Charleston 1996 Challenger Project

[Charleston]

Hello friends,

I have finished the rebuild of the magneto housing. I left the part out from before since it looks like it only bypassed the oil pump. I am running premix so no issue. Evapo-rust did a wonderful job on the flywheel. Also took advice to test the magneto on another link. Great news. Both are good.


It looks like one of my engine mounts has separated. I was hoping someone here might have seen this before and have a solution. It seems like a small item. Just need to figure out what would bond these two materials back together. Top threaded part is steel and the bottom is a rubber grommet for vibration. See attached.



Thanks again,

Charleston

 

[racerxxx]

Best repair is to replace the mount.

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Charleston]

Best repair is to replace the mount.

Yes, I fully agree. Help also to have a "parts boat" right next to it. The weekend was finally good. We got the new motor in and some of the lines installed. Noticed the cooling line plugged with 2 feet of sand. So just replaced the whole line with new new clear fun stuff from Ace Hardware. This stuff is the same and only 0.43 a foot!

Oil lines all connected but I am curious. Will gravity just fill this system with the required oil or should I be hand cranking to get fluid in? Not sure and hate to ruin a new motor.

I believe I will complete the install and make sure it at least fires up. I will then take it over to a shop for a tune-up. I would have to screw up a new motor with lean/rich conditions.

Please let me know about the pre-priming of the oil and anything else I should be looking at.

Thanks
Charleston.

 

[Charleston]

If there wasn't bad luck, I would have no luck. Decided to get the cards rebuilt locally but the needles are completely stuck. The spare set of carbs I had were the wrong ones. Nice Ebay listing there. The tech said this set has some form of booster valve on it. No clue what this came to. They look like 787's but there is that extra side module on them.

Then I go to the parts boat for carbs. 3 bolts out no issues. 4th was welded in place by Zeus. Socket head strips. So I cut off the head. Bolt corroded inside. I figured I could take off the exhaust....7 bolts gone...8ths strips too. Mother-*&^*^(*

Nice shiney set coming now online. So much fun. Cool thing is this set has those t-bars for settings installed. Should make tuning a breeze. I hope.....


-C

 

[racerxxx]

The booster is just the accelerator pump that came on the later skis and boats, but still are 787 carbs. The tech should have know they would work just fine, they're essentially the same carb with the addition of the accel pump.


Does it look like these:

 

[IDoSeaDoo]

Yea, the accel pump allows you to run a smaller pilot jet or something. They put those on 97's and up. My 97 Challenger came with those type of carbs, as well as 5/16 (instead of 1/4") fuel lines/fittings. And man, I feel your pain on the stripped bolts. The SAME sh!t happened to me last night. Pulling the exh. mani off my 4tec and 9 bolts come free fine, 10th strips. I cut the head off, tried to drill it out, bit slipped and started drilling into the aluminum. So I worked it loose and unscrewed the whole manifold (gouging it some on the dowel pin). Tried drilling it out from the back: everything was oging well until the f'n bit broke off in the hole. So now it's scrap. $80 gone POOF! Not sure if it was me or all that white chalky sh!t all around it. I know one thing for sure, the next mani is going to be cleaned out a wire bottle cleaner and this special marine corrosion preventer will be applied to all the bolt shanks.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

Yea, the accel pump allows you to run a smaller pilot jet or something. They put those on 97's and up. My 97 Challenger came with those type of carbs, as well as 5/16 (instead of 1/4") fuel lines/fittings.

This ^, the pilot jet is smaller(I'm pretty sure) and the metering spring is stronger so the pop is higher, these changes are compensated by the accelerator pump.

So some of the parts are different, it's using the calibration from a later year, but if it's set up to the factory specs for the later carbs it should work fine.

Or, you could use the new bodies, swap the old jets and metering springs over, remove the accelerator pump to keep the original calibration setup.

The accelerator pump might be kinda nice to have though, b/c you can use it like a primer. In that case no need to swap any parts.

 

[Charleston]

Broke down and just got new carbs. 99.00 shipped and they were shiny compared to my old set. Really nice. And the same...no accelerator pump. After 5 hours of work, I finished the install the Engine and all attachments. Parts boat was amazing 3-D plan on putting it back together.

Now....I try to start and "click." Battery recharged and showing 12.86V. Battery less than one year. Again...a "click" from the electrical box.

Took out spark plugs. Engine drive shaft moves smoothly. Not seized.

I have tried a fluke meter to see what is going on and I can see 12-13V all over when touching the battery to different locations such as starter, block, spark plugs, and different lugs inside the electrical box. What I don't know is what is right or wrong here. Does anyone have a step by step check to see if something is wired wrong?

BTW. My RED wire is connected to the screw on the starter. This wire follows to the electrical box. The Black ground is on the extra flange on the starter. This black wires go from battery (2) to the starter and to the electrical box.

Final note. When I attach DSS Key, I get 2 chirps.

Thank you
Charleston.

Trying to have this up for wife and me Friday.

