6 replies to this topic

[l4hlsn]

after having some trouble with my tuned pipes, i took my boat out to sea, had a great time . not common in my case lately but that's what boating is all about. Now i just got some spares in to change the wear rings so i disassembled the pump group. i found that the plastic drive shaft covers are all broke, i tried to find a place to order new driveshaft protectors but haven't found any source, they come as a unit with the new driveshafts.
I don't want to change the driveshafts since mine are good.
any advice?

[tiggerman]

What year and model is your DOO? Never mind..... I see it now. You have exactly the same boat as mine. '97 Speedster? http://216.37.204.20...pe=13&A=13&B=20 are where you'll find your protectors, because I just got mine from there and replaced them. You need the two protectors which are pictured in the parts diagram, and the two retaining clips, which are not pictured. They sent me the clips even though I didn't specify them. The protectors don't have a price listed, but I'm sure they are around 10 bucks each. I don't have the part number handy, but I think it ends in a '063' or something like that.

[secord]

Tig:

Is there anything you don't know or haven't done with your boat? How 'bout stepping up to a '99, so when I have problems I can just contact you with them, and you can help me out!

I haven't seen one post yet where you haven't helped someone out or seen a question yet, that you couldn't answer.

Not trying to kiss your ass or anything, just think it's awesome.

'99 Tig....think about it!

[tiggerman]

Ass kisser... just kiddin'... I'm sure there's tons of stuff I haven't done to my Speedster...yet.. I have done alot of reading on other sites, and looked at all the diagrams I could get my hands on. ALot of what I know comes from actually looking at my boat and figuring out how the stuff goes together, and what purpose things serve. I think I have read every post at jetboating.net, and learned quite a bit there too.
I am more than happy to help anyone I can here, or anywhere else. I'm sure someone will/can return the favor one of these days. That's what Kevin put this site up for (i think.. )....
I don't pretend to know everything there is to know about a DOO, so if ya ever catch me giving crappy info, LET ME KNOW!!!
As far as a '99 goes, you need to have THAT conversation with my wife!!! I've tried, man- trust me.......

[tiggerman]

after having some trouble with my tuned pipes, i took my boat out to sea, had a great time .  not common in my case lately but that's what boating is all about.  Now i just got some spares in to change the wear rings so i disassembled the pump group.  i found that the plastic drive shaft covers are all broke, i tried to find a place to order new driveshaft protectors but haven't found any source, they come as a unit with the new driveshafts.
I don't want to change the driveshafts since mine are good.
any advice?

There is one thing I have thought about doing to my boat that I haven't mentioned here: Driveshaft seal carrier retrofit. After the 95 year model, Seadoo changed the way the driveshafts are sealed as they come thru the hull. The 1995 model year has a metal bearing carrier, with a needle bearing inside and 2 seals. The carrier has a grease fitting to lubricate the bearing inside. Seems boat owners were failing to include this grease fitting in their maintenance routine, and it caused problems- in the form a sinking Seadoo! The bearing would loose its lubrication and seize on the driveshaft. When that happened, it would spin the carrier- tearing the rubber mounting hose and opening a large hole thru the hull.
Seadoo 'improved' the design in '96 by changing the carrier to a carbon ring that mounted in the hose, and putting a stainless steel ring on the driveshaft. The two parts maintained a seal by pressure from the 'accordian' style hose holding the carbon in contact with the stainless steel ring. Not really an improvement except it eliminated the danger of a bearing seizing on the shaft. The drawback of this design is the tendency of the jet pump to create low pressure in the intake tunnel when the engine is running. This low pressure creates a 'vacuum', which in turn sort of collapses the accordian hose and lessens the sealing pressure of the carbon/stainless joint. Guess what? Water doesn't enter the boat, but air enters the intake tunnel and that causes cavitation.
Other jet boaters have tested the old versus new design, and found that cavitation is dramatically decreased or virtually eliminated with the grease type bearing carrier. The advantage to that design is it actually has 4 sealing surfaces (each seal has double lips) to keep water out of the boat and air out of the intake. It doesn't rely on a rubber bellows to hold pressure on the sealing surfaces (it mounts in a rigid rubber hose). The seals create a positive sealing surface that is not affected by the low pressure 'suction' in the intake tunnel.
It does, however, rely on the owner to maintain the grease inside. But, from the performance gained by this upgrade/retrofit, I think I can deal with a squirt of grease here and there. It is a far superior design to the 'new improved' seal.

[l4hlsn]

thanks tiggerman just ordered the parts

[tiggerman]

You are very welcome!