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1996 Speedster Rebuild

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ohtenwillys

ohtenwillys

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Purchased my first boat a couple weeks ago with a blown port engine. I have the engine out and mostly apart and have decided on a rebuild, which ill be buying soon once funds are up. I broke off ALL the head bolts trying to take it apart :facepalm:. Oh and if anyone can tell me how to get the stinkin flywheel off, it wont budge and I'm scared to use heat with the coils behind it.

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I used the same puller you have there. I also used a little heat and it popped off. Do not tap on the flywheel. You can knock the magnets loose.
 
Bought a 1996 Speedster a few years back....dreamed of doing a full restore on it but every time I get into something I find where the PO has butchered it and well I lose interest. Began a carb rebuild today....stripped screws everywhere...SMH

Anyhow, same boat but I have removed the stickers and had the seats re-covered in teal and white and added the Challenger bimini the PO gave with the boat. Good luck with yours!
 
gravitydrno said:
Bought a 1996 Speedster a few years back....dreamed of doing a full restore on it but every time I get into something I find where the PO has butchered it and well I lose interest. Began a carb rebuild today....stripped screws everywhere...SMH

Anyhow, same boat but I have removed the stickers and had the seats re-covered in teal and white and added the Challenger bimini the PO gave with the boat. Good luck with yours!
Click to expand...

Yeah it's funny finding needle bearings and a messed up cage in the bilge when I pulled the engine. Don't know where that was from haha.

I'm considering pulling the stickers. Definitely gonna go with a different color scheme with the seats and hydromat.
 
Oh things I found....seven broken motor mounts....This boat was hammered when I got it. Got it anyway because it was real cheap and for the small investment I could get a feel if the wife would enjoy boating....All this boats history is the only thing keeping from spending the crazy money to restore it. Would really like to scrap this one and find another boat....but then I might actually miss making something out of nothing.
 
Now that I put about $1,500 in motors I got em right! Didn't leave me much for appearance tho haha. I got a blue Bimini top, my seats are gonna be red, white and maybe some blue and all yellow and purple plastics dyed red (have a buddy with an upholstery/body shop) for less than $150. Gonna spring for the blue hydro turf and for the graphics.... Either stripped and buffed plain white or Im working with an eBay shop on a custom "America" set. Tattered flags and some Murica inspired lettering. Can't wait to get her done and have $8,000 in a $3,500 boat! My wife hates me since I bought it
 
gravitydrno said:
Got it anyway because it was real cheap and for the small investment I could get a feel if the wife would enjoy boating....All this boats history is the only thing keeping from spending the crazy money to restore it.
Click to expand...

Yeah that was the reason for buying this boat. I had been looking for a while and when this one popped up on craigslist with 1 engine down for $1500 i jumped on it. I almost pulled the trigger on a new Scarab 165.. GLAD i didn't do that... don't wanna make payments! Here in Charleston, there ain't shit to do if you don't have a boat, so i figured this was the only way i could get into it. Not in too big of a hurry to get it fixed though, this week its supposed to be in the 100s haha.
 
Hefty14 said:
Now that I put about $1,500 in motors I got em right! Didn't leave me much for appearance tho haha. I got a blue Bimini top, my seats are gonna be red, white and maybe some blue and all yellow and purple plastics dyed red (have a buddy with an upholstery/body shop) for less than $150. Gonna spring for the blue hydro turf and for the graphics.... Either stripped and buffed plain white or Im working with an eBay shop on a custom "America" set. Tattered flags and some Murica inspired lettering. Can't wait to get her done and have $8,000 in a $3,500 boat! My wife hates me since I bought it
Click to expand...

Yeah im planning on putting some $$ in the reman engine, clean it up, hydroturf, maybe some obnoxious vinyl wrap and a tower.. give it that meathead bro wake boat look haha. Probably do a black and red scheme. I do need to reupholster and take some foam out of the seats for my fatass.. The steering wheel is almost in my nuts and the throttle levers feel awkwardly far back.
 
After a water test that showed the boat hauled ass and handled well I bought mine for $2000 (going for $5-6K when I bought 8 years ago-damn has it been 8 already? LOL), hull has damage that is repairable...PO hit a dock twice learning how to drive and it has a long crack on starboard side rear and punched a bolt on a dock through the port side (visible in picture) Brought it home and went to show wife and fire the engines...starboard would not start..being new to boat I decided best was to take it to the dealer and have them fix the issue and go through the boat- $2000 in new stator, 7 broken motor mounts and a few other minor issues. I later found that as she sat oil leaked into engines (info found here) and that a re-build was the only way to solve so I began chipping away at the PO created issues, he had no clue so when something failed he cut the wires or put duct tape on it. Being an electrician all wiring was cake.

As for reman there are two places to go and I have been pointed away from SBT, they mill the heads to lower compression to make for a "more reliable" engine (way it was described to me...) and SES. Either will take yours and hand you a rebuild or rebuild yours and send it back. There are some tools needed that I do not have and have no interest in owning so I will be going with SES when I get to that point, quite possibly this winter.

http://www.seadooengineshop.com/
 
gravitydrno said:
As for reman there are two places to go and I have been pointed away from SBT, they mill the heads to lower compression to make for a "more reliable" engine (way it was described to me...) and SES. Either will take yours and hand you a rebuild or rebuild yours and send it back. There are some tools needed that I do not have and have no interest in owning so I will be going with SES when I get to that point, quite possibly this winter.

http://www.seadooengineshop.com/
Click to expand...

I read as much as i could about both and I didn't really find a reason to not go with SBT. They have a faster turnaround, and the lower compression doesn't seem to be an issue. SES is said to take an unreliable amount of time and plus, with the broken off bolts in the jugs, SES won't take them as cores but SBT will. I'm probably going to do SBT 1yr warranty so i can have it in 3 days haha.
 
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