Reverse gate position

[timbl]

I have Seadoo sportster 4-tec 2003. The reverse gate covers part of the steering nozzle when the gate is in forward. If I push the gate with my hand it does pop up and clear the Jet. This is on dry land. I am wondering if this is normal and the force of the jet will push the gate up or if it is blocking part of the jet while the boat is running?

My max speed is around 38mph. It should be closer to 50mph. Perhaps this is the issue?

I have attached some pictures. The gates looks to be in the proper position for reverse. Would appreciate any thoughts on this issue. Thanks,

-Tim

 

[RustyBucketBay]

Hey Tim. If no one answers in the next 3 weeks I’ll try and remember to look at mine. It’s out of the water so I can look but not for a few weeks.

you might be right though. It doesn’t look correct at a glance. the gate should not obstruct the jet. And I would suspect reverse is controlled by a tab or something. As in regardless if forward is misaligned the gate can only drop so far.

when your in neutral does the boat creep forward or backwards at all? My neutral is slight forward movement (not that that’s ideal/correct). Could be an indication if yours is moving backwards.

There should be a cable or rod to adjust. You remove a nut then the rod comes off the gate, then you should be able to screw the rod in or out to adjust gate position. In your case you’d be moving it in. See this vid at about 1:23

Vortex pump and gate

 

[RustyBucketBay]

Also I don’t recall the gate being so easy to move by hand. The rod shouldn’t move freely but again I cant remember for sure if there’s zero play.

Similar to that on the pwc side of this forum: IBR Gate Just Drops Down - Won't Stay in Up (Locked) Position - 2022 GTX 130 Pro

 

[kustomkarl]

Tim not running and out of the water, using the shifter at the controls, push it all the way forward. It should go all the way to up to clear the nozzle of the jet pump, completely. In neutral, the bucket should be almost covering the nozzle of the pump, about 1/2 way into reverse. The boat will still creep forward in this position. Use the shifter to shift from forward to neutral and then reverse and look to see the correct position of the nozzle pump. you can make fine adjustments of the cable on the left side of the pump or at the controls if need be, by pulling the controls out and adjusting the drive cable there. I hope this helps. Karl

 

[timbl]

Thanks so much for these response. I apologize for the delay in my response. Mice got into the boat this spring and made a mess. That coupled with record rain this summer delayed my testing until this week.

The gate definately needs to be adjusted and I will do so when it is out of the water. Thanks for the video.

Unfortunately not much difference in speed (I moved the gate up by hand once the boat was in forward).

The boat gets into a plane quickly and accelerates well up to a about two thirds throttle and then nothing more after that. The RPMs don't increase.

Plugs and coils seem ok. I am wondering about the fuel pump or TPS? The throttle is opening all the way and no slack in the cable.

 

[micrulerz]

Thanks so much for these response. I apologize for the delay in my response. Mice got into the boat this spring and made a mess. That coupled with record rain this summer delayed my testing until this week.

The gate definately needs to be adjusted and I will do so when it is out of the water. Thanks for the video.

Unfortunately not much difference in speed (I moved the gate up by hand once the boat was in forward).

The boat gets into a plane quickly and accelerates well up to a about two thirds throttle and then nothing more after that. The RPMs don't increase.

Plugs and coils seem ok. I am wondering about the fuel pump or TPS? The throttle is opening all the way and no slack in the cable.

Remove the screws that hold down the injector rack, then pull out the whole injector assembly from the intake and turn it upside down, then bump the starter to see if all of the injectors are spraying fuel correctly. I'd clean inside of each injector with a good shoot of WD40 just in case as this solved my loss of power before.

 

[timbl]

Remove the screws that hold down the injector rack, then pull out the whole injector assembly from the intake and turn it upside down, then bump the starter to see if all of the injectors are spraying fuel correctly. I'd clean inside of each injector with a good shoot of WD40 just in case as this solved my loss of power before.

Thanks. I will take a look at the injector assembly. I did test the TPS and it looks OK based the resistance specs in the shop manual.

 

[timbl]

I did pull the injectors and they all seemed to be spraying fuel correctly when pushing the starter. I have bought a tester/cleaner from Amazon. Unfortunately it will need to wait for next season.

In addition I tested the fuel line pressure which was 40 PSI. The speck is 44PSI. As per the trouble shooting guide I should replace the pump if it does not meet spec, but not sure how much a difference 4PSI will make?

Compression is 180 in all cylinders after 4 or 5 turnovers.

I also noticed that the gap for spark plugs, for this boat, in the shop guide is .24" and not .28" which is what I found most posts state online. I don't think this will impact the speed of the boat, but was a little surprised? Whenever I have pulled the plugs they look pretty good.