96 Speedster 717 engine's cut off in water

[jimludwig]

Okay, so I've got this 96 Speedster had the carbs rebuilt, (This is my first boat and I'm not doing most of this work myself). Then I took the boat in and had a former SeaDoo master mechanic give it the once over. Found the left side engine motor mounts were all broken and the exhaust manifold was missing a few bolts, plus the guy who cleaned the cards didn't know how to tune them, so he put them back to factory. All good at this point.

Took the boat out today, (beautiful day to boat in Clearwater!) got the boat in the water, fired up the engines and started to turn the boat around to leave the ramp and as soon as I nudged the throttles, the engines died. Spent the next hour trying to get the motors to run at more than idle with no joy. The master mechanic is having me bring the boat back to him so he can put it in the water and see what's going on, but I figured I would ask here. I'm using fresh gas, (master mechanic just cleaned the fuel system) with ethanol free gas and 100% synthetic oil at 50:1 as he recommended. Out of the water, the engines seem to run fine, but I don't like to run them much out of the water even with the hose. Yes, including running up the throttles, (quickly) before cutting off the engines.

Anyone have any ideas?

TIA, Jim

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

Did you remember to turn on the fuel valve?

 

[jimludwig]

Well, I would sure feel stupid if that's it. I went and looked and the top knob doesn't seem to be connected. It just turns, and the bottom knob is tight and only turns partially one way then back. I'll let the mechanic know to check those, 'cause I'm pretty sure the top one should not rotate freely. Thanks!

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

Well, considering it's your first boat then you get an automatic free pass on bonehead stuff. One bit of advice I wish to emphasize is this sport is called "pleasure boating" for good reason.

 

[jimludwig]

Okay, so wanted to close this post out. It was not the fuel cutoff valve, but the ignition pole. As soon as the boat would start to vibrate, but connection would go bad and the engines would cut off. SBT sold me a new one and viola! It works.

Thanks for the suggestions!