'96 Challenger won't plane unless someone sits at front of boat. Possible RPM issue?
'96 SeaDoo Challenger. Roommate bought it a couple weeks ago but he is not mechanically inclined so I am doing the repairs/restoration for him.
When we first took it out, it would not go above 15mph whatsoever. Took a look and saw some solid gouges in the wear ring. This is the first jet drive I've ever worked with so I let someone else handle this repair. We took it to a mechanic in San Antonio who put in a new wear ring. He remarked that the Skat-Trak impeller has a few minor dings but estimated that it had 60-70% life remaining and advised against replacing it.
Huge improvement. Top speed on GPS is 38mph.
However, the boat still has a hard time getting on plane. We noticed that if someone sits at the front of the boat, it will start to plane almost immediately (~15 seconds.)
However, without someone sitting up at the front, it struggles to plane. The other thing I noticed was while the boat is struggling to plane, the engine can't get above 5,500rpm even at full throttle. Once the boat planes however, it gets up to 6,500rpm and reaches it's top speed.
I read on this forum that one way of diagnosing power issues is to pull the choke while the throttle is open and seeing how that affects the RPMs. I am going to try that next time I get it out on the water.
I've also read a bit about the RAVE valves. They are a pretty interesting little component. I'm going to pull those off today and see if they are sticking, before cleaning and reinstalling them.
Also going to verify the position of the exhaust water valve.
Also going to check the compression when I can pickup a gauge from AutoZone.
Anyone have any other ideas of what I should check or what might be going on? Thanks in advance.
'96 SeaDoo Challenger. Roommate bought it a couple weeks ago but he is not mechanically inclined so I am doing the repairs/restoration for him.
When we first took it out, it would not go above 15mph whatsoever. Took a look and saw some solid gouges in the wear ring. This is the first jet drive I've ever worked with so I let someone else handle this repair. We took it to a mechanic in San Antonio who put in a new wear ring. He remarked that the Skat-Trak impeller has a few minor dings but estimated that it had 60-70% life remaining and advised against replacing it.
Huge improvement. Top speed on GPS is 38mph.
However, the boat still has a hard time getting on plane. We noticed that if someone sits at the front of the boat, it will start to plane almost immediately (~15 seconds.)
However, without someone sitting up at the front, it struggles to plane. The other thing I noticed was while the boat is struggling to plane, the engine can't get above 5,500rpm even at full throttle. Once the boat planes however, it gets up to 6,500rpm and reaches it's top speed.
I read on this forum that one way of diagnosing power issues is to pull the choke while the throttle is open and seeing how that affects the RPMs. I am going to try that next time I get it out on the water.
I've also read a bit about the RAVE valves. They are a pretty interesting little component. I'm going to pull those off today and see if they are sticking, before cleaning and reinstalling them.
Also going to verify the position of the exhaust water valve.
Also going to check the compression when I can pickup a gauge from AutoZone.
Anyone have any other ideas of what I should check or what might be going on? Thanks in advance.
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