Hi Everyone,
I have a 1993 Sea Doo GTX with the rotax 587 engine (white).
I recently went through a bunch of maintenance: carb rebuild, new starter, solenoid, fuel lines, fuel and oil filter, oil lines, the works.
Then, as I went out for the first ride, I broke my ankle walking down to the ski on the beach.
I took it out for 2 rides even with the injury and toward the end of the second ride i noticed that the curved exhaust pipe (tuned pipe?) was leaking out water. One of the 4 bolts turned out to be stripped by the previous owner.
As i got the ski back and noticed it was taking on water in the hull, it started to slow down. I hit the kill switch before it shut itself down and swam it back with one leg. I think that the salt water added a lot of resistance to the ground wire going between the battery and starter because i couldn't get a click out of the starter solenoid.
Because of the broken ankle, I left it anchored in the ocean for a week until I could get someone to take it out of the water. It wasn't towed since i anchored it right in front of a launch and it was able to be walked back.
One week later, with the ski out of the water, I charged up the battery and tried to start it. No solenoid click, and trying to bypass the solenoid no starter action.
I tried hooking jumper cables directly to the starter to test the starter directly. The starter made a noise but the engine didn't crank. So it appears the starter isn't bad.
Trying to hand turn the engine, it won't budge. I poured a bunch of PB blaster into the cylinders and waited a few hours but no dice hand turning. I didn't have a pipe wrench and only a small pair of vise grips (and it's difficult to do these things on crutches) so I only made 1 small attempt to crank the engine that way.
Apart from the broken foot, I am also going away for 8 months fairly shortly. So, a few questions. I want to troubleshoot this the best I can to understand how I can rescue the ski. Do I need to be thinking about a rebuild, or, could it be that there was a small amount of water or humidity that caused the rings to become seized enough to be hard to start? If I want to use some more force to hand crank it, where should I grip and how? Is there anything else this could be?
I am thinking of trying to take the engine out to take it with me while I am away to rebuild it in my free time, or, trying to source a new motor to rebuild while I am away so that next summer I can just drop it in. Should I only look at 587s or could I look at a 717 or 787??
Thank you. Curious for any thoughts.
I have a 1993 Sea Doo GTX with the rotax 587 engine (white).
I recently went through a bunch of maintenance: carb rebuild, new starter, solenoid, fuel lines, fuel and oil filter, oil lines, the works.
Then, as I went out for the first ride, I broke my ankle walking down to the ski on the beach.
I took it out for 2 rides even with the injury and toward the end of the second ride i noticed that the curved exhaust pipe (tuned pipe?) was leaking out water. One of the 4 bolts turned out to be stripped by the previous owner.
As i got the ski back and noticed it was taking on water in the hull, it started to slow down. I hit the kill switch before it shut itself down and swam it back with one leg. I think that the salt water added a lot of resistance to the ground wire going between the battery and starter because i couldn't get a click out of the starter solenoid.
Because of the broken ankle, I left it anchored in the ocean for a week until I could get someone to take it out of the water. It wasn't towed since i anchored it right in front of a launch and it was able to be walked back.
One week later, with the ski out of the water, I charged up the battery and tried to start it. No solenoid click, and trying to bypass the solenoid no starter action.
I tried hooking jumper cables directly to the starter to test the starter directly. The starter made a noise but the engine didn't crank. So it appears the starter isn't bad.
Trying to hand turn the engine, it won't budge. I poured a bunch of PB blaster into the cylinders and waited a few hours but no dice hand turning. I didn't have a pipe wrench and only a small pair of vise grips (and it's difficult to do these things on crutches) so I only made 1 small attempt to crank the engine that way.
Apart from the broken foot, I am also going away for 8 months fairly shortly. So, a few questions. I want to troubleshoot this the best I can to understand how I can rescue the ski. Do I need to be thinking about a rebuild, or, could it be that there was a small amount of water or humidity that caused the rings to become seized enough to be hard to start? If I want to use some more force to hand crank it, where should I grip and how? Is there anything else this could be?
I am thinking of trying to take the engine out to take it with me while I am away to rebuild it in my free time, or, trying to source a new motor to rebuild while I am away so that next summer I can just drop it in. Should I only look at 587s or could I look at a 717 or 787??
Thank you. Curious for any thoughts.
