bought a 98 challenger 1800

[Ricot83]

Hey guys, just bought a 98 challenger 1800. The guy was on long island and i am in CT, he had tons of interest within two days of listing it and I couldn't get there until the weekend, he was nice enough to hold it for me after the only guy that actually showed up low balled him saying it needed too much work.
Well I arrived with a buddy that fixes and races skis and boats and we checked it out. In his words, "home run." The issues with the boat were all disclosed and tons of pics sent before I even went down; Carbs need rebulding, one bad drive shaft, couple tears in the captain's chair, one weedless gate is sealed in the up position and the other one has a rusted rod, otherwise basic maintenance and cleaning.

I will try and post some pics when I can.

 

[Coastiejoe]

Congrats on the purchase. Hope you have no unexpected issues...

 

[Ricot83]

Thanks me too, I checked compression on motors, my compression tester sucks but 150ish all four cylinders. We shall see what happens with carbs back on. My buddy also used his bore scope and checked everything out, all clear. The seller was very thorough with his descriptions and he seemed very honest pointing out every single thing he could think of that was "wrong" right down to the rubber strap that holds the ladder up. It had current registration for NY which doesn't help me, but helped me trust the owner, he was a jet ski guy bought the boat and said he hated working on his head, so after 3 years wanted to sell it, and if not would just clean the carbs and use it again.

Questions:
Weedless grate, one is bolted to the cable as it should be, but then where the cable passes through the hull it is epoxied in place, not to worried about that. The other grate has a completely rusted bolt from the cable and is currently dangling open. My plan was to just bolt it back up and not use it, good plan?

Counter balance shaft oil, is this accessible with engines installed? Can I pull the plug on top and check the oil?

I also plan to remove and clean the rave valves, just waiting on gaskets to come.
That's all I can think of right now, I am pretty mechanically inclined but my friend is the one that knows all this stuff pertaining to seadoos.

 

[Ricot83]

Figured I would update...
Radio works, had a loose ground wire, replaced speakers due to one blown, and that's set, replaced latch to ski locker that was missing, cleaned up latches for both compartments in "cockpit" as they were sticky. Cleaned bilge a bit and also the bilge pump sensor, haven't tested that yet. Last night removed rave valves and cleaned them up. One engine is an sbt engine and that had a small amount of carbon, the other engine appears Oem and had no carbon at all, need to get two new orings for the raves, as the old ones are getting brittle.
Also added a scupper valve. I think old one fell off or was removed at some point.
I started compounding and polishing the boat but just ran out of time. Added a battery disconnect too while I was at it.

My friend had trouble setting up the carbs, as he could not get the accelerator pumps to work no matter how much he cleaned, so he is planning to re jet the carbs and bypass the pumps all together. He is taking the boat tomorrow to bring it to his place and remove the jet pumps and replace carbon rings, driveshaft, and wear rings, as well as go through everything else, then dunk it in the water on the trailer to test it hopefully thursdaynor Friday.