RocketFox650
Member
I bought a couple of jet skis on impulse last year in pretty good shape from the perspective of someone who had built everything you'd want on land. I was warned about a bad battery in the smaller one I intended my girl to use and all summer carried cables until our last ride when a well meaning person pulled her battery to charge and put it in backwards. I'm hoping only the battery was destroyed considering by then every start required a jump. I'll know today probably when the new battery is in. We also ended up with other issues over the year, but every single one has been impossible to get clear answers for from anywhere. Here's a list.
Her ski when jumped would often rev with no thrust for a bit but be fine after a few minutes or a shut down and restart. There's never been a blockage in the intake. Mine on our last ride started doing the same and I'd have to just idle around until it started going. Then I'd try to pick her up since hers was done until I got a battery and it would start again until I got her off and repeated the idle nonsense until we gave up. We drained the water before winter and I'm doing prep work to get them out now. According to 3 SeaDoo history sites and also hours reading forums, I have a 97 GSX via a piece of plastic on the deck that looks nothing like the HIN tags in pictures, hers has a number pressed into the fiberglass in back which ends in 95, no other marks or anything like a tag. Forums pretty clear that I have a 787 engine, but history sites only list a 750 or 951. I know 951 is possible but was a GSX Limited via forums. I believe she has a 540 but have done less digging. I'm trying to find a good comprehensive guide to preseason work that should be done, eventually a winterization one as well. If someone knowledgeable can just link a good one that would be enough as none I find seem consistent and I'm too new to know if something critical is missing beyond common sense motor stuff. Next is this cavitation problem. Why isn't it consistent? I did suck up gravel once and killed the engine instantly. Then pushed back out and rode another 6 hours without issue. I can't be as sure on the SP, but can confirm its also an issue that has happened multiple times and then cleared on its own with at least 8 individual day long excursions and was only parked because of the season ending and the battery fail on what was going to be our last time out anyways. Now that I'm many hours deep into learning about the issues unique to skis in general and some unique to my models, I can spot things I never knew to look for. GSX wear ring looks tight and pretty smooth but the impeller is for sure damaged with each blade bearing divots, scars, and even a quarter sized piece missing on one blade. There's no question about changing it. I haven't checked the SP yet but expect similar results. I've got my wife saying take it to a shop, a dad who's is incapable of letting anyone finish a thought before interjecting his opinion and any attempt to further explain is met with increasingly hostile interruptions of the same opinion, in this case he agrees I need a prop and while there a wear ring, but I must use OEM. I haven't found much on labor costs to have those issues corrected but assume it's considerably more than a car or ATV. Anything much more than $500 labor and it's not worth it as this doesn't seem that hard if you're skilled with mechanical builds and repairs. I will almost exclusively use them on inland lakes, maybe rivers but having learned about how fragile they are with debris I may avoid that entirely. Finally they may make one trip into Lake Michigan if I think we can handle the swells having never been anywhere close to those conditions. I've looked at stainless impellers and the added durability sounds pretty great, the performance boost doesn't matter as just getting one not so damaged will be significant and we were happy already. They already exceed our states speed limits. And a stainless wear ring would outlive the craft in a good way I've read. The downside there is the ring would corrode onto the housing and outlive the machine again, but not in a positive way this time. By making it a lot tougher there, when damage would normally occur where's it now going to happen? My boat has a sheer pin to protect the motor if I destroy a prop. I haven't seen anything similar in these. OEM is pretty darn cheap plus buying the tools to do it, but a full Solas kit is only about $80 more with the tools included. Please, weigh in any thoughts on which direction you went and why. If you can point towards a nice idiots guide to any of this stuff, please do. I'm not too lazy to do my own research, I just seem to keep finding contradictory info in everything I read/watch.
