Wear Ring Installed Incorrectly?

[SeaDooDoo90]

The PO of my '97 SPX said he recently had the jet pump unit rebuilt by a mechanic. This "mechanic" was far from a professional though as his solution for fixing a broken jet pump fitting was silicon-ing at and around the two halves (yes, the ski leaked horribly the first time I launched it, but fortunately I kept it on the trailer).

I've extracted the broken OEM plastic fitting and replaced it with an aluminum one from WSM. I'm looking at the wear ring now and it looks off. The lip of it that mates to the neoprene seal against the hull is folded over in a few areas.

Will those folds cause me cavitation issues? At a minimum, should I try trimming down those areas so they don't hang into the channel of the pump as much?

 

[Frige]

Terrible installation. I would trim it down a bit but other than that you would need to replace it again. Does it bottom out in the pump?

 

[BrianMoore]

The 97 GTI I have had the same thing. I am pretty sure the wear ring has never been replaced. I tried to heat it up with a blow drier but that wasn't hot enough to soften it. I knew a heat gun would be too hot. I used a Harbor Freight router speed controller to control the heat gun output. I dialed it up slowly until the plastic started softening and pushed the fold back into shape with an old table knife. If that had failed, I was going to cut it off since it looked like the pump was not seating correctly.

 

[SeaDooDoo90]

Terrible installation. I would trim it down a bit but other than that you would need to replace it again. Does it bottom out in the pump?

Good question - I need to check that. I assume any discernible gap at all is no good?

 

[SeaDooDoo90]

The 97 GTI I have had the same thing. I am pretty sure the wear ring has never been replaced. I tried to heat it up with a blow drier but that wasn't hot enough to soften it. I knew a heat gun would be too hot. I used a Harbor Freight router speed controller to control the heat gun output. I dialed it up slowly until the plastic started softening and pushed the fold back into shape with an old table knife. If that had failed, I was going to cut it off since it looked like the pump was not seating correctly.

Good call. I'll try to heat it up and fold it over, and if that doesn't work will trim.

 

[mikidymac]

Replace that wear ring, it is garbage.

 

[SeaDooDoo90]

The heat gun actually worked fairly well with a putty knife and it now at least is mated flatly against the neoprene seal. It's certainly not pretty but I'm gonna rock it for the rest of the season and will do a full pump rebuild over the winter. I've had this ski since late May and still haven't used it!