mahunt

It will tap backwards toward the outdrive and uncover the o-ring seals and whatever corrosion or mung exists.

If you are replacing the SS flange anyway (I did), you can tap it harder (didn't have to).

Update to my (our) 1996 Speedster's general issues.

When I converted to oil mix from oil injection a few years back, I just plugged and dropped the injector oil feed lines in the bilge, keeping the oil tank and lines that supply oil to the rotary gear plus about a gallon and a half of oil to keep the "add oil" light off. Recently I overhauled my port engine and decided to clean up the bilge by removing the dropped injector lines.

When it came time to snip the main injector feed line from the oil tank, I thought nothing of once again inserting a gasket sealer coated screw into the shortened line and cinching it with a zip tie. After a few weeks, I noticed the line started leaking a bit, so I bought a 5/16" cap and used another zip tie to secure the seal. There wasn't much oil in the tank before using the cap and there was even less after, just about a half inch only.

I took the boat for a cruise this past Sunday and couldn't help but notice that neither engine smoked as much as they had in the past and the new engine hardly smoked at all if any. I'm going to rebuild my starboard engine in a few weeks and can't wait to see if this fixes the smoke problem altogether. Convert to mix and keep enough oil in the tank to cover the rotary gear line, but no more. Jumper the oil sender line to make the oil light go out.

During my outing, I also critically listened to where engine noise was exiting the engine compartment and sure enough, most of it was coming from the two vent tubes. I will visit Home Depot or Lowe's and see if I can find some noise abatement foam for the two vent undersides of the engine cover. In the meantime, can someone post a picture of the underside of their 1997's engine cover as a guideline? Thanks.

I have a '96 as well and have the same likes and dislikes, but I'm willing to concentrate on enjoying the positive aspects while minimizing the negative ones.

Noise-You ain't a kidding, for as quiet (from shore) as this boat seems (sounds like a quiet turbine), its always amazed me as to how loud it is to pilot. There is some sound deadening under the package tray and alongside the engines, but I wonder if the firewall between the passenger compartment and the engine couldn't do with some DynoMax-like product. Also, I can't help but notice that the '97 models have two small pieces of deadening foam on the underside of the engine compartment hatch cover just above the two vent holes. The specific foam pieces are no longer available from SeaDoo, but I bet they can be approximated. Are '97 Speedsters somewhat quieter than earlier models?

Pollution-There are countless SeaDoo sitdowns that have the exact same engine (even the same family 580, 657, 657X) as the twins in our boats, but they NEVER seem to smoke, much less to the "mosquito control" clouds this thing produces. I've recently rebuilt the top end of one engine and I have to admit, it does smoke less, but still not like a regular sitdown. I know the Rotax Valve gearing area of the crank can have leaky seals, but that doesn't explain why EVERY OTHER SeaDoo ski DOESN'T smoke. I wonder if it has something to do with the height of the oil reserve in relation to the engine. The sitdown skis probably don't have as great an oil column bearing on them due to closer or lower oil reserve tanks. I've switched to premix for a number of good reasons and it does help (a tiny bit) with the smoke issue.

Battery placement-As sure as Spring, the batteries most likely need service or changing. I switched to AGM and get longer service. I also put in a 12V power source (cigarette lighter looking thing, no lighter though) near the right pilot's cup holder and wired it (with a fuse) to the batteries. This makes the batteries easier to maintain charge and provide power for an accessory while boating (low amp draw only). Aside from the stock battery setup, there are folks that convert to a single large battery and solve all their battery problems. I noticed that the single engine jet boats use a single large battery or so it seems from the parts diagram of a '97 Sportster (Electrical System diagram).

You've had the boat since 2001 (same pretty much for me) and have enjoyed it, you aren't going to get much in trade and why trade for a new set of issues (all boat have issues). Better the devil you know than the one you don't.

I have a 1996 Speedster and at one time, suspected my MPEM was bad.

I remember hotwiring the 4-wire plug connection at the front of the engine to make sure it started and ran. I was even thinking of rigging a permanent bypass because the boat just wouldn't work at times. So if that's what you are looking to do, then yes, the engines can be hotwired.

Turns out that the MPEM wasn't bad (after buying a new MPEM), it was the microswitch in the forward/neutral/reverse lever that failed. A little tough to get to, but cheap to replace (no so with the MPEM). Lesson learned.