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impeller fitting to tight
- Thread starter Dtrain55!
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It will be very hard to start, even lubed up. I had this problem last year when I replaced mine. Ended up sticking the pump in the freezer and then putting in a vice and using a drill and the spline tool to spin the impeller. Did this a few times until the impeller spun freely. I figured the impeller was slightly irregular and the cold shrinking the wear ring would uniformly bring the wear ring closer to the impeller. Spinning the impeller at a high speed with a drill just barely shaved the wear ring down enough for the impeller to turn without binding.
I had this happen on my '96 speedster. A local jetski mechanic put new wear rings on both engines. When we went to start it, the starter couldn't crank over the engine. This guy thought something was wrong with the battery or electrical system and I was too much of a newbie to know any different. I was referred to another outfit in a different city. The owner was friendly, knew exactly what was going on and generously told me how to fix it over the phone without telling me to just bring it in.
He said the mechanic probably had one of his employees do the job or he just wasn't experienced with this operation, but all I had to do was loosen the 4 bolts a bit on the impeller housing assembly on the back of the transom enough that the starter would then start each engine (I did one at a time, of course) and then slowly tighten them up with as even a torque as possible until it was a tight fitting, but the shaft was still turning freely. The other guys had just tightened these bolts too tight. He said this was how you break in a wear ring. It worked! As soon as I loosened the bolts a bit, the engine started right up. I slowly ratcheted down the bolts again until the fitting was good. It's been running normally ever since.
He said the mechanic probably had one of his employees do the job or he just wasn't experienced with this operation, but all I had to do was loosen the 4 bolts a bit on the impeller housing assembly on the back of the transom enough that the starter would then start each engine (I did one at a time, of course) and then slowly tighten them up with as even a torque as possible until it was a tight fitting, but the shaft was still turning freely. The other guys had just tightened these bolts too tight. He said this was how you break in a wear ring. It worked! As soon as I loosened the bolts a bit, the engine started right up. I slowly ratcheted down the bolts again until the fitting was good. It's been running normally ever since.
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