carbon ring or bellows

[pincusa]

I'm having a cavitation issue and after reading everything I think air is getting in at the carbon ring. Looking at it, it's hard to see when it's worn and where the air would leak in.
So my question is, is it usually the carbon ring or is it the bellows that gets hard and don't push on the carbon ring? Does anyone have a picture of worn out/leaking carbon ring?

I was thinking of replacing just the bellows and maybe resurfacing the carbon seal. Has anyone done that with success?

 

[Dr Honda]

Some people have had luck with just putting more pressure on the carbon ring by loosening the rear boot clamp… pushing it up, and re tightening it. I tried it, and didn’t work for me. From the outside, my ring looked good, but once I got it off… it was shot. For the time an effort it takes to remove the driveshaft… I would just replace all three parts of the seal (carbon ring, stainless ring, and boot) and be done with it for the next 10 years. It cost me about $75 for all the parts to do mine, and there is ZERO cavitation now. I bought the heavy duty kit from seadoo source. His kit comes with an OEM carbon ring, a heavier stainless ring, and new o-rings. Then I got a std. replacement boot.

Just an FYI… don’t try to save a few $$$ by getting an aftermarket carbon ring. They are known to be bad, and fail after a short time.

 

[pincusa]

Thanks Tony - Can you tell me what your carbon seals looked like? Mine still look flat and w/o grooves, so I'm wondering if they're really the problem. But in the end, the time to chase these things down and taking the pumps on and off might not be worth it...