Damaged Wear Ring

[waterman]

Was out for a ride today and everything appeared to be fine after 30 minutes or so of fast riding. Slowed down to an idle to take a drink of water, then applied full throttle to take off again. The engine itself appeared to rev ok, but very little propulsion.

Found the wear ring broken up in large and small black, plastic fragments inside the impeller housing just to the rear of the impeller. I'm assuming some kind of foreign object got jammed in between the wear ring and the impeller on my '96 SPX, forcing the wear ring out of position, and subsequently destroying it.

I've got the shop manual, but I'm not quite sure just how much I have to disassemble to replace the wear ring. Assuming my impeller is ok, can I replace the wear ring by just removing the impeller housing from the outside rear of the craft? Or, do I have to remove the impeller housing, (drive) shaft, and impeller to replace the wear ring?

Thanks!

 

[kustomkarl]

This will give you a good idea of what is involved. Use it as a guide.

Replacing the wear ring
For starters....

1.) Remove the three hoses on the inside of the boat. (Attached to the pump) if you do not do this first, you will forget and cause all kinds of problems for yourself!!!

2.) Remove the steering rod, 10mm bolt and nut.

3.) Remove 4 13mm bolts holding nozzle on. with this off you will have a much better view of the wear ring.

4.) Remove 4, 17mm bolts from the pump to hull. Make sure you pull off all the lock washers and washers to ease pulling the pump.

5.) This is the tricky part.... Most shops gob all kinds of silicon on when replacing the pump and so it makes it a pain to pull it away from the hull.
You need to pull the pump away from the hull as straight as possible.

They sell a pump removal tool but I just made my own. Cut a length of 2x4 that I set across the rear of the ski and drilled 2 holes in it. I thread long 13 mm bolts with washers through the top two holes of the pump where the nozzle mounts. This pulls it away nicely with a butterfly impact.

6.) Now you have your pump and impellor in your hands, the next step is to remove the 3 8mm bolts on the cone. Make sure you have something to catch the oil and nose plugs.... This stuff reeks to high heaven...

7.) After cleaning out the oil I place the pump impeller side up in a vice. (grabbing the flat end of the pump shaft in a vice)

8.) Place impeller removal tool in the impeller and grab a 1/2" drive 3/4 socket with a huge breaker bar. Twist it counterclockwise till it pops loose. (may take some pressure. I seriously use a 4 foot pipe on the end of my breaker bar and use a popping motion rather than smooth pressure.)

9.) Now that you have the impeller out take your new wear ring and put it in the freezer.

10.) You have to get the old wear ring out of the pump. ( I have found the easiest way is to take a saws all and cut a slit in the wear ring the full length of the pump) Be careful only to cut the wear ring and not the pump.

11.) Take a large standard screwdriver and a hammer and tap the screwdriver gently between the wear ring and the pump all the way around to separate them.

12.) Clean all the white corrosion off the pump where you will be putting the new wear ring

13.) After tackling this task go to the freezer and grab that wear ring. (don’t dilly dally with it) get it to the garage and slide it in the pump. you may have to tap lightly with a rubber mallet. If it doesn’t slide in then you didn’t clean the pump good enough. Repeat steps 9 and 12.....

14.) Reinstall the impellor in the reverse order.

Note: it is very important not to pinch the thrust washer when re-installing the impellor shaft. That’s why it’s a good idea to do it in a vice rather than on the ground sideways.

Once the impellor is tight you should have 1/8 - 1/4 inch play in the shaft back and fourth. if you don’t start over and inspect your thrust washer you probably pinched it..

15) Inspect the rubber o ring and if it is good apply silicon and reinstall the cone. Make sure the allen fill plug is on top.

16) Lower the front of the ski and add oil to the cone. When it is full, take a brake and have a drink. There is air in the cone and when you go back you will see that it is low. Top it off and take another brake... do this until the fluid does not lower again. I often start the ski for a few seconds to make sure oil is all the way worked into the bearings and all the air is out.

