My water monster swam to the bottom...

[Bear71]

So sunday while I was riding with a couple of buddies, I had an interesting event occur. My X-2 (Which I named "Nessie" like the lockness monster)'s Thru-Hull bearing housing went bad while I was in mid air... So hearing the comotion that my ski was making as it began to Hydro-Lock, I shut the ski off. Well thats when the fun started. My ski's engine compartment filled up with water so fast that it was almost an instant nose dive straight to the bottom. Luckily, a friend of mine had a tow rope in his ski and we managed to get it hooked up before it was completely un-salvageable. We towed her in under the water for about 250 feet, untill we reached a spot "dry enough" to dump some water out. At first sight nothing was too bad, No holes in the hull, no weird sounds or anything like that, but with the bearings bad in the housing, it was like tryin to have a screen door on a submarine. After towing it under water about another 300 feet, we reached a beach that we could actually get it completely out of the water. Well the friend of mine, who gave me the tow, is also a PWC mechanic and he immediately knew what had happened. Well having the problem identified was great, however, we still had about 1/4 of a mile of river to go with a sinking boat. While getting towed in fast enough to plain out the ski getting towed, my buddy road Nessie all the way in without another stop. Now this is where it gets weird. After all the under water towing and the engine compartment filled with water over the engine, when I went to blow the water out of the spark plug holes, there wasn't any. Not a drop. There was just a little bit in the front cover where the fly wheel is located and a couple drops in the electrical box, but not a single droplet inside the motor... I was blown away when I saw this as well as my friend who has been a PWC mechanic for about 15 years. Lucky can't even begin to explain how I felt about this. So, now that I have to take my 650 motor out to replace the housing, I might as well just go ahead and drop in a 750 while im at it! Hope you enjoyed my water monster tale, take it easy, Have a nice day.:439:

 

[tightithrash]

wtf.......................lol tight!!!!!!!




how friggin weird.

 

[linden]

this happened to me on a quad once totally submereged my grizzly 660 in a flag pond where all you could see was the bars. dragged her out tipped her up to drain the air box and tranny started her drove back to camp to do a quick oil change and she was totally clean no water to be found in the motor. it was a good fealing

 

[Idok]

we have towed in a few X2's out of the ocean.....they come in at a 45 degree angle of the back of the other boat bouncing off the bottom.....if you dont stay under power and the water is deep enough the X2 can drag the other boat under as well!

 

[diamondaudio10]

welcome to the club, ive had to dive down and rope my x2 after it sunk. pia!!!

 

[Vumad]

My ski sunk one day but it had neutral boyancy. I would have lost it otherwise. It's getting some foam in the hood again, and anywhere else I can find a place. That was too close to a reef for me.

 

[the WaTeRhAwK]

curious here, but how in the world did you end up with bearings in the driveshaft flange? it's just a rubber coated four-holed plate with a greased bushing to hold the shaft. did you change the stock one out for some other type of bearing housing or something?

 

[jkirkland]

All of the thru-hull bearings I have ever changed in Kawi's had bearings. Sealed roller bearings held in by an e-clip. Personally I have never seen one with a greased bushing. ---Jason--

 

[butti]

All of the thru-hull bearings I have ever changed in Kawi's had bearings. Sealed roller bearings held in by an e-clip. Personally I have never seen one with a greased bushing. ---Jason--

x2

 

[the WaTeRhAwK]

when he said bearings I thought he meant ball bearings, which didn't make any sense at all. I am mostly trying to figure out how he got enough water flow though that tiny of an area to sink his boat that fast. even if one of the needle bearings go out, the bushing seal on either side of that plate doesn't seem like enough area to let that much water in that fast. strange. it's the first time I've ever heard of it as well.

 

[jkirkland]

Normally on a kawi they have large 1/4 inch ball bearings in a sealed roller bearing set up. The bearing doesn't normally cause all of the water to come in it is normally the 1 1/4 in bulkhead unit that makes up the thru hull bearing that sinks the ski. It sucks but I have had it happpen many times. --Jason--

 

[the WaTeRhAwK]

Normally on a kawi they have large 1/4 inch ball bearings in a sealed roller bearing set up. The bearing doesn't normally cause all of the water to come in it is normally the 1 1/4 in bulkhead unit that makes up the thru hull bearing that sinks the ski. It sucks but I have had it happpen many times. --Jason--

yeah, but wouldn't that thing have to be torn off the bulkhead to expose that much of the open shaft tube?

 

[Yohns Kustom Fabrikation]

Ive seen the centers of the housing rip out before. Personally I had an x2 that the bearings were rusted so bad that there was no bearing left causing the same senario.

 

[vomitspot]

the bearing housing separated from the 4 bolt flange
this happened after he jumped the ski about 1 foot out of the water and pounded it down
ski sank intantly
looks simular to a old seadoo bearing carrier
i was the lucky cat that got to tow the little submerged fella ashore
ski was completely under water nothing was floating
only way i knew it was there was i had my leg on the tow strap and could feel the drag
i rode the ski to the boat launch being towed closely behind my friends fzr at a high speed
once we stopped ski sank instantly
once we got the x2 home we reconnected the battery and put the charger on it pulled the sparkplugs , went got beer
had to do something while battery was charging
ski started right up
pulled the front cover was soaked ,pulled the elect box -soaked
but motor started up ,fogged it anyway but WOW
we were both amazed and still am
j

 

[BruceSki]

i had a 650sx years ago that sank like that... the center of the bearing housing splits from the four bolts. it sinks just as fast as you described.... about 2 seconds lol.

im surprised the motor stayed dry though.. that's weird