Spinning my wheels, not what you think

[SeaDoo97GTX]

Hey all. Great to be a part of this blog site. You guys and gals give the best advise and I truly appreciate it.

I have a 97 GTX with only 29 hours on it. I ride in a fresh water river in SW Ga. I never drive onto the shore line with the engine running and I never back off of it with the engine running. I always take extra care not to suck up sand or dirt or anything if possible.

My Doo has the same problem I have been reading on this site that others seem to be having. Engine runs great but when I give it hard throttle it sounds like I am spinning my wheels. The Ski does move forward but I have to feather the throttle to get it up on plan and then I can hammer down and it will go. The engine is not bogging at all. I can nail the throttle from a idel and it will tack out in half a second to 7500 or 8000 and start cutting out with the revlimiter. No not on the trailer, it will spin up that fast in the water. Like I said the ski starts to move forward but just seems like if I give it to much throttle at once it just starts cavataing or something.

I looked through all the post on this problem and I have personally checked everything I have read about to check. No trash in the intake. I have replaced the carbon disk and new steal plate on the drive shaft inside the Doo. (There was a small water leak there so I thought it was sucking air but after the test run today I guess I have not found the problem.) The wear ring in the pump to me looks good. There is no splin damage to the impeller side or the PTO side of the driveshaft. I just don't know what the problem is.

When I had the pump off today as I was changing the carbon disk, I looked real close at the wear ring. Very tight fit between the impeller and the ring. I did notice some small scratches on the walls but nothing so bad that I would think could cause this kind of problem. I hear no funny noises when I am running in the water. No wine or squeals or nothing. I am stumped and I do not want to take this to the dealer.

I am very good at turning wrenches and I can rebuild anything with the right manuals and tools. I do already have a shop manual for this ski so I am good to go on direction but I just am out of ideas on which way to go.

I hope you guys have some other idea I have not tryed.

Thank you so much.

 

[seadoosnipe]

Good diagnostics!.....

You sound like you've dotted your i's and crossed your t's.........so, it's going to be hard to give you anything else. There really isn't anything else.

With what you say you've done, it doesn't seem like you should have a problem. If you do, you sound like your a pretty good mechanic and I'm sure, capable of seeing a problem spot.

The only thing you didn't specifically state, was the measurements of your wearing ring clearance. It's not suppose to be greater than .40"........but, to me, there should only be enough clearance to slide a piece of paper through.

In the wearing ring, what "spins" out is the water caught in a circle. Water comes through the impeller, but at it's being forced into the nozzle, is pushed out to the sides and back between the impeller and wearing ring over and over again...........

You have checked everything. Outside the wearing ring or sucking air, there is nothing else that you can check............

 

[SeaDoo97GTX]

Hey Seadoosnipe,

Thanks for the quick reply. I know it sounds crazy. Hard to believe but it is doing just as I explained. I talked to a friend of mine at the dealership that works on Seadoos. He is scratching his head as well. Even though I don't think the wearing ring is the problem, I am going to pull the pump again and take it to him and see what he thinks. I did not check with a feeler gauge but I don't think you can get anything thicker than a peice of paper between the impeller and wearing ring. My buddy did suggest maybe the pump is sucking air where the pump fits to the intake runner. This unit has no gasket or anything. It just has a Male-Female type of sealing surface. He said when I put it back together after he checks the wearing ring, to put some black ATV silicone in the mateing area and let it sit for 24 hours. Then go and try it out on the water. One other thing I am going to do is replace the rubber bellows piece that holds the carbon disk. There is tension pushing it towards the steel plate but really what is enough? The book says to measure the distance pushed back and extended(I am paraphrasing here). I have to keep in mind, this is the first time this Doo has ever had the pumped worked on. It has low time but is 11 years old so the rubber piece could be a little stiffer than a new one. It is one of those insurance things I am doing so I hope I don't have to pull down the propulsion drive again.

One good thing about all of this is that I am learning the ins and outs of my Doo. It is nice to work on it at home in my spare time instead of paying some one 70 or 80 bucks an hour to do it.

Thanks again for your helpful input. I will keep you posted.

 

[SeaDoo97GTX]

Ok Seadoosnipe and any one else that has been following the problem with my Doo. I tore down the drive again and took the pump to my buddy at the Seadoo dealership. He checked the wearing ring out. He said the front of the ring looked OK but there were some bad cuts towards the back of the ring that if you can get a feeler gauge in the groves that it would be way over the .40 allowance. He suggested the ring be changed but that he still was not sure it was the real problem. I left it with him and picked it up later in the day. When I picked it up he told me the tightness looked better but still was not as tight as a new pump and suspected the impeller was warn a bit as well. He said if the new ring did not fix it then the only other thing that he could do is replace the impeller. I asked him how could the impeller get warn. He said the same thing that wears the ring out could wear the impeller too. I have had many boats in my time and a few different Jet Skis. I have never heard of the impeller wearing like this with such low time on my Doo. Remember it is a 97 with 29 hours. I did a little investigating at work today about the history of the Doo I have. I got it from my Boss. He has a condo down at PC and I figured this Doo had been in salt water at one time or another. He said maybe one time but I think it may have been more than that. My Boss has several sons and they probably rode it more than anyone and all I can figure is maybe they were constantly driving the Doo onto the beach and just sucking all that sand and salt which as we all know will do havoc on any machine.

Here is the verdict of the work. I tested it today and am happy to say the hole shot is better but I can still fill the pull let up just as it plans out but then it rockets on. I even noticed I picked up 5 more MPH on the info gauge at top end. I do feel a difference but I fear I have to put a new impeller in it to get back to what it should be.

One side note. I had the dreaded grey fuel lines in this ski so last night I changed them all and rebuilt the carbs. The carbs were not to bad but the small filters in them were all mucked up big time. One thing I can say is the mechanics at the dealership really work hard for their money to take those carbs out of the ski. My chest is sore from laying across my ski for hours. LOL

Thanks Seadoosnipe for your help and I guess for now I will ride it the way it is.