A snapshot in the glorious life of a jet ski technician

[WFO Speedracer]

Today I am on beautiful Gantt lake near Andalusia , Alabama watertesting this 98 Seadoo GTI , It's not going well but a bad day at the lake is better than a good day working for some a- hole.

It doesn't run right because someone put a $79.00 elcheapo Fakuni carb on it from Amazon , go figure , it gets worse when I pulled the ski out the left tire was almost flat , it gets worse I don't have a spare , so I dump the ski off in the Kudzu and run the trailer to the gas station, it gets worse they don't have any air , so I go to Dollar General and get a can of fix a flat , then I search for another station that has air, I find one but it gets worse , I put $1.50 in the slot machine and it doesn't come on, then I read the credit cart reader , it's gets worse it's $3.00 , having already put in $1.50 I have no choice but to submit to this one armed road bandit , I get the tire aired up.

I go back to get the ski but you guessed it , it gets worse, I took the winch off so I could load this ski on the trailer backwards when I pulled it off the other trailer , all I have is a Home Depot ratchet strap , I use the ratchet strap to load the ski back on the trailer with my very questionable tire and start limping it back home , slowly.

It gets worse , they are repaving the road and yesterday I spent way too many minutes waiting , so I turn odd down the dirt road which is not a shortcut , it the long way but still better than sitting in a hot as Tracker with no air conditioning and it 90+ degrees outside, no thanks.

I made it back without a blowout adventure over , pics below. , enjoy .

 

[WFO Speedracer]

More pics of the fun along the way .

 

[WFO Speedracer]

even more fun pics , not every day you get to cross a old wooden bridge.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Man, you really are in the boonies!!! had to search that road up on google maps!

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I am really surprised you were even able to find it !

 

[Myself]

Well, at least you were prepared.....BWAAAAAHAAAAhaaaaaa!!!!!!

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Well, at least you were prepared.....BWAAAAAHAAAAhaaaaaa!!!!!!

If I had been prepared I would have had a floor jack, air compressor and a spare in the tracker , I am going to buy an 8 inch 4 lug and 5 lug tire and just leave them in there behind the seats , regardless of what size the trailer tires are that will at least get you back home .

 

[Big Kahuna]

I am really surprised you were even able to find it !

I knew the general vicinity... I too have jetskied on Gantt Lake! My wife is from Andalusia! Showed her the pic of bridge and she felt like she had been over it before.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Very possibly , not sure if it's in Crenshaw or Butler county , it's somewhere right on the border , I have to go through the edge of Crenshaw to get to Gantt from here .

 

[WFO Speedracer]

The adventure continues , more pics from the trip home today .

I got the other carb on, changed the tire out and this time I took a jack, a spare and a full air compressor , no issues today .

I backed it in fired it up , dipped it , zipped it and put it back on the trailer, I never even lifted the seat, I didn't need to it idled perfect and it ran perfect , I loaded it back on the trailer backwards and went home .

 

[WFO Speedracer]

So I had mentioned I had a quasi business partner earlier , his name is Doug , I have been trying to mentor him a bit and I can see that he is just not getting it , I can tell by the phone calls I have received from him recently that he doesn't even know what he doesn't know.

A few weeks back I got a frantic call from him on the Yamaha Waverunner XL that I did the top end on and then the customer waited two weeks to pickup , the call goes like this ; The guy is here to pick up the ski and it won't crank , what can I do ?

I am like grab that can of carb cleaner in your garage , spray it in the end of the airbox and fire it up , yeah I know simple right, or at least you would think so , well he did and the customer left with the ski after paying.

Fast forward to Saturday , he has met a guy at the lake and the Seadoo he is selling won't crank , he eventually did get it cranked after the guy left of course .

You already know what I am going to say here don't you , yep carb cleaner, spray it in intake , crank ski , oh I thought that only worked on Yamaha's , um duh Doug it works on pretty much anything with an internal combustion engine.

So he got it started and rode the ski, now you would think if there were any running problems he would adjust that and rectify it while he had it in the water right , nope you would be wrong , think of Doug as E350 on steroids lol.

Yesterday I get another call, the ski doesn't idle, yeah remember when I said he had it in the water and rode it , yeah me too .

He doesn't know how to idle the ski up or where the idle adjustment is , I explained it as best I could , whether he got it or not I do not know .

