96 XP Revival

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The hump seat was s factory seat. You can’t just put s hump cover on a regular seat.

Call jettrim they are the best cover you can buy. A class above hydroturf and black tip.

Thank you! That’s the information I was looking for. I assumed it was a factory option, but I couldn’t find much info on it. I’ll give Jet Trim a call.
 
Does this wear ring look to be in spec? I thought the ones on the Speedster were bad, but this one takes the cake. It’s almost non existent!
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That’s a lot of daylight!
 
So I made some more progress! The stock airbox is in, the pump is rebuilt with a new wear ring, the hood and handlebar cover are painted, and the first pass with polish has been done! I’ve been living in the garage for the past week working on this thing, but it’s starting to look decent. I’ve still got to strip decals off of the bottom of the hull and sand/clear the hood, but I’m getting there. I ordered a seat cover as well. I wound up buying an Mline one rather than the jet trim. I just liked their design a little better, and they were quite a bit less expensive too. Hopefully the quality is decent, but if not, I’ll buy a Jet Trim for next season and have a little practice with the staple gun and stretching vinyl...
 
So I finally was able to get the ski out on the water and ride it today. The carbs are all freshened up, the pump is rebuilt, and the top side of the hull is looking pretty decent. I’m still waiting on the seat cover, and I need to strip the decals off of the bottom and apply some new ones that I ordered.

Overall it runs pretty good! This thing is way faster than my 95XP! It GPS’d 54 in mild chop today, and it would have kept going if I could have found enough smooth water to stay in the throttle. Max RPM is about 6600. Does that seem about right? I’ve also got just a bit of hesitation from right off of idle to about 1/4 throttle. Above that it’s flawless. The carbs have the choke plates removed, so I think I need to open the low speed screw up a bit from stock. Right now I’ve got them set at 1 turn out for the low speed and barely cracked on the HS. Does anyone have a suggestion for how far I need to open up the LS? I’m sure I’ll have to tweak some and read the plugs, but if someone could give me a good starting point it would help cut down the time tuning. Thanks in advance for all the help!
 
You should be able to make that difference up with the low speed needles. Try them 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 open from closed. You can try playing with the red cap on the water regulator also.
 
Thanks Matt! I’ll try to open the LS up a bit and see if that helps. As far as the regulator goes, which direction should I be moving with it? I’ll have to look at where it’s set when I get home, but I believe it’s at the stock setting of 2 clicks out from flush.
 
Open the red cap further to have it hit sooner. It won't tune out a carb issue but it's good to adjust back and forth a little to make sure it's in the best spot for you.
 
Well I got it on the water for a good run yesterday and found that it was down on power, and would only pull about 6100 rpm. After a few seconds at WOT, the ski died and I had a hard time getting it fired back up.

Once I got back to the dock, I pulled the seat and found a tear in the line from the water regulator to the exhaust pipe, so I put it back on the trailer and replaced that line with some clear vinyl tubing so that I could see what was happening.

I took it back out this afternoon and ran it with the seat off for a bit, and I don’t see much water at all moving through that line. There’s some moisture there, but no visible stream. I was under the impression that a diaphragm failure would cause too much water rather than too little, so where should I start looking? I’ll pull the whole valve tomorrow and start digging in, but the only thing I’ve touched on the valve was the red adjustment cap, and I only moved it two clicks. I can’t imagine that would stop flow all together, and it would be odd that it got plugged right when I made the adjustment, but I guess stranger things have happened. Anyone have any insight?
 
Also, a few pics of the progress so far... it’s still got some work to be done, but it’s getting there cosmetically!
 

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Yeah that 95 look amazing too.

The water regulator does dry the pipe out when it fails. The coupler between the chamber and waterbox and the rear riser hose commonly get overheated. It should have turned more than 6100rpm though.
 
I found my water regulator problem this morning. The regulator housing had turned enough to pinch the line from the valve to the T on the larger hose. I’ll pull it off and go through everything again today, but that’s the only thing that seems to have changed between the other day when it pulled 6680 and yesterday when it did 6140. Is there a particular sealant or thread locker that’s called for when reinstalling the regulator?
 
I found my water regulator problem this morning. The regulator housing had turned enough to pinch the line from the valve to the T on the larger hose. I’ll pull it off and go through everything again today, but that’s the only thing that seems to have changed between the other day when it pulled 6680 and yesterday when it did 6140. Is there a particular sealant or thread locker that’s called for when reinstalling the regulator?

I used loctite 518 on mine, it creates a good seal. I'm not certain that's correct per the service manual, but it doesn't leak on me.
 
Thanks guys! The inside of the regulator looks pretty clean and fresh, so I threw it back on with new lines going to the tee and the pipe. I assume I’m fine to use this clear vinyl tubing for the time being, as it’s rated for 55psi and it’s only moving water. The old line looks like flimsy discharge tubing, so I would think this is a better solution since I can keep an eye on the flow. Let me know if that’s a bad idea...
 
Thanks guys! The inside of the regulator looks pretty clean and fresh, so I threw it back on with new lines going to the tee and the pipe. I assume I’m fine to use this clear vinyl tubing for the time being, as it’s rated for 55psi and it’s only moving water. The old line looks like flimsy discharge tubing, so I would think this is a better solution since I can keep an eye on the flow. Let me know if that’s a bad idea...

