Biggest sea doo fail EVER!!

[nammer]

So, I've been working on my three jet skis a lot in order to get ready for a big beach bday party for my mother in law and brother in law this past weekend. I thought I had them all ready to go, every single one seemed to have a lot of promise. From what I could tell, I thought they were gonna ride awesome. Here's what really happened. I dropped them off at the ramp, had to go 3 miles of idle zone, and then off we went. Right outside the idle zone, my 97 gsx was getting really low, and at full throttle was barely going 10-15 mph, i told my buddy to cut it off, and we'll tow it in. We started towing it with my 96 gsx, and then it died all of a sudden. My 1996 spi was running great, so there were 4 of us out there on 3 skis, so i told my friend to take one person at a time to the beach, and we'll slowly tow each one in, then that one stopped too. luckily we were close enough to shore to have the four of us in the water swimming the 3 jet skis in. I thought the 96 spi had a bad battery, so i switched batteries and then it tried to start by itself without me hitting the start button, then it won't try to start at all, even when i hit the start button and have the key in. We asked the homeowner if we could tie them to her dock, and she didn't have a problem with that at all. I come back in the evening during a torrential storm and it was low tied, so i opened up the drain plugs on my water filled 97 gsx and find that the water regulator hose was unhooked (I probably forgot or did not clamp it) as well as 2 of those small hoses from the exhaust and pee hole are busted. Anyways I leave them there overnight, and come get them in the morning in low tide, I wasn't too far from a marina, so i walked them halfway, and swam them halfway when it got too deep. Basically my 2 stroke jet ski are OVER!!! I told myself no more jet skis for the next 5 years, I'm starting school again in august, so even before all this, i was planning on selling them right after this bday party, too bad none of them are running now Thanks so much for all your guys help throughout my entire seadoo ownership, I'll prob roam the forums occasionally, but not like i was as a seadoo owner, here's my ad

http://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/boa/3889682348.html

prices are of course OBO if anybody here is interested

 

[Greg]

Nammer, sorry to hear about this.. You should definitely keep one of your skis though.. Would you break up the lot?

 

[nammer]

it's no fun with only 1 ski and yea i'll def break the lot just want them all gone, there have times they have been awesome on the water, but they have also brought so much unnecessary frustration!!!

 

[Ryan331]

I'd buy your GSXs at a fair price as-is if you lived anywhere nearby, I love all 3 of mine, even with downtime. Shame you're down in FL I learned last time out at the lake, that esp in rough wake.. pull them out overnight

This season I've been out 7 times so far (in 5 weeks) and one full weekend at a lake..

I've:
-Sunk the 97 (carbon seal) while it was tied to a dock (lots of rough wake) water was low enough below the intake that I just drove it to drain it, but it was a close call
-The 98 limited won't start after one weekend out, it has spark and cranks strong so thinking its a fuel delivery issue
-the 97 came unhooked from the dock (used an anchor bag as one of the tie downs as we ran out, and the rope end around the clip came out..) hammered the front of it pretty good (going to need some gel coat repair)
-2 weekends ago split the coupler on the exhaust (seems to be more from just 16 years and nearly 300 hours of use, there was definitely water going through the exhaust as that's how I found the problem) choked out the engine bay til it fouled spark plugs from running rich and swam it the last 50 yards to the dock that I was limping it to

To me it's all part of the fun, but I love tinkering and on weekends I have the time to do it

It doesn't sound like they've got that many issues.. It's just that you have to deal with issues on all 3 at once that seems overwhelming, if you can't sell them, maybe try taking a step back, ignoring 2 and just focus on dialing one in... The others will fall into place once you get one all fixed up..

 

[Coastiejoe]

Sorry to hear of your bad day. I can't imagine the frustration that comes with it.

As much as I love my skis, if I had days like yours I would sell them too.

 

[ocod]

Noooooo,
Damm Nam!

Did you get into med program?

 

[RebuiltSeadooBaffles]

Man, I understand your frustration but I dont know if I could part ways with low hour, good condition skis like those. I have had more frustrating days with 2 strokes than fun days but it always comes down to being something stupid thats causing the problems. I picked up my 95 SP and 97 SPX about 2 months ago and have had everything out of them to check over, pump out 2 times, carbs out about 4-5 times on each ski, mulitiple 10-15 min test runs at a lake thats 22 miles from me just so I know they are up to par and wont leave me in the middle of the lake, I told the wife out of frustration that the SPX has one more chance or im selling them both, went to the lake this past saturday and the starter bendix seized AGAIN on me AFTER I drove it to the dock to park it for a few mins.... Good luck in whatever you do.

 

[El Toro 33809]

I can't believe this Nam!!! Hate to see you go. Good luck and stay in touch.

 

[nammer]

I'd buy your GSXs at a fair price as-is if you lived anywhere nearby, I love all 3 of mine, even with downtime. Shame you're down in FL I learned last time out at the lake, that esp in rough wake.. pull them out overnight

This season I've been out 7 times so far (in 5 weeks) and one full weekend at a lake..

