Utopia Vibration, Thoughts?

[FLSeadoo1]

I sucked up a ski rope yesterday into both drives. I had this happen to me on my last boat and cleaned everything out and it was all good. This is on a brand new Utopia with about 15 hours on it. It has twin 155's. Non-supercharged obviously. I killed the engines and cut everything out. I inspected the housings, from underneath and from the rear of the boat, and it is clear. Today I took the boat out and it started to have really bad vibrations after 4000 rpm and and lack of power on the starboard engine. I gave it a little gas and it literally transitioned back to normal. It was running fine and then I restarted it after having lunch and it started the same thing again. It seems fine except with a little more vibration under 4000 rpms. Over 4000 rpms is when the really loud vibration starts and lack of power. Sometimes it would run rough and then transition back into smooth operation.
Also, yesterday (it was a bad day), hours before I sucked up the rope, one engine was not performing smoothly so I removed the third cylinder spark park plug wire boot from inside the engine case, pulled it out and pushed it back on (because it did not look snug) and the boat ran fine again. Also, the steering seems to be pushing the boat starboard (which makes sense for a starboard engine lack of power) Any ideas? Do you think its a damaged impeller ring or should I have the dealer look at the third cylinder? Could it be flooded or damaged if there was no spark but still running okay under 4000?

 

[Phildoo]

Possibly bent the driveshaft causing vibration now.

 

[FLSeadoo1]

I thought that the drive shaft might be an option but the only thing is that it operates normal sometimes and other times it vibrates. If it was the drive shaft, it would vibrate the same continuously.

 

[FLSeadoo1]

Dealer told me both wear rings are destroyed. They have to remove and replace them on both engines. As much as I would love to do it myself, I don't want to mess with it as it is a brand new boat. Costing me about $375 for them to replace both. It looks like a large chunk of wood was sliced by the impeller and lodged between the wear ring and the impeller on one engine and parital chunks were taken out of the other ring by rope/rock/debris. Very frustrated.

 

[speedster32940]

That sucks, my sympathies.

I sucked up a piece of wood about the size of my thumb a few weeks ago & it does not look / feel like it did any damage. Guess I got lucky. I'm not a mechanic by any stretch, (so I write lots of checks unfortunately) but under $400 to replace both rings in today's $100 per hour boat mechanic environment does not seem too bad...

I'll certainly be watching out for ski / tube tow ropes this summer!

 

[Sikiguya]

From every forum members, it is not a matter of if...but rather when you will replace wear rings. Happy for you that the problem is identified and remedied. Now, on to a great boating seasons.

 

[FLSeadoo1]

Yeah, I am glad that it is an easy fix. I have the pleasure of being right down the road from Perry Performance Group so I will let them do the repair. It is $452 to replace both wear rings, clean out the mess, and put it all back together. They do awesome work and are some of the best in the business. It could be a lot worse. I talked to them about switching to stainless steel wear rings and they did not really recommend them. Has anyone switched to them or have any comments about them?

 

[FLSeadoo1]

Ok.. So I sucked something up again...!!! This is absurd. I bought the boat brand new in March and this will be the third wear ring since. I have been extremely vigilant and having riders watch the water and constantly checking the depth and I still sucked something up again! What are the thoughts on the stainless steel wear rings? Realistically, everyone says that it transfers the damage to the impeller or drive shaft, but has anyone ever seen it or personally experienced it from personal experience or as a mechanic working somewhere? I would like to know because I have had it with these wear ring replacements.

 

[RFoster130]

I recommend learning to do it yourself. It is a cheap and easy job. Paying a shop $500 a pop would get crazy. I have heard the same thing as far as SS rings. Dont mess with the SS rings. They are metal and dont give. When you suck something up, the wear ring is designed as the weakest link. It gives, thats why it is called a WEAR ring. You replace that with metal and other parts become the weakest link. You end up with damaged impellers and drive shafts. But honestly, I dont know anyone that has personally had the problem with them, but I also dont know anyone who has used them. You may think its a myth, but your local shop even told you not to use them... I know I wouldnt take the risk.

I think the number of problems you have had is just pure bad luck. I have had my boat 4 seasons now and have never had to change a ring due to sucking something up. I changed them both just for the heck of it, but thats it. I try not to suck stuff up but sometimes it is inevitable.

 

[chlarson23]

I replaced my ring on my challenger 180 last night, took me an hour. It was my first time and it was super easy, my boat didn't have any sealant holding anything together, it was all O-rings that are easy to replace and work with. cost me under a $100 for the parts and saved me a couple of hundred on labor since my local boat shop likes to charge an hour of labor just for troubleshooting the problem. I'll never use them for anything but parts. any way there are good threads on here that tell you everything you need to do so definatly check them out.