Intake grate re-installation

[sportsmom]

I removed the intake grate on my '11 wake 155 (I now know this was a mistake) to clear a jam. The 3 rear bolts went back on without issue, but the front bolt - which I did not fully remove, only loosened enough to swing the grate to one side - won't go completely back in. There is firm resistance when attempting to tighten or loosen. I don't want to force it for fear of stripping the nut or breaking the bolt. There is a very small amount of play in the grate at the front - 1mm or 2mm is my estimate.

The nut appears readily accessible in the hull. So my question is: how hard is it to replace the nut on the front bolt? I'm assuming that I shouldn't run the ski without the grate fully tightened. Should I try tightening the bolt to see if it will snug up the grate with a bit more torque?

I'm reasonably handy but I wonder if I should head to the dealer before I cause more damage.

 

[red2blue]

Maybe you could try having an extra set of hands hold a socket wrench on the nut while you apply heat to the bolt then try to tighten or loosen.

small plumbers blow torch and heat gun will heat the bolt and loosen the locktight on the bolt.

 

[Michael211_2000]

Did you use Blue threadlocker on the grate bolts before you re-installed them? You need to do that, they must be threadlocked to prevent them coming loose and falling out!!!

My opinion is that you should pull all 4 bolts and start over here. Clean the hull of any silicone in the intake grate mounts, apply blue threadlocker to all 4 bolts, apply fresh silicone to the mounting points of the intake grate (front and rear, no need to spare the silicone you can wipe any excess that squeezes out away after you have it mounted again). Put the intake grate in place and hold it there with 1 hand while hand threading all 4 bolts with the other hand.... get them all snug as you can by hand 1st, then use a socket and ratchet to start tightening them up snugging gently the fore bolt then the 3 rear bolts then go back and tighten the front bolt firmly followed by the 3 rear bolts firmly. They should all tighten up if you do it like this. Use your fingertip to smooth and remove excess silicone that may squeeze out, then allow silicone to dry overnight before putting it in water!

What you have now is the front bolt is in a bit of a bind because the rear 3 have been tightened fully already. I don't believe you've caused any damage whatsoever, but you need to have fresh silicone under the grate mounting points and loctite all 4 bolts (since you didn't remove the front bolt fully, I'm sure you didn't apply loctite to it's threads!). Even if there's dry loctite on the bolt threads they need fresh liquid loctite applied to them before re-installing them! Just a drop or 2 per bolt will do the trick. Loctite must be BLUE!!!

- Michael

 

[slevar]

Like others, some lake debris made it past the intake grate and I was unable to remove it without removing the intake grate on my 2014 GTX 155. The 2014 Sea-Doo PWC Repair and Maintenance Manual describes the intake removal process as: "remove the bolts and discard them". My bolts appear to have some sort of Loctite (orange color) on them. I've used blue Loctite for years and it dries white. I don't think there's anything special about the bolts described as M8 x 40 (front) and M8 x 20 (rear). Using a wire brush, the residual Loctite can be easily removed and the bolts reused. Anyone have any ideas on why the bolts should be discarded?

 

[kevrock]

Bolts can stretch if torqued too much.