[CTSpark]

So I sucked up a piece of wood and it got stuck on the impeller. So I limped it to shore, luckily my friends boat had a toolkit. I go to remove the intake grate and the bolts just rotate freely and don't come out like there's a nut on top of them. Same with the ride plate. Anyone have any insight on this?


That doesn't make for easy side of the river clean outs. Didn't have enough tools to pull the pump off so long story short I ended up running it the way it was and it later made its way out. Slight loss of acceleration/top speed which I'm guessing would be the wear ring. Impeller looks perfect, but I'll check it when I take it all apart.

 

[Off-road]

From what I have read, you are correct. There are nuts on the other side. You have to take the top hull off to access the nuts.

 

[Dmshirkey]

You are correct on this

 

[CTSpark]

That's not a great design, so to do the wear ring, I know I have to pull the pump off. What about the intake grate? Just wondering if I have to take the top off to do this job.

 

[TK423]

It's not the best design but its a good excuse to take the top off and get to know the inside of the ski. When its opened up be sure to spray it down with Fluid Film.

 

[Dmshirkey]

I believe this was done because I heard a story about someone who lost their intake bolts and some how hit a tree and died. The wife sued seadoo.

 

[Wrench4fun]

its the same design as most other seadoo's, anyways its a whole lot easier to just take the pump off which most of the time you need to do anyways to get it all out or replace the wear ring!

 

[Rthonb]

Wow does that ever suck... I just ordered a new grate because one of the bars is broken..it was 45 bucks .. I figured I could do it myself... So (because I'm a little slow ) you have to take the top off to access those bolts in order to replace the grate?? Wow

 

[CTSpark]

yeah I have learned over the last month it is very easy to just remove the pump having the proper tools. Two weeks after the first piece of wood sucked up I got another tiny twig stuck in it at a no wake zone. Pulled to the side and removed it. Wear ring isn't as bad as the last time but I feel like acceleration has decreased slightly. I wish these wear rings were cheaper, the CT river always has so much crap in it everyone is always complaining about the same thing.

Yes you have to take the top off to get to those bolts, hopefully you don't have to remove much stuff to get to them.

 

[Rthonb]

yeah I have learned over the last month it is very easy to just remove the pump having the proper tools. Two weeks after the first piece of wood sucked up I got another tiny twig stuck in it at a no wake zone. Pulled to the side and removed it. Wear ring isn't as bad as the last time but I feel like acceleration has decreased slightly. I wish these wear rings were cheaper, the CT river always has so much crap in it everyone is always complaining about the same thing.

Yes you have to take the top off to get to those bolts, hopefully you don't have to remove much stuff to get to them.

I think it is much harder to remove the pump when you have Ibr lime I do.. I've gone through one wear ring so far. They are80 dollars here in canada . How much in ct ? Funny how much damage one twig can do.

Your river sounds a lot like my Saint John river. Hurricane Arthur made it a lot worse . The river rose about 8 feet bring all kinds a debris into the river.

I wish the intake grate was made of metal... Would be a lot more durable. I'm going to hate having to take the whole top off to replace it. I hope the nuts are accessible . Maybe I will talk to the deAlership guys to see what their thoughts are

 

[Sarge707]

yeah I have learned over the last month it is very easy to just remove the pump having the proper tools. Two weeks after the first piece of wood sucked up I got another tiny twig stuck in it at a no wake zone. Pulled to the side and removed it. Wear ring isn't as bad as the last time but I feel like acceleration has decreased slightly. I wish these wear rings were cheaper, the CT river always has so much crap in it everyone is always complaining about the same thing.

Yes you have to take the top off to get to those bolts, hopefully you don't have to remove much stuff to get to them.

Yes the CT River has quite a bit of debris (Its Getting better each day) from Rocky Hill to Hartford Especially. I usually go Rocky Hill to Haddam Meadows which is a Nicer area.
Something as Small as a Decent size piece of bark can get stuck between the wear ring and prop and because of the water pressure will NOT spit out and the engine groans and vibrates like mad- you can usually go about 2800 rpm,s and limp back at 4 mph without a problem. This happened often with my RXT-X But the Spark seems to spit it out better at the cost of a little wear ring? Best thing is to get it on the trailer without the water pressure around the prop and rev it once or twice and it will spit the bark right out!
If its a Bigger piece of crap in the prop you gotta take the pump off most of the time- I keep the certain tools in the storage to take the pump off on the side of the river in an extreme emergency because you can lift the back of the Spark onto a Log or something on the side of the river if you need to?

 

[CTSpark]

Yeah Sarge I carry the tools with me from now on, and yes that was me up on the log twice on the river. haha! I launch out of haddam meadows and go south most of the time.
The river was nice and clean this weekend when I went out finally, it sure is nice to find a clean lake once in a while you don't have to be looking out so much.

And yes the wear ring is $75 here in CT.

 

[RunItTwice]

Any of you ride as far north as Northampton, MA on the CT river? My family lives there, and I'll be visiting later this summer. Looks like people might ride out of the oxbow in Northampton. Also, anywhere north of that even I'd be interested in hearing about. Bartons Cove perhaps?

 

[Rthonb]

What bit do I need in order to remove the top cover?

 

[rdouglas]

yeah I have learned over the last month it is very easy to just remove the pump having the proper tools. Two weeks after the first piece of wood sucked up I got another tiny twig stuck in it at a no wake zone. Pulled to the side and removed it. Wear ring isn't as bad as the last time but I feel like acceleration has decreased slightly. I wish these wear rings were cheaper, the CT river always has so much crap in it everyone is always complaining about the same thing.

Yes you have to take the top off to get to those bolts, hopefully you don't have to remove much stuff to get to them.

The no wake zones in the river have caused me to remove debris from the impeller three different times. (With less than 10 hours on the skis). Fortunately, I was able to use a long wrench to reach inside the grate and gently tap out the small pieces of wood. I have since learned to keep the throttle somewhat depressed to better avoid this problem.