Growling Noise

[machzgm29]

Hello, I am new to this, so bear with me, Just looking for some help or direction. Purchased a very clean 99 Challenger 1800 earlier this summer. Made the mistake, as I understand, what every newbie Jet Boat owner does and sucked up a tow rope. Was not a tight wrap, cut the rope ends and pulled the wrapped rope out with my hands. After putting it back into the water, I could not get over 4K RPM on the Port side motor (rope wrap happened on Port side), also hear a growling noise coming from that side. I have removed the removed the reverser bucket and pump, inspected the impeller and shaft, splines, etc. No signs of anything wrong there. Folks I have talked to seem to think a mild rope wrap wouldn't cause this, but ironically it started right after the rope wrap. Thoughts of what the growling noise may be and why I can only get 4K RPM?

 

[Ckrawiec]

Did you check the clearance between the impeller and the wear ring? The gap is designed to be miniscule and any increase in that gap will affect the boats performance.

Growling noises usually indicate that bearings are starting to go...might be time to do a rear service on the pump bearings. I suppose it might be possible that a "mild" rope wrap could throw off the shaft balance enough to scrape the wear ring or the rope scrapped through the ring....regardless, I'd start looking into the pump / wear ring situation as a first step.

 

[mikidymac]

If it won't go over 4,000rpm then it is not an impeller or wear ring issue. If those were bad you would get full rpm and the boat would not be moving like a clutch slipping.
The only thing pump related that would cause the 4,000 rpm limit would be if the bearings were seizing.

 

[machzgm29]

I had the pump in my hands (I am not a Jet pump expert by any means), but I didn't feel any signs of bearing seizure. Stupid question but would it be worth while to swap the pump units from port to starboard side to see if the noise comes now from the same pump? That would isolate the problem to either the pump or something else other than the pump. My fear is that it is a bearing in the bottom end of the motor. Is there a bearing near the PTO where the impeller shaft goes into?

 

[gazzaskirepair]

No harm in swooping over jet pumps
You could also do a compression check to confirm engine compression is good and check color of spark plugs too

 

[mikidymac]

Yes, to answer your question the rear crank bearings are at the back of the engine.