Bowser's WaveRunner

[BrianMoore]

Thermal differential is the key. Unless you have dry ice or liquid nitrogen, you'll get about 100 degree differential at most cooling the shaft. But heat the bearing up (not ones with plastic shields) to 300 degrees F in an oven or an air fryer, now you are talking a 400 degree F differential. I've also heated bearings in cooking oil in a pot with candy thermometer when I needed to install it at the other end of the house in the garage. Work fast and it will drop right on.

 

[Bowser]

Thanks for the suggestion too ‘Mac.




I sheered off the hose barb to run water through the motor. Literally no effort sheered it clean off…
Can’t seem to get extractors to extract the residual metal stuck inside- merely reaming it out.

SO I could JB weld the broken piece back onto the fitting or buy a replacement exhaust cover with hose bard intact for ~$30.
I think I’ll try my luck JB welding it back together since it’s not a high pressure/ heat situation.
_ _ _ _

I have a couple more gaskets to order and the bearing for the driveshaft but it's mostly coming along.

 

[BrianMoore]

"it’s not a high pressure/ heat situation" Correct, it is the weight of the hose and vibration situation. Are you OK with the failure of a water hose inside the hull? Is the water flowing into the engine where a failure would overheat the engine or is it an outlet that would pour water inside the hull? I do not trust JB weld unless the failure mode is benign.

 

[mikidymac]

Just drill and tap for a standard NPT brass hose fitting.

 

[Bowser]

Brian thanks for the considerations- I would indeed want this to be a solid fix for a long time w/out worrying about engine overheating if the JB weld fails.

Just drill and tap for a standard NPT brass hose fitting.

This is a much better idea, thanks 'Mac! I'll proceed by finding a replacement brass hose fitting.

 

[Bowser]

Another step forward another hurdle appears.

I pulled off the pump assembly to access a few things needing repair; the impeller blades, pump cone, and broken assembly bolts. That bad boy was really corroded on- I hooked it all up to a winch and cranked on it while smacking it off with a mallet.



Now I'm stuck with the studs embedded in the assembly, shown above. I tried vice grip + P.Bizzle unscrew them out with no luck. Extractor drill bits are worthless too. Also cut a slot in the top and unscrew with a flat head blade with no luck.

SO either I trailer it to the pros to have them remove the broken bits or pull the whole b!tch out and replace everything I can. Both options comparable in price. The pump cone and stator vane component are really stuck on which makes me want to throw it all out and start with something I can actually access. The impeller seems to be held hostage ..

All this effort and the drive shaft coupler is still stuck?? I really don't know why it won't spin- there's no driveshaft in it where I though the problem was. I can't imagine having the motor in the hull engages it some how. I may have to take this Q to a Yamaha specific forum

 

[BrianMoore]

I thought about you a couple weeks back while working on trailer bearings. It started off with a plan to replace just the seals and repack the bearings. But one bearing looked sad so I decided to replace all bearings. I got the outer cups out of the hubs using a TIG to shrink them. New cups went into the freezer and the hubs into a 300F oven. The should just slip in, right? Wrong. The relatively small mass of the cups vs the large mass of the hubs allowed me to get the cups in about a 16th of an inch before they heated up and stopped. But at least they got started and I tapped them in the rest of the way. The job is always easy for the person not doing the work. Even though I am not working on your ski, it looks difficult to me.

 

[Bowser]

@BrianMoore Oof I know the feeling! Glad it got taken care of. Good encouragement to service my trailer bearings too.

 

[Bowser]

I bought a pair of WR500’s with trailer.

Both have everything intact aside from a broken hinge on the hood and shredded seats. It’s neat to see the differences between my first cough abused cough WR500 and these two stock models. I paid $450 for it in total which is easily what the trailer alone costs.
Tested the compression on one and it came back solidly 150 psi both cylinders!
I would test the other’s motor but I snapped the spark plug off in the head -___-

SO I’m going to hustle to get the carb I restored last summer on the working motor and fire it up!

 

[Bowser]

Here's the chosen WR500 with good compression, good fuel suction, but will not fire.

Spark tester checked out fine- albeit hard to see in daylight.
Fuel filter shows plenty of fuel available, primed cylinders + carb too
Starter spins it all well
Motor just won’t spark the fuel, in all the attempts it never fired a single bang or puff

I guess next step is to swap out the CDI ?

 

[Bowser]

My dudes this hobby is so frustrating.
I bought new spark plugs and tested the motor again with no luck. Before I swap CDI’s around I’m going to try another ignition/ kill switch just in case that’s the fault.



