1996 challenger driveline/pump rebuild problem

[Andy Hunter]

Hey guys. My wear ring was bad and the impeller had seen better days so I decided to rebuild the pump and do the driveline kit at the same time. All went well until I bolted everything back up. Something is binding and not allowing the motor to turn. I thought the motor was seized for a few minutes, but I figured that generally when you change something, that’s the place to start looking for the problem . At any rate, I unbolted the pump and both the pump and the engine turn freely. Obviously binding somewhere but I can’t figure out where. Any thoughts on how I could have screwed this up?

 

[mikidymac]

Make sure the pump turns freely by hand and the engine.

Also make sure your impeller is all the way in the pump and isn't hitting the pump shoe on the hull when installed.
I would install the pump without the driveshaft and make sure it still spins freely without the driveshaft. there really isn't anything else.

 

[Andy Hunter]

Make sure the pump turns freely by hand and the engine.

Also make sure your impeller is all the way in the pump and isn't hitting the pump shoe on the hull when installed.
I would install the pump without the driveshaft and make sure it still spins freely without the driveshaft. there really isn't anything else.

Thanks for the feedback mikidymac. I will take a look this weekend. Now that I look closer at the manual I see I may have put the top set of washers in wrong. It looks like the top two bolts have a washer between the hull and the pump. Is that correct? Also, the aluminum spacer that is shown in the manual seems to be missing. It could be bonded to the shoe and I just didn’t notice it but that could also cause my clearance issue no?

 

[mikidymac]

It's been 20 years since I worked on a seadoo boat but some things are a little different than on the skis.

I see there is a "Ring" #204120003 that goes on the pump shoe then the neoprene seal then the pump. Also like you said it shows a 10mm washer between the pump and shoe on the top two pump bolts.

 

[Andy Hunter]

It's been 20 years since I worked on a seadoo boat but some things are a little different than on the skis.

I see there is a "Ring" #204120003 that goes on the pump shoe then the neoprene seal then the pump. Also like you said it shows a 10mm washer between the pump and shoe on the top two pump bolts.

Unfortunately, the ring is no longer available from BRP. I may have a lead on a shop that has a bunch of old stock kicking around...and as I said, it could be on the boat and just covered in the old neoprene seal. It may be that the washers in the wrong place were enough to make the impeller bind.

Thanks for your help with this.

 

[Dr Honda]

You aren't aligned. Seadoo doesn't have any play available... so if your pump isn't in alignment to the engine... when you tighten the nuts on the pump... it will get tight.

SO... if you misplaced the pump shims... or just put them back in the wrong place... you will need an alignment tool to get it right. DO NOT try to eye-ball it. You will wind up breaking a shaft, or ripping the splines out of the PTO or impeller.

 

[Andy Hunter]

You aren't aligned. Seadoo doesn't have any play available... so if your pump isn't in alignment to the engine... when you tighten the nuts on the pump... it will get tight.

SO... if you misplaced the pump shims... or just put them back in the wrong place... you will need an alignment tool to get it right. DO NOT try to eye-ball it. You will wind up breaking a shaft, or ripping the splines out of the PTO or impeller.

Good to know. I thought since I didn't change anything on the engine side that I could get away with just putting the pump back on. I can borrow the tool from a friend who owns a shop. Do you know if there is a substitute for the spacer that the manual shows behind the neoprene seal?

 

[mikidymac]

If you just removed the pump I don't see how you could have changed the alignment. The shims are between the shoe and the hull and the engine. The pump isn't shimmed for alignment at least on the skis.

 

[jskillz28]

I know when i replace my impellers and wear ring i had to spray a lubricant around the inside of the ring in order for it to shave to size. The motor wouldn’t turn over either until i did that.

 

[Andy Hunter]

Sooooo....to follow up. The boat is back in the water and running great again... but with the old impeller. It seems like the Solas that I bought won't work on my boat. When I compare the two, the rubber nose cone (in front of the impeller) was about 3/4" longer than the stock one, so the driveshaft wouldn't fully seat in the pump. Also, the new impeller had sharp edges on both front and back, whereas the old one has the rounded, prop like surface on the engine side and the sharp edges on the back. It looked like the impeller leading edge was a few mm inside the wear ring, so i didn't think there would be a clearance problem, but as it turns out, even before tightening down the pump, it was binding. (when i turned the pto by hand.) Sorry about the long post, but I thought I should ask if anyone sees something that I'm missing?

Good news is that the wear ring and driveline kit helped a ton. It zips up onto plane much faster than before.