Sportster 1800 Seals

[WhiteZombie]

So the guy I bought the boat from said he had seals changed at the first of last year. The Port side looks like what he was speaking of. I'm not 100% on what I'm seeing with the right side but I assume that groove to be a wear ring indicator type thing after skiming over the manual. I was looking for a tolerance on shaft "play". I will check it with an dial indicator tommorow. I do know the port side has the lesser of the two play wise.

What do I need to do here? I'm pretty much done for now with the engines as long as they fire up with the new carb rebuild. I'm putting it back together now. Electrical has all been gone thru, so I guess I'm working from flywheel back now. I've read some about the carbon seals and the neoprene seals. I plan to check the clearances as specified in the manual, but it really doesn't say how often to change these in the service manual, but seems like I recall 2 years or so from something I read or was told. I think the Operators Manual mentions them.

Anyway, any suggestions are appreciated. I know I'll be doing some work on this boat during the winter, probably pull the heads and hone, etc, so if I have some time here on these seals I'm good with doing it then. Don't want to flood the boat tho before that. And any other suggestions are always appreciated if you have experience with these boats.

Is Dr Honda still on here? I have some machining questions for him on this 717. Seems he mentioned several times he is very knowledgeable about machining these engines.
Thanks

 

[WhiteZombie]

This the port side shaft and seals. As mentioned it had a little play in it so I took it off to see. To me the seal looks unworn going off of the chamfered area, but I don't really know what I"m looking at. I've always dealt with shafts with packing. I don't know how much wear is acceptable on the spline. It is a little impression type looking thing here and there as pictured. I mean really from the way I see it the shaft appears to be supported by the jet and the flywheel, so the seal shouldn't affect the play the best I can tell but please advise. I also have pics of the jets. I am assuming the blue one was replaced. You can see some wear on the right one. Ironically, the white one (starboard side) has very little clearance, while the port side blue collar seems to be a bit out of found with clearances of .040 to .060. The blade seems consistent, it just seems the wear ring is egged/out of round. I don't know if this will cause cavitation or not. I have pics too of the shaft hole in the hull. It looks pretty rough to me but I don't know if the seal keeps this from being a prob or not. Oh, the boot is stiff and I liked to of never got the seal out of it cause i did it with my fingers not wanting to take a chance harming the seal. The jet blade has a slightly rolled edge at places. No nicks of significance. I wondering if I can take a fine file or stone and knock the edge off without throwing it out of balance.
Any suggestions are very much appreciated.

 

[WhiteZombie]

more pics

 

[WhiteZombie]

When the jets were assembled I thought that the blades looked like they had different pitches to them from the distance, but they appear same thank goodness. Thanks guys!

 

[mikidymac]

Everything looks fine there. Just grease it good with marine grease and make sure the rubber bumpers on both ends of the driveshaft are good. Pump grease into the fitting on the PTO flywheel until the driveshaft stops moving to the back of the ski. If you add too much you will blow out the rubber boot.

 

[L. Dean Ficarro]

If both of the rings are within spec of feeler gauges, looks like its in fair condition for running.

 

[WhiteZombie]

So while I had the seals out, I ran the engines on a water hose to test them out and adjust the carb idle screw, etc- was the plan.
I had planned to use the tachometer readings to set the steering assist and idle, etc, but they are working erratically. I 'm not sure if you have to have them under a load to work properly or not, but otherwise something is wrong. Neither tach responded at idle. The starboard side tach needle didn't move until I had it wound up and then it would jump to around 5000-6000 rpm, drop it down it did ok until about 4000rpm and then it would just drop off if I moved the throttle down. Left side picked up around 2000 rpm and would somewhat jump to 6000 rpm with not much more handle movement. In the neutral position both would hit around 5000, which I think they should have been limited at about 3500 if I have understood correctly.
And then after all of that I think I had a coil go bad, which was no surprise being I just changed the solenoid out- the electrical box had 4 inches of standing water in it when I bought it, so suprised it worked at all to crank the engine. I did take some voltage readings on the coil but after looking it up in the manual and seeing a special connector is needed I just verified no voltage at all on the spark cable ends. If it turns out the one I ordered doesn't work I'll dig deeper. I bought a used one on ebay as i am kinda familiar with buying aftermarket "clone" coils before on small engines- I'd rather have used from my experience, and if I understand these don't give much trouble.
I'm just learning about rectifiers tho, and am wondering if a rectifier issue can effect tachometer performance. I am thinking a bad rectifier could effect charging of the battery, but being I haven't really ran it I can't say on battery charging.

 

[WhiteZombie]

So I am putting this thing back together today and I think I found a problem. In the pics above, the right engine shaft shows one groove on the bellows adjustment, just in front of the "hat". I thought that when I put a new bellows on it would look like the left engine which does not show the groove. So upon investigation, I am seeing that the right engine is either positioned forward toward the gas tank about 3/8" further than the left. Or the pto hub is narrower by 3/8". I did not measure it as it was end of day and I am give out. I will check in the morning.
I looked at the parts manual and I don't see any forward adjustment on the engine mount, so I'm a bit baffled. The mount seems to be mounted similar on both sides. I'll take more measurements, but I guess I'm wondering if I can get a hub that is longer or some type spacer. I am pretty sure this is why the shaft is a bit worn as shown in the pics. The rubber boots were worn so I replaced them. I guess the shaft is bouncing back and forth in the spline with up to 3/8" extra clearance (not to say it is taking up all of that, but could see 1/8" to 3/16" or so extra movement. I can move it a quarter inch by hand but there is no grease in it yet. I haven't strapped the front boot to the shaft yet cause I think it's coming back out.
Perhaps there is a fix to this. Please advise