I found a 1996 XP for sale for 1000 bucks and I’m not sure if I should buy it. It’s in good condition with the original seat. The guy claims it has fuel delivery issues. I’ve messaged him and he seems to be pretty honest. Just today he told me he got it started but possibly running on just one cylinder. Then he said the starter got locked up while engaged with the crank. So he lowered the price to 750. This ski also does not come with a trailer.
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Should I buy an XP?
- Thread starter Gwstaudy
- Start date
If you want a 96 XP I would say it’s worth going to look at. If the body is scratch and dent free that’s worth something in my opinion because the gel coat is hard to match and it’s a fair bit of work. I like the cosmetic work but I prefer to just sand them out and not have to do any gel coat repairs. With that being said, it would be great if it would crank over so you could test the compression and look for spark if you have a tester. From what I remember, if they crank then the MPEM is good, If the body is mint buy the starter is locked up and won’t crank then I don’t trust anyone and would consider it needing a rebuild and would offer accordingly, 300.00 to 500.00 if its cosmetically mint. Have a good look around in your area and see what they are going for because it varies regionally. Don’t ever boost them from a running vehicle and no need to run them on the hose except for 30 seconds to flush them. Let us know how it goes and post some pics if you can
The seller says the body is in good condition except for a few scratches and marks on the front from a previous owner not being careful loading on a trailer. Otherwise it’s solid. In my area I’ve only seen XPs for sale for $2,000+ and those are ones that aren’t running perfectly or cosmetically mint.
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Looks clean in the picture but the hood should be yellow not black.
IF you can't hear it run and test the compression as a perfect 150 psi then assume it needs a complete rebuild with crank, balancer shaft, rotary shaft and bored with new pistons and fuel system including carb rebuild. $500 is what a non-running seadoo is worth.
IF you can't hear it run and test the compression as a perfect 150 psi then assume it needs a complete rebuild with crank, balancer shaft, rotary shaft and bored with new pistons and fuel system including carb rebuild. $500 is what a non-running seadoo is worth.
I can’t go look at it for another few days so he said he might throw a starter in it by then. I’d bet he’d bump the price back up to 1000 if he does that. But I’d also be able to check compression which he claims was around 145-150. I forgot to add earlier that he’s giving me a box of parts that includes a set of good cylinders, case, front electrical box with mpem with key, relays, extra carbs maybe a stator if he can find it, and any additional parts he can find in his house.
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I wouldn’t let the extra parts sway my decision to much, you don’t know if any of those parts are any good. Well worth the additional he may bump it up to know if it has good compression or not. Patience is a virtue
So if he gets the starter fixed and it turns out to have 150 or 145 compression it’s worth 1000?
I don’t like that the hood is painted black, obviously you will have to look the machine over to see if it has been taken care of or if it’s been worked on by a hack. Take a flashlight that has a good beam so you can look at the prop and wear ring. Are you in Canada or USA? In Canada a good running one would be roughly 1500.00 to 2000.00, most parts of USA I’m seeing running ones 1200.00 to 1500.00. 1000.00 is maybe a touch high for a machine that can’t be ridden without some work. If it has good compression and spark it should only be the fuel system that will need repair and you can do the entire fuel system for about 220.00 USD. Of course could be other stuff like brass gear on the crank. The really good deals are usually gone with in an hour on marketplace so the fact he still had it, tells you it’s not a smoking deal but it may not be a bad deal either, sorry, just depends a lot on how looking it over goes. Take a good compression tester, good battery, flashlight, spark tester. Heck, if he will let you, take a little mixed fuel and put it in the plug holes. Personally I don’t like to do that, in case it starts and runs well on the fuel in the plug hole, makes negotiating difficult
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This one looks mint
This one looks mint
this one’s in Canada and 4k.
The guy took it off marketplace and told me he was gonna keep it and get it running or sell it to me for 750 so he doesn’t have to deal with it. I want to trust him when he said last time he checked it had 150 compression but I don’t know for sure and I can’t check spark either. The ones I’m seeing on marketplace are either too expensive or too far away.
It’s 750.00, if you can afford it, and want it, I say go for it. What’s the absolute worst that can happen. But definitely doesn’t hurt to offer him less, you can always make another offer
I did tell him I would do it for 500 since I can’t test spark or compression and he hasn’t responded.
Ones like this always make me think there’s more wrong with it, it’s just what I think, may be wrong but when I see that the owner has the carbs out or if I get there and he had a shop where he works in stuff and there’s 8 or 15 machines around, maybe seadoo’s, atv’s snowmobiles etc. And the ad says I’ve lost interest. What that says to me is “ I found something wrong that’s to expensive for me to fix so I’m going to move on to a different project” I much prefer to buy from the guy that has a neat and tidy place without 15 non running machines laying around. Sometimes when buying from people like this you can get a great deal on a machine that needs little because he doesn’t know what to look for or went to a shop and got a high quote for the repairs. Anyways, I’m ranting now. 500.00 or 600.00 is decent for a non runner, as I mentioned before hopefully the hull is in good shape with no dings. Faded gel coat, seat covers and graphics can all be fixed easily but spider cracking and chips is a bit more work and never looks perfect. Interested to see if you end up getting this
Well I messaged the guy again and we’ll see what he says but now that I’m thinking about it I might do it. I’d wanna check the extra parts he has because if the cylinders he has are actually good a full rebuild wouldn’t be too bad. Hopefully he responds and I can go check it out tomorrow.
I think you should go for it, even if you end up paying 600.00 or 650.00, that hull does look really good and that’s what you want, if you do end up having to rebuild better rebuilding something nice like a 96XP that’s in good shape than a different model that’s a turd. And if you get it, and it’s totally toast there is still value in it for the parts (worst case scenario) heck, I seen the grey electrical box listed on eBay tonight for 800.00 CDN. Shipped
. At the very least, take the plugs out of it and see if you can turn it over by hand. Or another worst case scenario is you would have a really good condition hull,Well I don’t think it would turn over because he says the starter is locked up engaged with the flywheel. He said he didn’t care what I do so I might be able to take the starter off and try turning it for some more insurance.I think you should go for it, even if you end up paying 600.00 or 650.00, that hull does look really good and that’s what you want, if you do end up having to rebuild better rebuilding something nice like a 96XP that’s in good shape than a different model that’s a turd. And if you get it, and it’s totally toast there is still value in it for the parts (worst case scenario) heck, I seen the grey electrical box listed on eBay tonight for 800.00 CDN. Shipped
That’s a good sign. You need to get over there. You can make some determinations just by talking in person to the guy