I did notice some fluid (I guess it’s fuel) sputtering out around the arrow in the picture. You can see the shine on the electrical cable here. Need to investigate further.
I feel perpetually on the verge of listing them all for sale vs. trying that. one. last. attempt. to get one running. It doesn't help I have a working motor in the garage just asking to be installed into one of the hulls.

 

[burtshaver2021]

Have you or do you own a running Seadoo? Because yes you are going to lose interest working on these if you don’t have one to go out on and enjoy. What you need to look for is either a running Seadoo for a good price or one that has spark and compression leaving a fuel issue, when the owner doesn’t know how to fix them, or has tried rebuilding the carbs with non OEM rebuild kit and can’t get it to run right, that’s where your deals are at, IMO anyways. Preferably a machine that had been used in fresh water only. I can’t believe what you guys working on these salt waster machines go through, I respect it, but couldn’t do it myself.

 

[JayMarr]

View attachment 64830

Also this bearing when replaced, does it get lubed?
I know the splines will get a hearty slather of Liqui Molly Marine lube.

Did you ever get an answer on this? I am currently doing the same job on my WR500, and have the same question.

 

[Bowser]

Have you or do you own a running Seadoo? Because yes you are going to lose interest working on these if you don’t have one to go out on and enjoy. What you need to look for is either a running Seadoo for a good price or one that has spark and compression leaving a fuel issue, when the owner doesn’t know how to fix them, or has tried rebuilding the carbs with non OEM rebuild kit and can’t get it to run right, that’s where your deals are at, IMO anyways. Preferably a machine that had been used in fresh water only. I can’t believe what you guys working on these salt waster machines go through, I respect it, but couldn’t do it myself.

Burt, you're so right about getting burnt out working on these without a working PWC to ride on. That's def happening here- skis everywhere but none work... Thanks for the pointers on finding a good model with a quick fix. I just need to pay-to-play and can't skirt it anymore thinking I can restore a 35 year old toy.

Did you ever get an answer on this? I am currently doing the same job on my WR500, and have the same question.

Unfortunately I have not gotten any advice on if that driveshaft bearing receives lube. Certainly the splines get slathered but I haven't found any source saying that bearing gets the same treatment.
I'm scheming up going to the local power sports dealer and seeing if there's an old timer with guidance.

 

[Bowser]

The perks of having parts skis available.
I tested another WR500's ignition switch to see if this was the issue on the chosen ski's failure to ignite.
No dice. Still. Just spinning & spinning without a single puff or bang. There IS positive glow seen on the spark tester but as said earlier I could not see it in daylight.

I'm nearly decided I'm going to put together the motor from my first WR that I know runs and swap it into this hull. A big task but I've just about run out of care to keep chasing this motor's issue. I could swap CDI's still but this motor is awfully corroded anyways.

Meh atleast my Dad's Yamaha ski boat is running this season- get my jet boating fix somehow

 

[Bowser]

Discovered the CDI had a disconnected wire but even with it connected the bugger won’t ignite. .. Seen in the photo lower right with red shrink wrap



The spare ski had a pinched cable though that motor is locked up anyways. Seen at the top most of the bundle.



I realized the fuel leaking mentioned in an above post is coming from this hose nipple- its snapped off and squirts a bit with each turn of the motor. I don't understand it's function though- parts catalogue says it's an oil fitting?


Looking at the replacement pics I guess this fitting just pushes in?
I don’t think this is the answer to my ignition issue but I’ll go about fixing it

 

[JayMarr]

Unfortunately I have not gotten any advice on if that driveshaft bearing receives lube. Certainly the splines get slathered but I haven't found any source saying that bearing gets the same treatment.
I'm scheming up going to the local power sports dealer and seeing if there's an old timer with guidance.

I ended up just saying F it and squirted a bunch of marine lithium grease in there and putting it back together. Ran it all day at the lake on Saturday and it seems fine, but I guess time will tell

 

[Bowser]

I ended up just saying F it and squirted a bunch of marine lithium grease in there and putting it back together. Ran it all day at the lake on Saturday and it seems fine, but I guess time will tell

Thank you for following up- I was thinking of reaching back out too. If I find a more solid answer I'll post it here.
Let's hope that'll do the trick!


SO I've decided the next step will be to swap the working motor from my first WR500 into this better hull.
The current motor's ignition keeps stumping me and I've passed my ability to care anymore.




I'm going to list for sale the third WR500 too.
Now if only the sweltering heat, humidity, and mosquitos would subside..