Hello,
I have a 97 Challenger 1800, but I am troubleshooting a friend's late-90s GS. I am not sure of the year, but it is carburated and does not have the RAVE valves like my boat.
Anyway, I have tried a few things to fix it and read a lot of posts on similar issues, but none seem to be so intermittent like this one. Sorry for the long post, but I am really stumped with how and when these issues come on, so I thought the time line and details might help someone help me figure it out.
- He asked me to help after it lost power and would stall with any throttle. It would always start, but then die when any throttle was applied. He thought there was no water coming from the indicator port on the tow-ring. Symptoms almost seem like overheating, but he never got any warning beeps.
- I flushed the cooling system really well on land, got the water flowing to the indicator port, and even back-flushed only the intake in the pump (by disconnecting that hose and flowing water back through the port in the pressure zone) to make sure there were no obstructions there. There was nothing in the impeller area (ski had been towed on the trailer 50 miles by this point, so we thought something might have been in there but then dislodged). Everything else seemed perfect on land, so I told him we had to get it back on the water to test it.
- It ran great for 2+ hours...really strong, just like it always had. It started easily, no bogging, full top end, etc. So well we let another guest at his house take it out. He said it was fine, but reported some "surging" at full throttle when he got back before lunch. We discounted that since he was less experienced and had lunch. After about an hour, I took it out with my son for a long cruise. It was 100% fine for about another hour, but then I noticed a very very slight reduction in the top speed. Water was still flowing from the indicator port. The speed reduction progressed over about 15 minutes, but very slowly. It probably took about 5 full minutes for me to realize it wasn't just my imagination. Then it started surging in a very severe and rhythmic way. I changed to RES at that point, since we were just below a quarter tank...no change. Then it stalled while underway, almost like running out of gas. It started right back up, though, and we continued to limp it home, losing power and speed the entire time. By the time we got back, we had about 25% power, and it would stall if I let go of the throttle. It would always start right back up, though. Back on the dock, we refueled it, checked the impeller, etc...everything was fine, but the power loss was still there.
- I have thought about the usual things like cooling system flow (maybe the temp sensor is bad and not beeping?), but it seems fine whenever I test it. I thought about the battery slowing losing power due to a bad rectifier (especially with how it lost power so gradually on that last trip), but that does not explain how it could "recover" so well between instances...the battery was not charged separately during this time. The plugs don't look bad, but I told him to change those next. Again, though, it seems odd that it would come and go like this with fouled plugs. I also thought about fuel delivery, but I am not sure how a clog, dirty filter, or other issue would come and go like this, and it does not seem to be related to the fuel selector valve since I tried that in both positions...
Does anyone have any other ideas or similar experiences? Lots of the common things seem to make sense here (fuel, electrical), except for the fact that this problem is so intermittent. The only thing that I think could change so slowly over so much riding time and then somehow recover by itself would be temperature-related...could there be some microscopic cooling system restriction somewhere? All the other issues like fuel and electrical would seem to be "permanent" once they occurred, so I am still thinking temperature, How do you test the temp sensor warning system?
Thanks in advance,
Olivier
1997 Challenger 1800
Friend's late 90s GS and GSX
I have a 97 Challenger 1800, but I am troubleshooting a friend's late-90s GS. I am not sure of the year, but it is carburated and does not have the RAVE valves like my boat.
Anyway, I have tried a few things to fix it and read a lot of posts on similar issues, but none seem to be so intermittent like this one. Sorry for the long post, but I am really stumped with how and when these issues come on, so I thought the time line and details might help someone help me figure it out.
- He asked me to help after it lost power and would stall with any throttle. It would always start, but then die when any throttle was applied. He thought there was no water coming from the indicator port on the tow-ring. Symptoms almost seem like overheating, but he never got any warning beeps.
- I flushed the cooling system really well on land, got the water flowing to the indicator port, and even back-flushed only the intake in the pump (by disconnecting that hose and flowing water back through the port in the pressure zone) to make sure there were no obstructions there. There was nothing in the impeller area (ski had been towed on the trailer 50 miles by this point, so we thought something might have been in there but then dislodged). Everything else seemed perfect on land, so I told him we had to get it back on the water to test it.
- It ran great for 2+ hours...really strong, just like it always had. It started easily, no bogging, full top end, etc. So well we let another guest at his house take it out. He said it was fine, but reported some "surging" at full throttle when he got back before lunch. We discounted that since he was less experienced and had lunch. After about an hour, I took it out with my son for a long cruise. It was 100% fine for about another hour, but then I noticed a very very slight reduction in the top speed. Water was still flowing from the indicator port. The speed reduction progressed over about 15 minutes, but very slowly. It probably took about 5 full minutes for me to realize it wasn't just my imagination. Then it started surging in a very severe and rhythmic way. I changed to RES at that point, since we were just below a quarter tank...no change. Then it stalled while underway, almost like running out of gas. It started right back up, though, and we continued to limp it home, losing power and speed the entire time. By the time we got back, we had about 25% power, and it would stall if I let go of the throttle. It would always start right back up, though. Back on the dock, we refueled it, checked the impeller, etc...everything was fine, but the power loss was still there.
- I have thought about the usual things like cooling system flow (maybe the temp sensor is bad and not beeping?), but it seems fine whenever I test it. I thought about the battery slowing losing power due to a bad rectifier (especially with how it lost power so gradually on that last trip), but that does not explain how it could "recover" so well between instances...the battery was not charged separately during this time. The plugs don't look bad, but I told him to change those next. Again, though, it seems odd that it would come and go like this with fouled plugs. I also thought about fuel delivery, but I am not sure how a clog, dirty filter, or other issue would come and go like this, and it does not seem to be related to the fuel selector valve since I tried that in both positions...
Does anyone have any other ideas or similar experiences? Lots of the common things seem to make sense here (fuel, electrical), except for the fact that this problem is so intermittent. The only thing that I think could change so slowly over so much riding time and then somehow recover by itself would be temperature-related...could there be some microscopic cooling system restriction somewhere? All the other issues like fuel and electrical would seem to be "permanent" once they occurred, so I am still thinking temperature, How do you test the temp sensor warning system?
Thanks in advance,
Olivier
1997 Challenger 1800
Friend's late 90s GS and GSX
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