I've:
-Sunk the 97 (carbon seal) while it was tied to a dock (lots of rough wake) water was low enough below the intake that I just drove it to drain it, but it was a close call
-The 98 limited won't start after one weekend out, it has spark and cranks strong so thinking its a fuel delivery issue
-the 97 came unhooked from the dock (used an anchor bag as one of the tie downs as we ran out, and the rope end around the clip came out..) hammered the front of it pretty good (going to need some gel coat repair)
-2 weekends ago split the coupler on the exhaust (seems to be more from just 16 years and nearly 300 hours of use, there was definitely water going through the exhaust as that's how I found the problem) choked out the engine bay til it fouled spark plugs from running rich and swam it the last 50 yards to the dock that I was limping it to

To me it's all part of the fun, but I love tinkering and on weekends I have the time to do it

It doesn't sound like they've got that many issues.. It's just that you have to deal with issues on all 3 at once that seems overwhelming, if you can't sell them, maybe try taking a step back, ignoring 2 and just focus on dialing one in... The others will fall into place once you get one all fixed up..

haha, looks like you've had your fair share of problems too, yea, even if they don't have major breakdown problems, i've just recently found them to be money pits, it's one thing after another, just prior to this outing, my 96 spi, the carbon seal went, so i had to replace that, and as i was putting everything back together, and greasing the driveshaft, the pto boot busted, so i had to do everything again. And the starter solenoid on the 1996 gsx was just replaced earlier last week.

Sorry to hear of your bad day. I can't imagine the frustration that comes with it.

As much as I love my skis, if I had days like yours I would sell them too.

i told myself 2 weeks ago, when i was replacing all those parts, right after this party, they are all for sale, the breakdown just solidified everything, and no regrets about getting rid of perfectly running skis, i had a blast with them before though, my 97 gsx was amazing fast for my standards, and the purple spi was tons of fun doing 180's in the water

Noooooo,
Damm Nam!

Did you get into med program?

hey oscar, actually goin to pharm school over in st pete, so we are planning on moving in 2 months anyway, and might not have a garage

Man, I understand your frustration but I dont know if I could part ways with low hour, good condition skis like those. I have had more frustrating days with 2 strokes than fun days but it always comes down to being something stupid thats causing the problems. I picked up my 95 SP and 97 SPX about 2 months ago and have had everything out of them to check over, pump out 2 times, carbs out about 4-5 times on each ski, mulitiple 10-15 min test runs at a lake thats 22 miles from me just so I know they are up to par and wont leave me in the middle of the lake, I told the wife out of frustration that the SPX has one more chance or im selling them both, went to the lake this past saturday and the starter bendix seized AGAIN on me AFTER I drove it to the dock to park it for a few mins.... Good luck in whatever you do.

haha, your problems sound like the story of my life, and i only live about 3 miles away from a free ramp (have to idle 3 miles to get out) or I live about 4 miles from a $7 ramp that goes right into open water

I can't believe this Nam!!! Hate to see you go. Good luck and stay in touch.

yes sir, will do tim, I also wrote u FL guys a note in the FL classifieds, I'm still down to ride if available skis, i'd even rent skis if they could be brought to the location u guys are going, thanks for bein the first member i met in person!

 

[Spimothy Leary]

hate to see anybody quit... but I knew this thread was coming since we talked on the phone yesterday.

one consideration.... which we discussed as well, get them running, even if its just one at a time, and even if its just running on the trailer, and even if you have to drag it/them to a mechanic... but they sell for sooo much more when they start up, and at least then you'll have less of a sour taste in your mouth over the whole experience.

I'd still like to see you save one of them and keep it, but i understand that its better with multiple ski's for the family to go out..

 

[ocod]

I'm sure someone here can look them over and have one in return.
But I wouldn't give up so fast.
Its always the little things that ruin the day.

I/we all know how hard you've worked on them and have tried to keep them reliable.
Give a chance like Spim said. Get one to start on move on to 2nd ski.
I'm sure there are enough spare parts to gett them back working.

I wish I was closer to help.
I would tear into the SPI for you. Not so much 787 but willing to learn

:grouphug:

 

[nammer]

hate to see anybody quit... but I knew this thread was coming since we talked on the phone yesterday.

one consideration.... which we discussed as well, get them running, even if its just one at a time, and even if its just running on the trailer, and even if you have to drag it/them to a mechanic... but they sell for sooo much more when they start up, and at least then you'll have less of a sour taste in your mouth over the whole experience.

I'd still like to see you save one of them and keep it, but i understand that its better with multiple ski's for the family to go out..

lol, yup, this will be a temporary 4-5 year hiatus from jet skis, i was ready to call it quits even before everything broke down, i had hoped they were in running condition, but imo, even if they start, it'll only fetch a few more hundred and the hassle of water testing, and stuff, i'd rather take the loss and get them out of the way, also a real repair bill is easily gonna be 200-400 at the rate of $90-110 per hr, i figured at rock bottom prices, each gsx could maybe fetch 400-600?

I'm sure someone here can look them over and have one in return.
But I wouldn't give up so fast.
Its always the little things that ruin the day.

I/we all know how hard you've worked on them and have tried to keep them reliable.



I wish I was closer to help.
I would tear into the SPI for you. Not so much 787 but willing to learn
Give a chance like Spim said. Get one to start on move on to 2nd ski.
I'm sure there are enough spare parts to gett them back working.
:grouphug:

yea, that's how i got my first 2 running, when i traded off a 97 gsx, but yea maintenance and cost on these machines is more than i'd like, it sucks cuse they will run flawlessly for a few runs, then little things start going, maybe my next toy will be a motorcycle, if my wife doesn't kill/divorce me first, i had fuel injected gsxr a few years ago, and it needed ZERO maintenance, other than oil change

and thanks for the offer oscar, you've also helped a ton with the maintenance of my skis already