My 2004 Speedster 200 Project

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RFoster130

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Instead of posting numerous threads on everything i do to my boat, i figured i would start a thread and keep it all one place. for the people who dont know me, i previously had a 1998 Speedster. I finally outgrew it so I sold it and picked up this boat. I found this 04 Speedster in San Antonio TX. I managed to pick it up for a steal at $10,000.

The boat looks good overall, but i was expecting it to look a bit better. I found it on craigslist and the pics made it look a lot better. It also allegedly had a $250 detail job after the pics. I flew down to look at it, and it was in good shape but you could tell it sat in the hot TX sun uncovered 24/7. Thats not a big deal though. So i went ahead and bought it. Had it shipped home using ship. Its been sitting for a month while i accumulate parts. Im finally ready to get started on it. First Ill share some before pics.
 
Thanks Joe!!! Today i had 2 hours to tow it home form the storage space and do a little work So i took some pics. Then i worked on tearing out the old junky legacy radio, seaworthy speakers and the garbage radio cover. Got it all out and ready for the garbageman tonight. Then I had to see how the new speaker can would look on the tower, so i mounted 1 of them.

Junk radio and cover:



Junk speakers.



Got it stripped out.







Ready for trash night.




Set of 2 Polk Ultimate Marine 6.5's. Another set will also go on the tower.




Thats all i could manage today. Gonna work on running some wires tonight maybe after kids are in bed, if not, then thurs ill work some.
 
Well I ran into my first problem. When i looked at the boat before i bought it the guy had the sun pad cover opened up. I knew the tray over the engine was missing. I just looked at everything though that access with the sunpad opened up. So today i go to pull the hatch release and it wont open. When i pull it, i hear it click but it wont open. i tried using someone to pull the release while i pulled up on the hatch and still nothing. So now im kicking myself in the rear for not looking at it before. The nice thing is that with the sun pad access, i can still get to the latch assembly. I'm thinking of just taking the 2 bolts out of it and seeing what i can do with it. Looking at the parts schematic, its only a couple parts with a metal spring in between them. I can see the metal spring clip thingy...im wondering if i try prying it out what would happen. Any suggestions? This is holding up the whole production.
 
Here is the schematic. I can get to the 2 bolts to just unbolt the whole thing. I can also get to the stud on the hatch above that goes into this assembly. I'm thinking ill go messing with it all tomorrow or thurs.


 
Foster, It's looking good. can't wait to see once you are done with all the goodies.

I've a question, Is POLK tower speaker built different then cabin speakers? one of my customer wants to put LED speaker ring in tower speakers and he mentioned that it's not a smooth can and have like 6 notches in them... (any help would be appreciated)
 
Rich,

Either at the T-Handle end or the sunpad end will be a set of cable tension adjustment fasteners. Very similar the to throttle body cable adjuster. I think all you need to do is tighten it up. I had this issue in my 200 as well as the old 98.

Here is the schematic. I can get to the 2 bolts to just unbolt the whole thing. I can also get to the stud on the hatch above that goes into this assembly. I'm thinking ill go messing with it all tomorrow or thurs.


 
You should be able to pull the handle and turn it 90 deg and it'll stay pulled out, allowing you to fix your spring clip assembly.
 
Rich,

Either at the T-Handle end or the sunpad end will be a set of cable tension adjustment fasteners. Very similar the to throttle body cable adjuster. I think all you need to do is tighten it up. I had this issue in my 200 as well as the old 98.

I dont see any adjustment on this one. on the 98, i could asjust it at the handle end. This one i dont see it anywhere. Im at work now, ill play with it some tomorrow.
 
You should be able to pull the handle and turn it 90 deg and it'll stay pulled out, allowing you to fix your spring clip assembly.

I didnt realize you could turn it. I pulled it up all the way and wedged a screwdrive handle under it to hold it there, and i still couldnt get the hatch to release. I think im going to try just unbolting the whole latch part tomorrow and play with it.
 
Is POLK tower speaker built different then cabin speakers? one of my customer wants to put LED speaker ring in tower speakers and he mentioned that it's not a smooth can and have like 6 notches in them... (any help would be appreciated)

The speakers are the same. Just bolted into a can. So i guess the differences would depend on who made the cans. I bought mine from a company who sells em on ebay.
 
I didnt realize you could turn it. I pulled it up all the way and wedged a screwdrive handle under it to hold it there, and i still couldnt get the hatch to release. I think im going to try just unbolting the whole latch part tomorrow and play with it.

That's how it's been on everyone that i've seen, but none of them were older than 08 so you'll have to just give it a try and see.
 
