Two Doo's with Problems and General Questions

[SeaDooNewb]

I am an accomplished auto mechanic (self professed) but have never worked on any watercrafts. My in-laws recently picked up a couple used Sea Doos; a 2003 GTX and a 1996 Bombardier SPX. Took them out for the first time over the holiday weekend and the '96 would idle fine and putter along fine but it just bogs down when you try to give it more than ~1/8 throttle. IF you let it idle in the water for a few seconds and then give it some throttle, RPMs come up and it gets up out of the water like it should for ~1 second and then goes back to bogging. Tried changing plugs with the appropriate cross referenced Denso's (it had NGK's in it) but did not gap them and there was no change in behavrior.

The 2003 was running well the first day but we decided to change the plugs on it too for good measure (again, stock gap). It ran ok for the first jaunt and got progressively worse as the day went on to where it would just not pick up RPM's.

I'm going to become premium to DL the manuals and that should point me in the right direction for troubleshooting but had some general questions first:

Is it OK to run the skis out of water for long periods (5-10 minutes) as long as their hooked up to the hose?

What type of diagnostics tool(s) will I need and how much do they run?

Is there a general troubleshooting method commonly used?

Any other tips for a first time PWC wrencher?

TIA

Bill

 

[D 5UPE]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Question (1)
Is it OK to run the skis out of water for long periods (5-10 minutes) as long as their hooked up to the hose?
You can run them safe on tickover for short periods with the hose pipe running. But beware of a runaway engine. Sometimes the engine can runaway with its self at high rpm's.This is called dieseling. Very scary.
The only way to stop it is to starve it of air (block the air intake) or turn the fuel off. Or if your brave enough givving it some gas, sometimes overfuels it and reduces the rpm.Pulling the lanyard or turning stop buttons off doesn't stop engines that are dieseling.
Question (2)

What type of diagnostics tool(s) will I need and how much do they run?
Having the workshop manual is the first choice.
Plus simple tools like an electric testing meter. Cheap as chips.
Compression tester if you want to get well into it.

Question (3)
Is there a general troubleshooting method commonly used?
Yes the workshop manual.

Question (4)

Any other tips for a first time PWC wrencher?
Take your time and read up on stuff.
And dont be scared to ask on here.

 

[SeaDooNewb]

OK, I Downloaded all the '96 and 2k3 manuals. I read/skimmed through the entire '96 shop manual and I'm not very enlightened. Everything on these things seems to be a pain in the ass! The manuals didn't really have good troubleshooting sequences for anything and I can't say I have a good idea on where to start. I do know now that the plug gaps are probably too large. They're supposed to be .020" to .024" and they looked like they were gapped at ~.045 or maybe larger out of the box. Thay may be the problem on the 2k3 but I'm doubtful that that is the problem on the '96. I did also get a better idea of what the fuel filter looks like. We thought initially that we say it but when we took it off it was for the 2 stroke oil injection line.

We ran the '96 out of the water with the hose attached for a litte bit and there was a pretty pronounced metalic rattling coming from the pump outlet. I don't think these were maintained very well if at all so I would not be surprised if the pump is shot. If so would that explain being able to rap it out on land but it not wanting to rev up in water? I'm trying to isolate the problem and see what I can diagnose on land. It looks as if I need some sort of ignition tester to be able to troubleshoot any ignition problems?

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[JoeZ]

The "troubleshooting" section in the manual is rather vague, but it will give you a good idea for starters. The individual sections give very good trouble shooting, however, and provide a variety of tests that you can use to check on the individual systems.

For the '96, it sounds like a fuel rich condition since it'll clear up after a moment. I'm not ruling out other problems, but that is what I'd look at first. For the rattling, just try to find the source and we'll go from there. If it is the pump (which I'm hoping for your sake it isn't), then you will have to pull it and fix the bearings and such.

For the 2003, improperly gapped plugs can certainly be your problem. Pull them and see what they look like, then gap properly.

 

[JPX]

I've run my 1996 HX for 10-15 minutes at a time on the hose while troubleshooting and flushing. Whether or not that is a bad thing remains to be seen. But if you have a runaway RPM condition, then that will be a total headache.

One thing to watch for is a leaking exhaust manifold that might be pushing water into the exhaust system. This bogs down the system at low RPM, but with enough revs, the water is pushed along by the exhaust pressure.

Pumps can be a bit noisy out of water - most likely the impeller on the wear ring. It makes a "ting" sound if there is any vibration or nicks in the ring that the impeller hits. Keep in mind that the forces on the impeller and wear ring are different when it is in the water.

You can also check all cable connections to the engine (from battery and ignition box) for corrosion. Detach, clean with a brass bristle brush and reattach. Same for spark plug wires - clip the last bit of wire and reinsert it in the plug boot and ziptie it back on.

Within the ignition box, check for any corroded terminals. If the boat was flooded at some point from abuse, then those terminals may not be in good shape either.