2 replies to this topic

[BigArm]

I am new to this forum and fairly new to Sea Doo PWC/Jetboats. This summer my parents purchased two 99 GTX PWCs and we enjoyed them all summer. I got a primer in maintenance during the winterization. This fall I purchased a 97 Challenger 1800. I have found reference to numerous maintenance issues in the forums and this boat will need some of them sorted out. One issue is a tachometer does not work. My forum searches indicate they are hard to come by and I found no reference to their repair. So I removed the offending tach and something was rattling about inside. I took a lucky guess and made an opening in the side of the instrument body with a 1mm diamond burr attached to a Dremel tool. The burr essentially melted the plastic and I then eased the flap away from the instrument body. The opening is between the 5500 and the 7600 rpm mark as seen in the pictures. I found a transistor loose inside and the old mount location was fortunately easily visible from the access I had made. In the pictures the transistor is the black and silver device on three "legs" next to the silver cylinder. I prepped the solder surfaces and remounted the transistor. I installed the instrument in the boat and fired the engine, and the tachometer works. Easy and cheap. James

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[Kevin Leclair]

Great how-to, thanks for sharing!

[BigArm]

I should have included this in the original posting. The tachometer is a close tolerance fit in the instrument panel opening. Make sure when you replace the flap that it and the glue holding it do not protrude very much from the surrounding cylinder. In addition, one thing I thought about but forgot in my repair. It seems since the tall transistor vibrated loose, one could place a dab of RTV silicone or Hi Tack between the transistor and the silver cylinder behind it. That would effectivly keep in in place. James