Clear vinyl is fine, it's cheap and readily available at the local Home Depot. I use it on all the water routing, except the 1/2" lines. No issues and you can easily see any potential problems.
 
Well I’ve got good water flow now, but it is still dying at full throttle. It runs strong until I get up around 6K, and then it just falls on its face. It feels like the lanyard was pulled, but if I feather the throttle, I can keep it from dying completely most of the time. When it does die, it seems to fire right back up and run okay until you get the revs up again.

I know this sounds like a fueling issue, but it just feels electrical to me. The DESS post is new, and you can hit the start button and it fires right up without touching the lanyard after it dies. It will even start up before it slows down enough to come off of plane.

The carbs have been rebuilt with Mikuni parts including new needles and seats, and all of the fuel lines have been replaced. I didn’t replace the fuel selector, but I did blow it out and it seemed to be obstruction free. The fuel water separator is original as well, but the o ring is in place and it’s threaded on tight. Rave valves are cleaned with new soft parts as well. Of course I just went through the water control valve, and it seems to be functioning correctly now as well.

I’m thinking it could be the rectifier. It does seem like the battery gets a bit weak after riding for a while, and I really have a gut feeling that it’s electrical rather than fuel. It seems way too much like an on/off switch to just be a plugged up fuel system, and almost all of it has been gone through. I also pulled the plugs, and the mag side is richer than the pto, but I don’t think it’s lean by any means. The pto plug has a nice rich brown color like I would expect to see.

Anyone have suggestions?
 

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Take the on hose off the sending unit and plug it then use a vacuum pump on the carb inlet hose and see if it holds pressure to make sure you aren’t sucking air.

I never trust old on/off valves or strainers.

For the rectifier just unplug the red wire and see if it fixes it. I would check fuel system first so you don’t go lean and fry the top end.
 
Well I put 7psi into the “on” line from the baffle and plugged the carb inlet line. It held at 7psi for more than a minute. I also pressure tested the carbs again since I was already in there, and they held 10psi for more than a minute. I have a spare rectifier, so I’ll go ahead and swap it. Any other ideas where I might look if that doesn’t do the trick?
 
I'm surprised to hear that the fuel valve is holding pressure. Try pumping pressure to the carbs from the ON line right where it comes off the fitting on the baffle. That will test the whole supply side minus the tubes in the baffle.
When your shutting down at that rpm it is usually seizing. It cools and restarts but you have to quit with that obviously. Always get out of the throttle as soon as you feel the power fade. Make sure none of the lines are kinked like that water line was. The clear lines tend to get ugly in a couple months but most importantly they have no heat resistance. The original black water line has silicone in it.
 
I pressure tested the whole “on” system last night, and it’s holding pressure. I was actually hoping that it wouldn’t so that I’d have an idea where the problem lies.

I’m obviously not trying to push it when the power cuts out, but it just doesn’t feel like a seizure to me. The motor still rotates freely when it cuts out, as it’s still turning just from the water pushing through the pump. I’m going to try a new voltage regulator/rectifier, and I may pull the carbs back off again just to double check everything before I water test it with the new rectifier. At this point I’ve rebuilt at least a dozen Mikuni carbs after doing both motors on my boat and the other ski, and this one is the only one giving me trouble, so I don’t think it’s the carbs. Of course I’ve been wrong before, so we will see...

My other thought is possibly MPEM related. I don’t have power to any of my gauges, and this MPEM was just in a box of spare parts I got with one of the skis, so I don’t have any history on it. It’s just strange that it ran good for a couple of trips and then started acting this way. I probably need to put a meter on it and troubleshoot that too.
 
You want to test the fuel system under vacuum not pressure. Remember the carbs are pulling from the tank.
 
I had simular issue like you're experiencing, pulling back or a cut out at WOT. But when I'd let up, it would recover not quitting though. My issue was a brand new fuel selector, the rubber inside had twisted restricting flow. Have you done a bypass to rule it out? That's how I found it, aside from I would see occasional bubbles through the clear tygon line after selector to the carbs.
 
You want to test the fuel system under vacuum not pressure. Remember the carbs are pulling from the tank.

I hadn’t thought about needing to test under vacuum. I’ll have to pick up a vacuum pump to check that out.

I had simular issue like you're experiencing, pulling back or a cut out at WOT. But when I'd let up, it would recover not quitting though. My issue was a brand new fuel selector, the rubber inside had twisted restricting flow. Have you done a bypass to rule it out? That's how I found it, aside from I would see occasional bubbles through the clear tygon line after selector to the carbs.

I haven’t bypassed the selector and filter. I may give it a shot before I go out and buy a vacuum pump. I guess if it does the same thing when running directly from the reserve line, I can rule out a supply problem.
 
Make sure those lines are not swapped it's easy to do. Running out of fuel at 3/4 throttle happens when your feeding the carbs from the their return fittings. The symptom is different then a rectifier issue but it's good to check over that stuff anyway. Take us some pics or videos if you can.
 
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