17) wipe silicon on the set screw and screw it in (be sure not to run it all the way into the cone. just deeper than flush is fine. let it sit 24 hours to cure the silicon and put the nozzle back on.

18) Use Sea Doo 75w90 GL5 Synthetic Polyolester Oil

If you want you could join as a "premium member". As a premium member you can down load a authentic seadoo manual from the seadoo manual library. In the library is a variety of manuals for almost all years and models. You can view as many as you like on line as a PDF file, or download it and print it for your personal and privet use. There are operator manuals and repair manuals for you to do your own repairs on your seadoo. The repair manuals have everything from troubleshooting, repair procedures to winterizing. It contains wire diagrams torque specs and pictures for disassemble and assemble instructions. In the spec sheets it tells everything needed to maintain oil changes, spark plug gaps, carburetor rebuilds and impeller wear ring tolerances. Click on the "Seadoo Manuals" link at the top of the page for more details. If you need any help or get in a jam, we are always here to answer your questions too. Premium members get priority when it comes to getting quick detailed answers.

Karl

 

[waterman]

kustomkarl,

Wow, thanks for the detailed instructions!

Just a couple of questions.

1. Haven't had a chance to look inside my SPX for the 3 hoses you mentioned. Until I get chance to look, was curious as to why they need to be disconnected prior to the disassembly on the outside rear of the unit?

2. I'm assuming when you remove the "pump" (with the 17mm bolts) that the impeller shaft and impeller is still attached to the "pump" as you remove it? I'm assuming the impeller shaft is splined and there's no steps necessary to disconnect it from the engine?

Thanks again!

 

[kustomkarl]

I can't remember if your seadoo is the exact fit for these instructions. That's why I said, "this is a good idea of what is involved, use it as a guide". The hoses are easier to remove before you get the pump disassembled, and have to struggle with them. The premium membership will give you exactly what is needed to do the repair. It's only like $10.95 to down load. The paper back manuals are usually $80.00 to $100....I know I bought one for my 2008, 200 speedster...$85.00, from seadoo.

Karl

 

[waterman]

Thanks to kustomkarl for the detailed instructions!

As stated earlier, trying to replace the wear ring on my '96 SPX.

I've got a copy of the maintenance manual for my '96 SPX, but I can't quite figure out whether I need to disassemble the rubber boot(s), clips, etc. located just to rear of the engine (inside the engine cavity) prior to pulling the impeller housing on the outside rear of the craft.

The manual states the impeller shaft *may* not come out with the impeller housing. If so, does that mean the shaft is splined inside the impeller? Is it also splined on the engine end of the shaft, too? I'd really like to get clear on this prior to pulling on the impeller housing with a puller. Certainly don't want to have to disassemble more than I have to, but at the same time I don't want to damage anything by pulling on the impeller housing with the shaft still potentially attached to the engine or to something else that I may not be aware of (inside or outside the craft).

Thanks to everyone for their help!

 

[DPSkiman]

Pull it straight

Its okay to be nervouse on your first time. Just be sure to remove the pump housing STRAIGHT backwards. You don't want to knick or damage the splines on your drive shaft. Yes, there are splines on both the pump and engine ends. Careful to retrieve and reinstall the little black rubber pieces on the shaft, as they are designed to reduce vibration. Trust me, if you forget this step, you're looking at removing all of it again just to put this little piece back in.

Good luck, report back.

 

[derek]

the only way to remove the shaft is to remove the pump, unless you cut the ski in half. sometimes the shaft will stick in either the pump or the engine end. usually not, or not very tightly. 96. you are right on the borderline of carbon disk or needle bearing shaft seal, and also with the way the 3 aforementioned hoses mount to the pump. the shaft will probably stay in the ski. the hoses are up high on the pump. looking back from the front, they are about at noon, 1 and 2 o:clock. no, you don't hafta wait till noon. that is their location. they bcome off easy. if the mounts stay behind when the pump comes out, you wasted 5 minutes unhooking them. if you have to fight them off when pump is loose, you will waste more.