Impeller rubbing new OEM Sea-Doo wear ring

[mejim707]

This is for the 96 challenger boat.

I installed a new wear ring in my pump a few days ago. It's a brand new OEM wear ring. I installed it in a perfectly clean rousing and race and it fully seated / bottomed out.

The ring went in well and looked good. I then installed the impeller and noticed the impeller rubbing the wear ring. I looked this up and many people said things like this "Just throw a little WD-40 on it and run the starter in the driveway and it will quickly clearance itself."

So that's what I did. The engine turns over strong on the starter. But when I try to rotate the PTO by hand it's tougher to rotate than normal, I have to put some effort in. With the plugs out the engine turns over very quickly as well.

After doing this a few times I do see some plastic "shavings" form the wear ring where the impeller is in fact making clearance, but this doesn't feel totally right to me.

I highly doubt this could cause any issues for the pump internals, and it does seem to be removing the wear ring material that's rubbing against the impeller.

Advise would be awesome and thanks! I may just try to start it in the driveway and let it run for 10 seconds or so and see what's up.

Thanks!

 

[mikidymac]

Pretty normal and with the engine running on the trailer at 3,000 rpm it will clearance it pretty quickly.

 

[mejim707]

Pretty normal and with the engine running on the trailer at 3,000 rpm it will clearance it pretty quickly.

Wow, ok well coming from you I think it's normal then lol

Like I said it takes me some real effort to rotate the PTO, but, the starter has no trouble.

I'll give it a shot then and I'll let it run on the trailer for about 10 seconds and see how it shakes out!

 

[mejim707]

Pretty normal and with the engine running on the trailer at 3,000 rpm it will clearance it pretty quickly.

You my friend are a genius!

That worked perfectly. I ran it for 10 seconds and the clearance issue is gone. I'm soo glad I didn't start everything over. I was about to tear it all down again and replace the wear ring a second time...

I did a full service of the pump, new bearings, seals, wear ring and so on. I'm calling this done now. I was very discouraged last night. Didn't know the wear rings come with clearance issues, but now I do!

Very thankful for this forum and the experts!

 

[mejim707]

Took it out today. Ran smooth as silk! On plane like nothing!

Last year I picked up some rocks from a shallow / unmarked area of the lake. That must have clobbered the pump more than I thought since it was full of white sludge from water intrusion.

It’s perfection now after a full rebuild. Easy rebuild too. And I’m glad the wear ring got clearanced.