New Owner of a nice old '98 GS

[braol]

Hello!
I am a proud new owner of a 1998 GS that I picked up for my wife (aka, for me) this Christmas! We have used my cousin's waverunners for several years now and my wife really wanted to have one of her own. We live near Lake Michigan and are sure to get our money's worth out of it, plus when we hang with our family we'll have one more ski to add to the fun. We ski Lake Wisconsin, Long Lake, and Swan Lake...all up in South-Central Wisconsin.

Paid $1600 for the ski and a 2-year old trailer....not bad in my opinion in that I am mechanically inclined (H-D motorcycles, cars, boats, etc...) in case anything might be wrong with it. The way I see it, even if the ski needed a new engine I'd still be money ahead over a new ski plus I have the trailer. When I looked at it was like 15 degrees outside but she fired right up (engine was cold before previous owner started it...I checked...).
Of course, I'll do the obvious: filters, fuel lines, new fuel gauge float (gauge in-op), handgrips, general detailing, etc. There are a few places where the gelcoat is chipped down to the fiberglass, but I am experienced in gel-coat and epoxy repairs. I used to own an old sailboat and was constantly doing something with the hull.
In the upgrade department I really just want the ski to be reliable. Cosmetically, the only things wrong are the old, nasty handgrips and a small tear in the seat cover. The ski must have been kept indoors because all the plastic is good, decals are intact and look good, and so on.
Questions: Is there still an aftermarket/OEM speedometer kit available? There's an empty pod for one and it's be cool to have.
What do people do for night operations? Usually clip-on lights or are there some cool LED navigation light options?
What is the overriding opinion of premixed fuel over keeping the oil-injection? Is there some kind of alarm if the oil injection system fails??
OK, I lied. I'm a man and I want the ski to perform better. Other than crazy, race-only upgrades...what's out there for a GS?? If you were only going to do three up-grades to a GS what would they be, in order?

Ok, well, that's it for the introductions. Hope to see U out on the water this summer!

 

[Spimothy Leary]

night operation is Illegal here, I assume it is in WI as well.

I like premix but If oil injection is working now, leave it alone it will probably continue working for a long time, not prone to failure like Yami.

The only oil injection alarm is a loud thunk that you will hear as the engine seizes

not much you can do to pep up a 717, IMO the cost plus slightly reduced realiability outweigh the extra pop you'll get on the throttle.

traditional speedo gauge needs a speed wheel on the back, is there one on that model?
note: with a GS IMO the speedo isn't really critical, you won't be going that fast, I might suggest a used handlebar mount extrex gps for $40ish which provides accurate speed data and extra bonus of other gps features like milage, breadcrumb trails, etc.

Handgrips should be reasonable like $15-20 used at most, I might have a couple of good used sets around but i'd have to look over the weekend at one time I had 3 or 4 of them. You can also get a nice set of new ODI's for $30ish IIRC.

 

[mikidymac]

Keep that GS stock and enjoy it as Spim said. Make sure you add carb rebuild to your list of maintenance and verify you are using the correct API-TC oil.

To go faster just buy a GSX!

 

[braol]

thanks for the tips!

So far on the GS reliability list I see: carb rebuild kit, replace fuel lines, and API-TC oil. Any other recommendations?

 

[CReynoldsMIZ]

thanks for the tips!

So far on the GS reliability list I see: carb rebuild kit, replace fuel lines, and API-TC oil. Any other recommendations?

That's pretty much the big ones. Replace the oil injection lines on the oil pump with new 3/32" tygon tubing. I would also highly recommend pulling the oil tank, dump the old oil and replace with new. Clean the oil tank out with gas and it will be like new. Also would suggest sucking the oil out of the two hoses that attach to the engine. That oil can get stagnant and probably needs to be refreshed since it just sits there as an oil bath and doesn't circulate. Also, change the jet pump oil. All of this stuff is very easy.