Vumad
Super Hero, with a cape!
- Location
- St. Pete, FL
I'm at a loss and can use some help...
I have a 2004 SJ. It is all stock. standard 38mm carbs. To the best of my knowledge, I am the second owner, and the motor is all original, no work or rebores, all still stock. The boat has ran great since I bought it last year, except one thing. The choke is stuck and it has no primer. I started it at home cold by putting my hand over the intake and it cranking for about 10 seconds. Once it ran, it would start right up the rest of the day. When it would sit, it would not want to go right away. It would need to idle for about 30 seconds before it ran right. If you got on the throttle, it would sputter and fall on it's face, but once it got moving, it would run all day long perfect, unless I let it sit for longer than a hour, then it would do it's hesitation thing for 30 seconds, then run great. After that initial 30 seconds, no problems. No hesitation. Could squeeze the throttle wide open from dead idle with no lean stall or rich hesitation.
Last weekend, we rode. It ran just like always, exactly as described above. Everything was normal all day. I brought it home and flushed it just like normal. I shut off the water and cleared it out just like normal, and touched the cylinder to make sure it wasn't getting hot when I shut the water off, just like normal. Everything was normal.
It's been in my shed since then, just like normal. The only thing different b/t now and then is that I had it on it's side 45* for 24 hours per side to cement on some lifter wedges. 24 hours on it's right 45*, then 24 hrs on it's left 45*. Then back to sitting flat.
Which brings us to today. The ski wouldn't start when I manually choked it. Very weird. Boat is always predictable and starts right up with 10 seconds or less of manual choke. I opened the little plug on the top of the airbox and shot a quick mist of starter fluid toward each carb. I hit start and it started up, then screamed to the rev limiter. I shut it off. start rev limiter stop, start rev limiter stop. So I took off the airbox and poured about 0.5oz of fuel in each carb. I hit start, it idled normal for about 0.5 sec then jumped to the rev limiter. repeat the 0.5 of fuel, same thing.
So I removed the carbs. I checked the jets. The diaphram covering the jets had a bunch of buildup around the edges, but the inside where the jets are is spotless. The main and pilot look spotless, the needle looks undamaged and the seat is very clean, spring looks fine. The kidney piece that covers the jets is clean and clear, and the rubber gasket inside is very soft and nice. Same on both carbs. Both carbs have 130 main, 70 pilot, 1.5 needle/seat. The rear (master) carb has a silver spring, and the front carb has a brown spring.
I put the carbs back on, and the ski again wont respond to manual choke. I add fuel and it's back to the rev limiter.
Compression on my gauge is 160/160, which is actually a bit high. When I bought the ski, on the same gauge was 150/150, but the gauge was given to me by my dad, and may be who knows how old or accurate.
The fuel filter is clean.
The water separater/vent has less than 1cm of water in it
I checked the petcock by blowing into the line, and it was clear and fuel flowed back out when the gas cap was on
I checked the line from the case to the fuel pump, and it looked good.
I removed the plugs and cranked the ski, after about 5 seconds of cranking, I got a steady stream of fuel from the return line.
I can't spray the motor with carb cleaner because the ski already jumps to the rev limiter.
It seems to me that the jets are clean. The petcock is working, the fuel filter is fine, the vacuum line is ok, the fuel pump is working, the return line is clear and fuel is flowing through both carbs. I don't think the issue is a lack of fuel to the carbs. I do not have a pop-off gauge. I can only say that the needle and seat look good.
I'm at a loss. The only thing that has been suggested to me that I haven't tried is to fill the boat with water up the the carb intake, which could test for a leaking crank case / intake. I haven't done this yet.
Suggestions? Advice? I'd like to ride tomorrow, but right now I'm at a loss. I don't have access to any parts and even if I did, i'm not using the weekend to tear my boat apart. I can work on it several days during the week.
Advice is appriciated. Thanks.
I have a 2004 SJ. It is all stock. standard 38mm carbs. To the best of my knowledge, I am the second owner, and the motor is all original, no work or rebores, all still stock. The boat has ran great since I bought it last year, except one thing. The choke is stuck and it has no primer. I started it at home cold by putting my hand over the intake and it cranking for about 10 seconds. Once it ran, it would start right up the rest of the day. When it would sit, it would not want to go right away. It would need to idle for about 30 seconds before it ran right. If you got on the throttle, it would sputter and fall on it's face, but once it got moving, it would run all day long perfect, unless I let it sit for longer than a hour, then it would do it's hesitation thing for 30 seconds, then run great. After that initial 30 seconds, no problems. No hesitation. Could squeeze the throttle wide open from dead idle with no lean stall or rich hesitation.
Last weekend, we rode. It ran just like always, exactly as described above. Everything was normal all day. I brought it home and flushed it just like normal. I shut off the water and cleared it out just like normal, and touched the cylinder to make sure it wasn't getting hot when I shut the water off, just like normal. Everything was normal.
It's been in my shed since then, just like normal. The only thing different b/t now and then is that I had it on it's side 45* for 24 hours per side to cement on some lifter wedges. 24 hours on it's right 45*, then 24 hrs on it's left 45*. Then back to sitting flat.
Which brings us to today. The ski wouldn't start when I manually choked it. Very weird. Boat is always predictable and starts right up with 10 seconds or less of manual choke. I opened the little plug on the top of the airbox and shot a quick mist of starter fluid toward each carb. I hit start and it started up, then screamed to the rev limiter. I shut it off. start rev limiter stop, start rev limiter stop. So I took off the airbox and poured about 0.5oz of fuel in each carb. I hit start, it idled normal for about 0.5 sec then jumped to the rev limiter. repeat the 0.5 of fuel, same thing.
So I removed the carbs. I checked the jets. The diaphram covering the jets had a bunch of buildup around the edges, but the inside where the jets are is spotless. The main and pilot look spotless, the needle looks undamaged and the seat is very clean, spring looks fine. The kidney piece that covers the jets is clean and clear, and the rubber gasket inside is very soft and nice. Same on both carbs. Both carbs have 130 main, 70 pilot, 1.5 needle/seat. The rear (master) carb has a silver spring, and the front carb has a brown spring.
I put the carbs back on, and the ski again wont respond to manual choke. I add fuel and it's back to the rev limiter.
Compression on my gauge is 160/160, which is actually a bit high. When I bought the ski, on the same gauge was 150/150, but the gauge was given to me by my dad, and may be who knows how old or accurate.
The fuel filter is clean.
The water separater/vent has less than 1cm of water in it
I checked the petcock by blowing into the line, and it was clear and fuel flowed back out when the gas cap was on
I checked the line from the case to the fuel pump, and it looked good.
I removed the plugs and cranked the ski, after about 5 seconds of cranking, I got a steady stream of fuel from the return line.
I can't spray the motor with carb cleaner because the ski already jumps to the rev limiter.
It seems to me that the jets are clean. The petcock is working, the fuel filter is fine, the vacuum line is ok, the fuel pump is working, the return line is clear and fuel is flowing through both carbs. I don't think the issue is a lack of fuel to the carbs. I do not have a pop-off gauge. I can only say that the needle and seat look good.
I'm at a loss. The only thing that has been suggested to me that I haven't tried is to fill the boat with water up the the carb intake, which could test for a leaking crank case / intake. I haven't done this yet.
Suggestions? Advice? I'd like to ride tomorrow, but right now I'm at a loss. I don't have access to any parts and even if I did, i'm not using the weekend to tear my boat apart. I can work on it several days during the week.
Advice is appriciated. Thanks.