 

[IDoSeaDoo]

open up the electrical box and see if your starter wire is getting power when the solenoid clicks over. you can even bridge the terminals on the solenoid with a screwdriver and see if it cranks over. If it does, that means your wires are good and your solenoid is bad. If you bridge it and still nothing happens, your starter wire is no good. Make sure that the other big thing red wire is getting good voltage from the battery. Make sure you have a good ground on the engine. You can take jumper cables and use them to help you diagnose. Use them to "aid" your existing wires. If putting another negative from battery to motor helps you crank, you know your negative wire is starting to fail. Be careful with the positive, you can generate crazy big sparks with that.

 

[Charleston]

OK...This is what I got. This is for DSS Key on and off and then start. Two beeps each time for key on.

No Key, Key on, Start
13V 13V 0V Starter Red to Battery Red
14V 14V 13V Starter Red to Red Battery
0V 0V 13V Starter Black to Red Battery
13V 14V 13V Battery Red to Spark plug base
14V 14V 13V Battery terminals
13V 14V 0V Solenoid Red terminals

I bridged the solenoid and mild sparks were there. Started and no crank or anything.
As for starter wire? Is that the red or black wire? Red goes from starter side to elec box. Black goes from extra boss on starter hub directly to battery.

I also decided to check the circuits. I have a closed circuit and verified a closed circuit from the following:
Battery Bk neg to starter hub
Battery Rd pos to starter side connector
Battery Rd pos to top of solenoid.
Battery Bk neg to electical box (lower right)

Question. As you can see above, there seems to be current available all the time. Maybe that is normal. I cannot remember.

Thank you Charleston.

 

[IDoSeaDoo]

Sounds like your red starter wire might be bad. Have you tried starting it by adding a black cable from battery to engine block? You can attach it at park plug or something. If that doesn't change anything, it's very probably a red wire. You can take the red and go battery to solenoid, or VERY CAREFULLY solenoid to starter. You should be getting wicked sparks when you bridge that solenoid as well as cranking. Take your wires off and check the leads for fraying and corrosion. Clean all contacts and reassemble. Maybe goop it up with dielectric grease so as to slow down corrosion effects (not sure which brand to use as I have never done this, but see that I need to start. tired of having lousy terminal connections every start of season).

 

[Charleston]

More contortion fun in the engine compartment of a Seadoo jetboat (Owners know what I mean).

Review the parts diagrams again and noticed I had two grounds to the battery where there should have been two to the starter. Fixed. Still just a "click" from the solenoid. Replaced solenoid with spare I had. Still just a "click" from the solenoid.

Finally just pulled the starter. It was completely grounded out. I had my old starter with bad bearings there and checked it out with a Fluke meter. Needless to say, my starter is bad. If you test from the + stud to anywhere on the new starter, it shows closed circuit. Old starter shows this as open. Opened it up and it was just a pile of muck and rust.

I am actively searching this morning for anyone with a 278000577 starter that can get to me by Thursday expedited. Will be calling the local and even up to Myrtle Beach stores today. Hopefully someone has one.

Charleston.

 

[Charleston]

Starter overnighted from SBT. Installed same day. We got boat out today and what do you know! SHE IS ALIVE.

Now even though my mechanical skills may be present, my NAVAL skills are highly lacking. Low tide and we found a sand bar. Shut that puppy down FAST. We got towed in from a great person in the area. I wanted to be safe because I didn't see the cooling stream shooting out afterwards.

Hooked up hose and we are streaming again. Will check heads tomorrow just to be sure and back out on the water.

Charleston.

PS. Now I just need to find screws for the bimini top.

 

[Coastiejoe]

Starter overnighted from SBT. Installed same day. We got boat out today and what do you know! SHE IS ALIVE.

Now even though my mechanical skills may be present, my NAVAL skills are highly lacking. Low tide and we found a sand bar. Shut that puppy down FAST. We got towed in from a great person in the area. I wanted to be safe because I didn't see the cooling stream shooting out afterwards.

Hooked up hose and we are streaming again. Will check heads tomorrow just to be sure and back out on the water.

Charleston.

PS. Now I just need to find screws for the bimini top.

That is EXACTLY what the hose is for. It BACK FLUSHES the engine. The water literally flows backwards to remove contaiminents. This is why it is not recommended to run on the hose for more than 2 minutes. Not really designed to cool, but to clean..

 

[Charleston]

After a few months of fun, the family has decided to move to a larger boat. This was fun. Last few times out the kids were giggling when we jumped boat wakes. Wife really liked the way it was easy to load and unload on trailer.

I did end up replacing the front damaged light with an LED model from Walmart. Worked out great. Looks nice.

I could never get the speedo to work. Paddle wheel missing in aft. A spare in hand was never installed. Gives the new owner a project. As well as the back rope cover. Those are not cheap parts. Hopefully they install early and don't misplace.

New owner has a fun little toy.

I just wanted to thank this forum and its contributors for all the help. I hope I documented things very well for the next enthusiast. I'm figuring I lost about a grand on the project. Of course that doesn't include any personal time. I chucked that to hobby and partial sanity time in the garage.

Sold the parts boat to a local enthusiast that needed stuff for his Speedster. Fun kid doing the same stuff.

Charleston