Next up is the Variable Trim System. This is pretty much an afterthought for me at this point, but I have zero knowledge or experience about it in real world. When I purchased it i was told the system didn't work. Nothing more. So no idea why it doesn't, just that the buttons do nothing and the trim indicator is always stationary. Usually if I was told something is broken at purchase I'd replace it before ever using it. In this case he pointed out that the SP doesn't have the system as well as many other models, so it never seemed important. I was just more than happy to enjoy the experience at all. The seller couldn't explain it's purpose any better than it adjusts your prop wash up and down for planing out. If anyone has a more practical explanation to its purpose or function and why it's worth dumping hundreds into replacing, I'd be interested. Like say it's something that will create a more noticable acceleration or somehow helps with control or speed in situations. All I'm grasping so far is you adjust it based on how you're planing to compensate for the pitch or angle.... For uh... Reasons? Yeah, I'm clearly not grasping it as it's obviously not critical to basic operation and can only assume it's performance oriented but don't have a clear concept of how yet. It might as well be a wing on a Honda the way I'm using it.
I've got new batteries installed, new plugs, about a half tank of fuel from last season that I'm adding some Seafoam to and will top off, fill the oil mix tank. I planned to start them up at that point to run a few seconds and ensure they're ok there and not having any motor issues from the older gas, rotted hoses, carb issues. Next I'm going to start looking into how to change out the various oils like gear lube that I'd like to drain and replace with Lucas. What else am I missing? I'm about to watch videos on the proper care and maintenance of jet skis, so if anyone has a good one, that would help. Both mine are 2 strokes. If there's a GSX or SP specific collection of information that would be even better. My apologies for the length and all over nature of this. I just have way too many questions and every attempt at finding answers brings nothing but misleading, inaccurate, contradictory, or flat out wrong information. I can't even find a correct location listing for my HINs, having to make an educated guess by ruling out multiple locations identified by various sites supposedly being dedicated to providing a complete collection of fact and history of Sea Doos. If it's not anywhere it's supposed to be, the only place left is the spot it's not supposed to be. Even if it's different every model and year.
TL;DR I'm new to PWCs but also very capable of fixing my own stuff. I need clear and correct info on various things as I'm constantly finding new info directly contradicting old info. I also need the correct info for my specific PWCs as every site with model specs contradicts each other and random forum posts comments have been the only accurate information I've found. Why does PWC cavitation happen intermittently? Can the battery have any effect on it? As dumb as it sounds, my battery issues always happen in tandem with cavitation and so frequent coincidence seems unlikely. Again with information, where can I find a good collection of information on various aspects of these machines like features and accessories from beginners to mid ability skills, topics that cover all the basics every owner should know. Any good source for preseason prep (also eventually post), preferably 2 stroke specific if not model specific, and a comparison of high maintenance/performance item selection and installation.
Her ski when jumped would often rev with no thrust for a bit but be fine after a few minutes or a shut down and restart. There's never been a blockage in the intake. Mine on our last ride started doing the same and I'd have to just idle around until it started going. Then I'd try to pick her up since hers was done until I got a battery and it would start again until I got her off and repeated the idle nonsense until we gave up. We drained the water before winter and I'm doing prep work to get them out now. According to 3 SeaDoo history sites and also hours reading forums, I have a 97 GSX via a piece of plastic on the deck that looks nothing like the HIN tags in pictures, hers has a number pressed into the fiberglass in back which ends in 95, no other marks or anything like a tag. Forums pretty clear that I have a 787 engine, but history sites only list a 750 or 951. I know 951 is possible but was a GSX Limited via forums. I believe she has a 540 but have done less digging. I'm trying to find a good comprehensive guide to preseason work that should be done, eventually a winterization one as well. If someone knowledgeable can just link a good one that would be enough as none I find seem consistent and I'm too new to know if something critical is missing beyond common sense motor stuff. Next is this cavitation problem. Why isn't it consistent? I did suck up gravel once and killed the engine instantly. Then pushed back out and rode another 6 hours without issue. I can't be as sure on the SP, but can confirm its also an issue that has happened multiple times and then cleared on its own with at least 8 individual day long excursions and was only parked because of the season ending and the battery fail on what was going to be our last time out anyways. Now that I'm many hours deep into learning about the issues unique to skis in general and some unique to my models, I can spot things I never knew to look for. GSX wear ring looks tight and pretty smooth but the impeller is for sure damaged with each blade bearing divots, scars, and even a quarter