I acquired this SeaDoo while running a Salmon buying station and Tender in Prince William Sound Alaska, at which I still am. One of the fisherman brought a 2015 Spark and a 1998 GTX limited here to use in his fishing operation. The bubbles from the jet are good for chasing fish into the net. They were purchased together with a trailer off of CL from someone in the valley. The Spark had 14 hrs, who knows how many on the GTX.
They managed to get a bunch of 1/2 poly line and rocks in the Spark jet and toasted the impeller. We have a small shop here so we ordered an impeller and wear ring for it. When we pulled everything apart the old wear ring was completely gone, no evidence of it at all. Anyway we got that one going and he left it with us for the rest of the summer.
The real subject here is the GTX. They brought it over one evening when there was no fishing going on and a few of us were playing around on it. I was pretty surprised at good it ran for a 20 y/o machine. We did some kneeboard towing, Surf towing and all was good. Except for the low voltage warning and beep, which the fisherman wrote off as "it's nothing, voltage is fine". A few days go by and he brings it over again. He has a hard time getting it started and changes the plugs and tells us he's been putting in new plugs every few hours of running. Uh, not good. After another hour or so of use it wouldn't start, so it got left with us. We determined fuel pump in the carb was bad, had the tempo lines as well. I did use an aftermarket carb kit because it was the only one that I could get fast shipping to Alaska.
So this is what's happened since...
98 GTX limited, rebuilt carbs, new fuel hoses, new selector valve.
After finding an exhaust leak (thank you Matt) it was running good, sounded fine Did a high speed run at full throttle, RPMs a bit ove 7k and doing 54. Suddenly bogged and died. Restarted and wasn't running as good but still had some power but started sounding worse. Attempted another full throttle run and this time only 48mph and died. Didn't want to start, but finally got it to but sounded like it was on one cyl.
Eventually figured out it was only running on the aft, PTO side, cylinder. The plug on the other was black from oil but not wet with gas. Spark looks good, it's got some compression out the hole with the plug out but I don't have my tester with me so not sure what it is. Seems like the plug should be wet with gas if it's getting in there and not firing.
I thought maybe something happen in that one carb but I've had them off and the mag side apart to look for anything obvious but it's a real head scratcher.
I know I need to do a compression test, but aside from that what else do you think.
Long post I know but wanted to give some background.
Sean
They managed to get a bunch of 1/2 poly line and rocks in the Spark jet and toasted the impeller. We have a small shop here so we ordered an impeller and wear ring for it. When we pulled everything apart the old wear ring was completely gone, no evidence of it at all. Anyway we got that one going and he left it with us for the rest of the summer.
The real subject here is the GTX. They brought it over one evening when there was no fishing going on and a few of us were playing around on it. I was pretty surprised at good it ran for a 20 y/o machine. We did some kneeboard towing, Surf towing and all was good. Except for the low voltage warning and beep, which the fisherman wrote off as "it's nothing, voltage is fine". A few days go by and he brings it over again. He has a hard time getting it started and changes the plugs and tells us he's been putting in new plugs every few hours of running. Uh, not good. After another hour or so of use it wouldn't start, so it got left with us. We determined fuel pump in the carb was bad, had the tempo lines as well. I did use an aftermarket carb kit because it was the only one that I could get fast shipping to Alaska.
So this is what's happened since...
98 GTX limited, rebuilt carbs, new fuel hoses, new selector valve.
After finding an exhaust leak (thank you Matt) it was running good, sounded fine Did a high speed run at full throttle, RPMs a bit ove 7k and doing 54. Suddenly bogged and died. Restarted and wasn't running as good but still had some power but started sounding worse. Attempted another full throttle run and this time only 48mph and died. Didn't want to start, but finally got it to but sounded like it was on one cyl.
Eventually figured out it was only running on the aft, PTO side, cylinder. The plug on the other was black from oil but not wet with gas. Spark looks good, it's got some compression out the hole with the plug out but I don't have my tester with me so not sure what it is. Seems like the plug should be wet with gas if it's getting in there and not firing.
I thought maybe something happen in that one carb but I've had them off and the mag side apart to look for anything obvious but it's a real head scratcher.
I know I need to do a compression test, but aside from that what else do you think.
Long post I know but wanted to give some background.
Sean
