Learn from my mistake

[FlyinFred]

1997 seadoo XP (787) Long story short. I neglected to put locktite on the bolts that attach the spark aresstor housing to the carbs and guess what. a bolt came off and got injested. Tooks a lot of investiagtion by my son and I and it was not until i told him to take off the 4 bolts and he tells me there are only 3. That explains why the Seadoo locked up. Going to split the case and see what happened but my theory is that the bolt is caught in the two gears in picture 1. I will post more pictures once I get into the case.
1. Loctite is important!
2. Any reccomendations for an engine rebuilder in Arizona (or I can ship to)?
3. Anyone have a 787 engine for sale?

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

You're not the 1st. I've noticed some have claimed the bolt must've been shorter in length than the original factory bolt. Not sure if this is true in all cases?

 

[Matt Braley]

Yes it is true. No products necessary, I grease the bolts myself. The correct bolts are too tall to back out enough to fall in.

 

[mikidymac]

Also the bolt will not get into the gears you circled. It is probably stuck in the rotary valve.

 

[FlyinFred]

Also the bolt will not get into the gears you circled. It is probably stuck in the rotary valve.

Good Point. Thank you

 

[etemplet]

Hopefully the rotary valve is the only part damaged. My cousin had the same thing happen to him. I put blue loctite on the bolts. What can I say... I've owned Harley's. LOL

 

[FlyinFred]

Tilted the engine and turned the crank slowly and up it came. The rotary valve was the only thing damaged. and here is a picture of the offfending part. time to regasket, clean and put it all back together.

 

[Hunterb]

Tilted the engine and turned the crank slowly and up it came. The rotary valve was the only thing damaged. and here is a picture of the offfending part. time to regasket, clean and put it all back together.

If that bolt jammed the rotary valve on the way through it's very likely there will be damage to the drive gear. It is brass and designed to strip if something stops the valve. The idea is that this will prevent damage to the crank. I would definitely pull the rotary shaft out and check the gear. If it's damaged then you need to disassemble the whole motor to remove the bits from the bottom of the crankcase and maybe get a new shaft as they often bend when they get jammed. It's easy to pull the shaft out to check.

 

[FlyinFred]

If that bolt jammed the rotary valve on the way through it's very likely there will be damage to the drive gear. It is brass and designed to strip if something stops the valve. The idea is that this will prevent damage to the crank. I would definitely pull the rotary shaft out and check the gear. If it's damaged then you need to disassemble the whole motor to remove the bits from the bottom of the crankcase and maybe get a new shaft as they often bend when they get jammed. It's easy to pull the shaft out to check.

Thank you for the advice.

 

[mikidymac]

How bad are the gouges on the case rotary surface? If they connect both ports you will need new cases.

 

[FlyinFred]

The gouges are not bad at all. I will get a depth on them. They look worse in the picture becasue they are dirty. I will keep that in mind when I get back into it.

 

[Mekanix]

Take plugs out, hold rotary valve gear firmly, rotate engine by hand a couple of revolutions. If you feel it skip or jump you must remove the shaft and replace the gear, clean the mess and possibly the shaft if it bent.

Also where is the other half of the bolt? Looks very short.


Best thing to do is replace those 4 and the other 6 with some extra long ones so that it's not possible to mix them up.

 

[FlyinFred]

Take plugs out, hold rotary valve gear firmly, rotate engine by hand a couple of revolutions. If you feel it skip or jump you must remove the shaft and replace the gear, clean the mess and possibly the shaft if it bent.

Also where is the other half of the bolt? Looks very short.


Best thing to do is replace those 4 and the other 6 with some extra long ones so that it's not possible to mix them up.

I did like you said and everyting is smooth and firm. The bolt is the actual size so I will be puting in longer bolts with loctite.