1996 Seadoo Speedster Steering locked

[SpeedsterDude]

Hi all

I'm new to this forum and to jet boating. I just bought a used 1996 Seadoo Speedster that had been sitting for "a couple years" and I'm already having some issues. I am a newbie to boating and jet boating especially. In no particular order here are the issues I'm facing.

1. The steering wheel is locked up. I can't turn it either way. The seller said it's because the batteries are dead and needs power to unlock the steering wheel. Is this true? If not how do I fix it?

2. One of the throttles is too stiff and the other one is too loose. I started taking off the white cover under the throttle but when I did there is another black cover. Am I on the right track to adjust the throttles?

3. Anything I should do before trying to start the engines? My plan was to drain the gas and add fresh gas, fuel stabilizer, change the spark plugs, and try to fire it up. Any advice?

4. The guy used 2 lawn and garden 12v batteries to power each engine. Is this ok or do I need an AGM battery?

Thank you for your time,

Nate

 

[TrashPanda]

Welcome. I hope this helps but I believe that 1. Steering is accomplished by cables so it should not matter if a battery was in or not well at least that’s how my sportster is lol. 2. As far as the throttles I have no idea but Ime sure that if you search enough here u will find the answer. 3. Engines. Wow. I would personally drain the gas, drain the mixing/ injection oil. Use fresh gas and oil. I would pull the plugs and put some oil ( mixing or injection oil) on top of the pistons and let it sit for a day or two with the spark plugs in. Then I would pull the plugs ( get new they are cheap) and put the plug wires on the grounding posts. Very important on the grounding posts. Then I would turn over the engine( not starting) a few times to ensure lubrication. Then I would put boat in water put in the new plugs and crank away and hope for it to start. Assume the worst can happen and try to prepare for it. And 4.’get the right marine battery’s. throw those lawn and garden battery’s out of your boat. They are not deep cell. And only good as an anchor for your boat. I hope that helps you out.

 

[TrashPanda]

Oh yeah. Get spare plugs because of all goes well you will probably foul a few plugs during your start up.

 

[FlyboyX]

the throttle quadrant has 4 screws under the white plate that hold it to the hull. if you remove those you can lift the entire assembly up about 12" or so. you will then need to disconnect the cables and some wiring plugs. be sure to label your cables. once you have the quadrant out, you have to take it apart to adjust the tension on the port engine. while you have it open, i would take it all apart, clean it really well and adjust everything while it is out of the boat. goes back in the way it came out.

lol on the walmart lawn tractor batteries. they are complete crap for this application. as was mentioned earlier, you need a deep cycle marine battery(ies). they cost about 100 bucks at the same cheesy chain store. if you plan to actually use the boat, you will need a marine battery anyway. i would just purchase that now.

it would be REALLY smart to do a compression check. 150 psi is your friend. pull off the carburetors and rebuild them before you start and run the engines. be sure to buy genuine mikuni rebuild kits only. there is a thread about proper rebuilds by the user/mod mikidymic. follow that to the letter.

my last bit of advice is not to cheap out on the project like the previous owner obviously did. boats take maintenance and its expensive to make them reliable. its my experience that if you don't do it properly, it will leave you stranded out in the middle of the lake.

 

[MikunisFromHell]

Steering is almost guaranteed to be a bad cable. My single engine sportster has one steering cable. Speedster has two. The cables attaches to the steering hub in the console, runs through the hull, and penetrates the hull near the pumps. You will want to reseal that. And keep it lubed periodically

the throttles are a cable too. But they are unlikely the cause of the stickiness in the one engine. I think you are on the right track to open the top and check for corrosion thats limiting the throttle throw. I would check the carbs on that engine to see of the throttle bodies are gunked up and stiff. That’s more likely the cause

The mikuni carbs are important for your happiness and should be rebuilt with mikuni carb kits. Use the same spring. Replace seat and needle with exact same size (new parts). Probably the biggest problem ive had with mikunis is the pump leaking. Replace phillips screws with stainless allen head screws. Dont overtighten, especially the shorter screws. I think OSD has a kit. Pressurize the mag carb and spray with soapy water. Bubbles are bad. Get the specs off seadoosource for the low and high speed adjustments

i use walmart marine batteries (1000cca) $100. AGM nice but not required

 

[SpeedsterDude]

UPDATE

Thank you for the advice. Much appreciated. Here's my progress so far:

I was able to get the steering wheel loose. I opened up the compartment under the steering wheel, took out the storage bin, and lubricated the bolts and cables with PB blaster and 3 in 1 oil. I also lubricated a metal rod section near the jet gates. Then I jerked the steering wheel back and forth with medium force until it begin to loosen up and now it has full range of motion. Awesome! And I actually think there was an easier way. I'll post a YouTube video later to this post of which parts of the steering to lubricate since I couldn't find one that really helped me much.

