Debris stuck in impeller

[steve on the water]

My father-in-law bought a 98 speedster recently. He said that he lost power and had a lot of noise from the engines. He thought he had sucked in some weeds. I went to visit today and found a plastic cap wedged in the starboard impeller and 3 inch wood chip aft of the port impeller. The wood chip came out fairly easily but the plastic is wedged in tight. Port impeller and wear ring look fine. Starboard impeller looks rough and in my mind the wear ring needs to be replaced. Can you get access to the impeller to remove debris by removing the ride shoe? I am not sure when he will replace the impeller and wear ring, bit the debris need a to be removed now. I can grab it from the weed guard side but it is stuck solid. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[racerxxx]

You'll need to pull the pump. But to do that you need to remove the rear clam shells. I just disconnect the forward/reverse as steering cables and then remove the 8 screws that hold both nozzles in and drop that all as one assembly. Better if you have 2 people but I do it solo. Then you can take the nuts of around the pumps and pull the pumps. After you do it a few times you can drop both pumps in under 30 or less.