sized piece missing on one blade. There's no question about changing it. I haven't checked the SP yet but expect similar results. I've got my wife saying take it to a shop, a dad who's is incapable of letting anyone finish a thought before interjecting his opinion and any attempt to further explain is met with increasingly hostile interruptions of the same opinion, in this case he agrees I need a prop and while there a wear ring, but I must use OEM. I haven't found much on labor costs to have those issues corrected but assume it's considerably more than a car or ATV. Anything much more than $500 labor and it's not worth it as this doesn't seem that hard if you're skilled with mechanical builds and repairs. I will almost exclusively use them on inland lakes, maybe rivers but having learned about how fragile they are with debris I may avoid that entirely. Finally they may make one trip into Lake Michigan if I think we can handle the swells having never been anywhere close to those conditions. I've looked at stainless impellers and the added durability sounds pretty great, the performance boost doesn't matter as just getting one not so damaged will be significant and we were happy already. They already exceed our states speed limits. And a stainless wear ring would outlive the craft in a good way I've read. The downside there is the ring would corrode onto the housing and outlive the machine again, but not in a positive way this time. By making it a lot tougher there, when damage would normally occur where's it now going to happen? My boat has a sheer pin to protect the motor if I destroy a prop. I haven't seen anything similar in these. OEM is pretty darn cheap plus buying the tools to do it, but a full Solas kit is only about $80 more with the tools included. Please, weigh in any thoughts on which direction you went and why. If you can point towards a nice idiots guide to any of this stuff, please do. I'm not too lazy to do my own research, I just seem to keep finding contradictory info in everything I read/watch.
Next up is the Variable Trim System. This is pretty much an afterthought for me at this point, but I have zero knowledge or experience about it in real world. When I purchased it i was told the system didn't work. Nothing more. So no idea why it doesn't, just that the buttons do nothing and the trim indicator is always stationary. Usually if I was told something is broken at purchase I'd replace it before ever using it. In this case he pointed out that the SP doesn't have the system as well as many other models, so it never seemed important. I was just more than happy to enjoy the experience at all. The seller couldn't explain it's purpose any better than it adjusts your prop wash up and down for planing out. If anyone has a more practical explanation to its purpose or function and why it's worth dumping hundreds into replacing, I'd be interested. Like say it's something that will create a more noticable acceleration or somehow helps with control or speed in situations. All I'm grasping so far is you adjust it based on how you're planing to compensate for the pitch or angle.... For uh... Reasons? Yeah, I'm clearly not grasping it as it's obviously not critical to basic operation and can only assume it's performance oriented but don't have a clear concept of how yet. It might as well be a wing on a Honda the way I'm using it.
I've got new batteries installed, new plugs, about a half tank of fuel from last season that I'm adding some Seafoam to and will top off, fill the oil mix tank. I planned to start them up at that point to run a few seconds and ensure they're ok there and not having any motor issues from the older gas, rotted hoses, carb issues. Next I'm going to start looking into how to change out the various oils like gear lube that I'd like to drain and replace with Lucas. What else am I missing? I'm about to watch videos on the proper care and maintenance of jet skis, so if anyone has a good one, that would help. Both mine are 2 strokes. If there's a GSX or SP specific collection of information that would be even better. My apologies for the length and all over nature of this. I just have way too many questions and every attempt at finding answers brings nothing but misleading, inaccurate, contradictory, or flat out wrong information. I can't even find a correct location listing for my HINs, having to make an educated guess by ruling out multiple locations identified by various sites supposedly being dedicated to providing a complete collection of fact and history of Sea Doos. If it's not anywhere it's supposed to be, the only place left is the spot it's not supposed to be. Even if it's different every model and year.
TL;DR I'm new to PWCs but also very capable of fixing my own stuff. I need clear and correct info on various things as I'm constantly finding new info directly contradicting old info. I also need the correct info for my specific PWCs as every site with model specs contradicts each other and random forum posts comments have been the only accurate information I've found. Why does PWC cavitation happen intermittently? Can the battery have any effect on it? As dumb as it sounds, my battery issues always happen in tandem with cavitation and so frequent coincidence seems unlikely. Again with information, where can I find a good collection of information on various aspects of these machines like features and accessories from beginners to mid ability skills, topics that cover all the basics every owner should know. Any good source for preseason prep (also eventually post), preferably 2 stroke specific if not model specific, and a comparison of high maintenance/performance item selection and installation.
, and it begins........