For the throttle levers I removed the white cover held on by 4 screws. There were two plastic screws on either side of the throttles. I was able to adjust the right throttle and the shifter but I couldn't find a screw to adjust the left throttle lever which is the only one I really want to adjust. But after unscrewing the next black cover under the first white cover I found a small Phillips screw on the right side of thottle assembly that tightened the left throttle. Fixed! Again I'll post a YouTube video on this forum how to fix it.

I also found a new problem after posting my initial problems. I couldn't move the shifter to put the boat in forward or reverse. The shifter was completely frozen. I was able to fix this too by lubrication with marine grease and forcing the back gates open with medium pressure with my hands. Again I'll post a YouTube video how to do this since I didn't find one that already exists.


I took the boat out this weekend and it ran great overall. Took my nephew's tubing and wake boarding and everyone had a blast!

On the first and second day a continuous beep alarm went off after about 30 minutes of driving. I read the owner's manual and it said it was probably overheating but the engines didn't feel very hot when I touched them. Also I knew the cooling system was working because water was coming out both pee holes. The beeping went away after driving the boat at full throttle for a few minutes. The third and fourth day I ran the boat and no alarms went off. I plan on replacing the temperature sensors on top of the engine. The only other issue is that every once and a while the left throttle is jammed when I put the boat in forward. To fix it I had to put the boat back in neutral and then forward again to unfreeze it. Don't know why this happens and only the left throttle.

Also my bildge fan is not working. Don't know why yet but I plan to investigate today. Also I noticed the thottle levers dont start pulling the throttle cable until they get about half way up. This means the first half of pushing my throttle does nothing and I guess I can't open the throttles fully but the boat still seems to go fast, about 45 mph

I haven't rebuilt the carbs yet. The boat runs pretty good so I'm debating if I need to. It seems like it's hard to find genuine Mikuni carb rebuild kits with good needles and seats too but I'm still thinking I should probably rebuild the carbs sooner or later.

Just fyi before taking out the boat I took out the old spark plugs and sprayed fogging oil inside, installed new spark plugs, removed the plastic covers behind the engines, lubricated the fly wheels with a grease gun and then hand cranked the drive shafts to lubricate the cylinders. Then I drained the old gas from the gas tank and added new gas and a bottle of seafoam. I also replaced the float in the fuel baffle because it still had the old foam float and the magnet fell off and the gas gauge wasn't working but now the gas gauge now works perfect! Fixed!

Also I bought salt away and I flushed the engines with it after starting them up. Both engines smoked like a chimney at first. This is probably from the seafoam I guess. The saltaway and their adapter cost me $50 but flushing the engines was important I felt, at least to check if the cooling system wasn't plugged it. There are good YouTube videos how to flush the engine.

That's it for now. I'll post more progress and YouTube videos later. Thanks again for your help. I love my new boat!

 

[Speedster mac]

would really love to see the videos of the fixes!! sounds like you have got a lot accomplished !!

 

[David Simpson]

I'm new to the speedster too. Bought a fixer upper about a year ago and finished restoring it about two month ago. The key has zero to do with the steering. The cables are going to have to be replaced if frozen.
I would mix a little seadoo oil in with the gas in case the oil sending units are not work that way the pistons get oil. It will smoke a little more but they are 2 stroke engines so it won't hurt anything. As for the throttle issue there are adjustment screws in the lower part of the unit. You will have to remove the knobs from the throttles and the shifter so you can remove the plastic plate that the one with the F/N/R sticker on it. Then remove the 4 screw holding the control unit to the boat and lift it up. You'll see the cables are attached so you can't take it all the way out unless you remove the cables. But you can get the the screws that adjust the tension on the throttle and shifting levers. The more you tighten the screw the harder the levers will be to move the looser the easier they move. Hope this is helpful. I justy did all this stuff to my boat.

 

[SpeedsterDude]

Thanks for the replies. I'm installing a wakeboard tower on the boat next week so I'll make sure to record some videos of my repairs then.