HX Motor Loose

[noviceskier]

Towards the end of the season, the motor in my HX decided it didn't want to stay attached to the bed plate and has decided it wants to go loose on me, just wanting to verify some things before taking it all apart and going in to fix it.

If I leave the pump in place, will I need to realign the motor?

All the motor mounts seem fine, it looks like where the motor mounts itself to the bedplate is where it went loose. Just imagine all I'll have to do is remove the four mounts and angle the assembly up and retighten it(?)

Going to replace my yellow coupler with the updated red one when I finally decided to get up and get it done, just curious as to if anyone has some advice/ideas. Cheers

 

[mikidymac]

You will have to realign the engine. This is crucial on the HX and 97+ XP.
Typically what happens is the bed plate bolts get loose then the motor moves around and wears the cases and you no longer have a flat case bottom. Other times the bedplate actually cracks. You need to pull the engine and bed plate check the cases to be flat and torque the bolts to factory spec with medium loctite.

 

[noviceskier]

You will have to realign the engine. This is crucial on the HX and 97+ XP.
Typically what happens is the bed plate bolts get loose then the motor moves around and wears the cases and you no longer have a flat case bottom. Other times the bedplate actually cracks. You need to pull the engine and bed plate check the cases to be flat and torque the bolts to factory spec with medium loctite.

Damn, was hoping I could slide (although highly doubted it) without needing to have the tool. I'll follow up on this thread later with updates as I go along then. Positively thinking, it'll give me the opportunity to clean everything up the way I wanted when I first started this project originally.

 

[noviceskier]

Alright, had gotten the motor pulled Wednesday night, found out my yellow coupler shredded into pieces, probably what failed in the first place causing the whole thing to come loose from the bedplate, ah well. Just lucky it didn't take out my driveshaft in the process.

Pulling the motor was actually pretty easy, had left the oil tank connected and carbs as well when I pulled.

Next thing's next is jetpump and driveshaft assy so I can get it realigned.

Going to give everything a nice cleaning before reinstalling, although I do have a couple questions.

Anything I should purchase while i have the whole ski gutted? Figured if there's any preventative maintenance I can do while I have access to everything I'll go ahead and get it taken care of. Next question is does anyone know where I can purchase a new fuel filler neck for the HX? Mine's cracked and I'm pretty sure it's bad enough to cause a leak as I've noticed some fuel coming from there after riding last season. Would just like to have it replaced. Anyone know where I can source oem oil filters? I've been looking all around on previous vendors I've used before and they're all out of stock.

I think this's my final question for this post. Is there a specific tool for two piece driveshaft setup that's found in the hx? Or would any alignment tool be able to work for me? I don't mind purchasing one from sbt as I'll be needing one for my speedster as well, but I just want to know before purchasing for sure. Or if anyone's willing to rent one out for a couple days I'll be more than happy to do that too for now-!

(I'll update later tonight with some pictures as my phone's charging this moment)

 

[mikidymac]

The alignment tools are the same.

I think OSD sells the OEM oil filters.

No sure on the filler.

 

[noviceskier]

Okay, I had finished this project so I thought. I had completely gutted the ski, ordered two red driveshaft couplers to replace the two yellow ones. Torqued bedplate to motor to spec and applied 243 loctite to the threads as well. Motor is more than snug, had ordered the sbt alignment tool and aligned the motor to the driveline as well.

Everything is perfect, carbon seal is snug and tight. Changed the fluid on my jetpump just cause since I had a some leftover from when I did my other pumps. Fluid looked brand new still as I had only taken it out on the water for about 20 hours last season.

Back to the original issue, the bolts on my exhuast, new bolts and washers and loctite 243 on those as well and some copper rtv around the waterjacket holes just as a precationary. Took it out for about 30 minutes yesterday and everything ran beauitfully. Ski's even faster than before and 0 noise from my driveline as well.

Well today, I had wanted to go on the water for a short while in the afternoon. I get it on the water and I slowly start ramping into the power (being rough on the ski as I like to be as it's one of the most fun skis I own.)

Next thing I know I can audibly hear the exhuast noise from inside and start losing power. Limp it back to the ramp and all the bolts are loose again. I'm not sure what else could be causing this problem, I'm too the point where I'm about to just weld these things on to the manifold haha.

 

[noviceskier]

(Some pictures to show the progress)

Had converted the ski over to full synthetic since I don't want to have to buy two separate oils for each seadoo. Replaced all the oil lines and flushed the system along with a new filter as well.

Here's a picture of the bleeding process along with double checking the oil pump alignment.




Got the engine installed, aligned, and torqued to spec inside the ski:


Had done everything accordingly, and the issue still persists. Am stumped, any insight would be appreciated

 

[noviceskier]

Read a post from the doc and he mentioned this:

"You are probably over torquing them. They only get tightened to about 18 Lb/ft. If you over tighten them... they stretch, and the gasket crushes. Then... when the engine cools... they become loose. AND... the next ride... they vibrate out."

This really does sound exactly like what my problem is, over torqued them because I really didn't want to have to deal with this issue again. My exhaust gasket is torn/stretched now, and my bolts are loose, but yesterday they weren't. Going to get some lockwashers and a new gasket and see how it goes this weekend.

 

[1of500]

So just to be clear, the exhaust bolts came loose or the bed plate ?

 

[noviceskier]

So just to be clear, the exhaust bolts came loose or the bed plate ?

The original issue was were the engine mounted to the bedplate became loose, due to the yellow driveshaft couplers going out on me. Which in return caused the 4 bolts to the pipe/manifold to back out from the vibrations. The issue now is those same 4 bolts are still backing out, most likely because I had overtorqued them like what Dr Honda had said in a previous post.

 

[1of500]

Double check the threads in the manifold to be sure they aren't partially stripped out. I've had it happen on my rxx one of the holes was missing 3/4 of the thread I installed helicoils

 

[noviceskier]

Double check the threads in the manifold to be sure they aren't partially stripped out. I've had it happen on my rxx one of the holes was missing 3/4 of the thread I installed helicoils

I was thinking the same thing as well, hoping not to be the case but ah well. I'll update with the results whenever I've the chance to work on it again.

 

[mikidymac]

Just to be sure, you did replace all the rubber bushings in the pipe mounts correct?

 

[noviceskier]

Just to be sure, you did replace all the rubber bushings in the pipe mounts correct?

Brand new, new rubber bushings and metal ones as well w/243 on threads

 

[mikidymac]

Gaskets should be dry, no sealant and torqued to factory specs. I like to get everything hand tight then start torquing.
Ultra Copper RTV only goes on the copper sealing ring and that joint should be perfectly even and snug before you even think of tightening the band clamp.