Did not know you could "twist to hold". Just tried on my 2008, and it works like a charm. I adjusted my hatch so that it opens every time now, but if it gets finicky again this is good to know, without having to do the impossible stretch!
 
You guys were totally correct. There is a twist and hold feature and there was also an adjustment at the end in the engine compartment. Of course neither helped me get it open. I unbolted the entire locking assembly where it would let the hatch open. I took it apart and found the spring clip bent which i think was my fault from prying. The pin that comes out of the hatch and goes into the lock has a nasty bend to end. It was getting caught up. I knew when i bought it one of the hatch struts was missing. So im guessing that strut missing has led to ie being out of whack for a while. Im guessing some serious neglect and abuse by prior owner(s). I just dont quite get people. All the parts to fix this are going to be like $120, and thats with the strut being like 100. Any idea on a cheaper replacement. Seems i saw someone else on here recently bought a different strut from somewhere else and it worked. I may take off the good one and see what i can match to it. I'll add some pics tomorrow.
 
it's funny cause the way i found out about the handle was my daughter did it by accident and i couldnt get it to retract back in, until i saw that it was turned 90 deg.

I'm not sure about the strut, but i'd think you could get the number off of it and look on ebay or amazon and get it cheaper.
 
LOL, we should have a "most valuable tips" sticky, with this one making the list!

Double checked the owners manual, and not mentioned there! Is your daughter the only one to have discovered this ;)
All kinds of threads on all kinds of forums about people with a hatch that does not pop up on its own, and they need two people to pull and open every time. This never came up!
 
I till have the 98 sitting in the garage, it gets picked up tonight. I checked the hatch release on it and the twist to hold doesnt work on that one. Maybe its just the newer stuff. I did find most the stuff i need to fix the hatch and they are the same parts as the 98.
 
Got a little done today. First I wanna follow up to my previous problem. I got the hatch open and found the latching shaft bent. I also knew one of the hatch struts was missing. Here is a pic of the bent shaft. Dunno how the heck it happened other than previous owner was a moron.





Got a new one ordered along with a new spring clip for the release since i broke it. Total of $15 for oem parts on ebay.



Also got a nice pic of my OEM hatch strut. The part number comes right up on SPD's site. Just wanna make sure to have the info here for any future person who searches for an answer.






2004 Sea Doo Speedster Rear Hatch Strut

http://www.spdhardware.com/catalog/...4413&cid=d992bffa-40ff-417f-85f1-28e30662679d

Not bad, $$18 compared to $70 from BRP. SPD does have a minimum order of $30 though. So i figure ill replace both and keep the other one as a spare.
 
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Next i got busy. I only had a few hours after kids went to bed..luckily they hit the bed at 630 today...lol. My first step in adding an audio system is to run the wires. If the boat didnt have any speaker holes, I would have cut them first, but since it had the existing 4, i went straight to wiring.

I made up my wire harnesses. The first is the 3 sets of amp RCA cables and the remote turn on for the amp. The RCA cables are Tsunami brand. They are marine rated and tinned wire. They are 9 feet long which i was lucky to find on ebay for like 9 bucks each. I would normally use blue wire for the remote turn on, but i had forgot to get some. The only spare tinned wire i had here was black, so thats what I used. All are encased in 1" split wire loom.




9' Looks like the perfect length. I am mounting the amp under the storage/cooler which is under the driver side windshield. I drilled a 1.25" hole in the back of the glove box behind where the radio is. I then fed the wire down into the ski locker and back up into the compartment where the amp will be. There are already factory wires inside loom following this exact route, so i wire tie off to them.

Here is the wires passing through rear of glove box.


Here is the Power and ground wires. These are 4 gauge and also in 1" wire loom. I started with 25' cables because I am going to use whats left for the 2nd battery. These run down the driver side of the boat. It was fairly easy from the front compartment till i got to where the rear speaker is. There is a single hole that the factory wires pass through with not much room to add to. I was able to wiggle the cables through and into the engine compartment. What I found helped a lot is to remove the storage tray under the rear seat. Took 5 seconds removing 2 crews. Then you have a lot of room to work. While looking around there with the tray out, i found some more interesting stuff i have questions on...ill make that my next post.




I would have taken more pics but here is what I saw next.



Then it started pouring. Ill add more pics tomorrow. I should also be able to get most of the wiring finished off tomorrow, except for the tower speakers. I know a lot of this seems boring, but i like to document it to help anyone else who might stumble onto this thread looking to mod their boat to.
 
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