Here is a little background on the ski he is selling , My friend Johny who also works on skis put the engine in for him , He tried to rebuild the carbs himself and failed miserably so I fixed those, his hood had a a huge hole in it so I supplied a hood and painted it for him , he installed the hood and hooked up the gauges , after he did that the ski started blowing fuses , he wanted me to swap out the gauge harness which I started to do but I decided to check over what he had done first.

Sure enough he had two connectors swapped , I fixed that and then the gauges worked , he put a wear ring in the jet pump and then the engine wouldn't turn over so I went by loosened up the pump. sprayed soapy water in the pump and fired it up, then slowly tightened the pump back down , another issue solved . Then he water tests it and it cavitates like crazy , I asked how he sealed the pump to the hull and he used a neoprene gasket, big no no on an older Seadoo, I told him to pull the pump , remove the gasket and seal it back up with silicone, he did , same result , I said well try it again , so on the third go around he finally has it sealed up .

So my rule is if someone is coming to look at a ski or I am delivering a ski I crank it up before they get here , If I am going to water test a ski I crank it up before I leave the house, that way there are no surprises , I feel like I have spoon fed this ski to him on a silver platter no less and he still just doesn't get it , Doug has a lot a learn and I am not really sure at this point that I have the patience for this or that I am the man for the job , my tolerence for stupidity has gotten really low as the years have passed by.

 

[holygoat]

So my rule is if someone is coming to look at a ski or I am delivering a ski I crank it up before they get here , If I am going to water test a ski I crank it up before I leave the house, that way there are no surprises , I fell like I have spoon fed this ski to him on a silver platter no less and he still just doesn't get it , Doug has a lot a learn and I am not really sure at this point that I have the patience for this or that I am the man for the job , my tolerence for stupidity has gotten really low as the years have passed by.

I bought an aluminium boat last year. 14ft Crestliner with an 8hp 4 stroke Honda. Guy said it had sat for a year, but he KNEW the motor would fire up. I asked him three times if he wanted to do it to be sure "it'll be fine" OK.

Get there, doesn't start, he feels awful and asks me if I'd do $300 instead of the original $1200, yeah I can probably swing that! Needed a coil pack. $80 later and it ran like new.

I start my ski before I leave for the lake every single time. I think people who don't work on stuff think you press the magic button and it just works.

 

[BennyB]

Very accurate. It's always amazed me over the years how many times I've gone to look at jetskis/snowmobiles/dirt bikes for sale and have been told that yes it starts right right up. Then when I get there they drag it out for the first time in who knows how long. It's filthy, doesn't even attempt to start for various reasons, etc...

When I have someone coming to look at something for sale I always have it pulled out ahead of time, at minimum wiped down, and started beforehand. I had an old seadoo several years back that I had done the basics to make it look good after I bought it then after the motor crapped out on me I was able to sell it non-running for as much as I had paid for it a couple years before just because it looked so good for it's age.

I'm with you on that @holygoat , I start everything before I leave the house every single time. That's my routine for all my toys for every season haha

 

[WFO Speedracer]

A friend of mine or should I say he was a friend at the time , came by one Sunday and wanted me to clean the carb on a Honda XL70 he had put up for sale, he knew well in advance the guy was coming to pick it up and driving 6 hrs to get it , previously I had told him to put AVGAS in his stuff so this wouldn't happen , of course he didn't listen , anyway I was working the davit crane the day before and somehow it slipped and the crank hit my thumb hard, it tore the skin off the knuckle and I found out years later that it had actually been broken,

At any rate here he comes wanting me to clean his carb with a broken thumb , my lady is saying F him and don't go but I said ok , I went and did the job, got the bike running perfectly and he hands me $20.00 , I think you can imagine my response, we still speak cordially to this day but I would say at this point we are no longer friends.

One more thing he used to halfa$$ restore bikes and sell them , he made pretty good money at it , he mostly did Honda Z50''s CT70'S ,CT90's and 110's , ATC 70's , XR80's and 100's , XL125's , you get the picture , all of those bikes are what I cut my teeth on when I started in the mechanic trade so I know them inside and out and have all the special tools required to fix them with . This guys doesn't even know how to adjust a valve or time a set of points.

Once I stop working on his stuff he had to stop restoring bikes and find other avenues to make money , never piss off your technician when your income depends on his knowledge .

 

[orangefinger]

wow this area and the lake are fantastic ... looks amazing

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I will take some real pics next time I take one out for more than two minutes.