/maintainer when not in use. You will have to block off the original battery drain lines that exit the hull.

I forgot to say in my first response that you have 657X engines. They are different then the 657's in a lot of ways so be sure to clarify when ordering parts.

If you want to live with the cavitation then let it ride. It's always gonna have some and I'm not sure how bad yours is. If the motors run good and together then you should be able to use brute force to get you past the bad spot. It helps to have someone in the bow.

 

[krazybob738]

well I was thinking the two big batts would be better then two small batts and I have a hook up for marine deep cycles.

as far as the extra weight I didn't figure it would be that big of a deal as it is just me and my wife riding the boat although I was thinking about getting one of those solar trickle chargers from harbor freight so this might be the way I go my only real prob is the cost of those little batts I can buy 3 deep cell batts for the price of one of those little ones

now for the cavitation issue I don't know what normal would be. but it takes me about 30 to 40 seconds to plain out on the water with me and my wife in it sitting in the back I figured maybe an aftermarket prop and some wear rings would fix the issue I guess not I might just pull the pumps and at least check them out and if they are good change the oil and ride it out
as far as the engines go what is the diff? does anyone have a repair manual can download?

 

[Dr Honda]

With that batteries... it all depends on what you are doing. If you plan on hanging out, and running a radio... then moving up to a couple group 24 MS batteries is a good choice. But, keep in mind... the power output on these engines is relatively low. SO... if you drain them down... the engines will have a hard time bringing them back up. (you will probably want to charge them between trips)

On the other hand... a set of modern AGM batteries will be lighter, and still take care of most of the power requirements.



As far as cavitation... 30~40 sec is bad. Realistically... with 2 people in the boat... you should be able to mash the throttle, and have almost no discernable cavitation... and be up on plane in just a few seconds. The impeller, and wear rings are a good place to start... but if you pull any air in around the pump, or past the driveshaft seal... that will cause the kind of issues you are describing. So.. while you have the pumps out... rebuild the driveshaft seals, and then make sure 100% of the pump system is sealed.

 

[krazybob738]

Good evening:

thanks for the feed back! I amstill looking into the batt issue I figured I might just get a couple agm batts and use a solar charger from harbor freight.

As far as the wear rings and impellers I know what I am looking for as far as damage to the ring but what am I looking for on the impellers also how do I rebuild the drive shaft seal and where can I order the parts? thanks for the help I have never had to do anything like this before and am not 100% sure what to order.