Why does my ski run like crap in the surf

[ksarge91]

My ski ran great at the lake last week. Took it to the surf yesterday for the first time this season and it bogged every once in a while. It would bog when I went to get back on the throttle after a nose stab or when the ski would roll on it's side while I got the crap beat out of me by mother nature. It would also bog if I hit a wave that was breaking and stood it up straight.

I'm thinking it's just the gas sloshing around and it not being able to get fuel. But would it bog with more thana half tank of fuel? all my lines are clear.

Could I not be getting enough air into the carbs?

I've heard of people who have had problems with their freshwater boats in the salt due to electrical problems but I haven't touched any of the electronics since last year and it always ran strong in the surf last year.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[CoreyLKN]

Sounds like your getting a good bit of water into your boat.. Do you have a scupper or bilge pump?

 

[tightithrash]

did you tape up the front of the hood?

 

[cattledog]

coil wires? , try these cheap solutions first cutback wires, dielectic grease in sparkplug boot, at daytona half the skis had saltwater gremlins, it doesnt matter that it ran good in the lake, saltwater will cause the wires to screw up if they have any defects in them

 

[ksarge91]

did you tape up the front of the hood?

Front holes are glassed over but rears have been widened into triangles

 

[ksarge91]

Sounds like your getting a good bit of water into your boat.. Do you have a scupper or bilge pump?

The boat is dry. I sealed the stock hood, the baffles in the liner I made are raised and I run dual 500's. Hardly ever see any water come out of the bilges anymore. (They do work though)

 

[ksarge91]

coil wires? , try these cheap solutions first cutback wires, dielectic grease in sparkplug boot, at daytona half the skis had saltwater gremlins, it doesnt matter that it ran good in the lake, saltwater will cause the wires to screw up if they have any defects in them

This sounds like it could be the problem. Could you elaborate a little more on this or is there another thread about it. I tried to search it but couldn't find anything useful. What do you mean by cutback wires? I'll try the dielectic grease in the boots deal

 

[cattledog]

unscrew the sparkplug boot and cut a 1/4 inch or so from the spark plug wire, on the superjets the coils hardly screw up, 90% of the time its the wires, i even put a little dielectic grease on the end of the spark plug wire before i screw the boot back on,i even had s bad sprkplug boot on my x2 go bad i put a ngk boot on and it worked great, i have fixed may skis with saltwater gremlins like you described i spend my winters usually in florida

 

[ksarge91]

Alright, I'm going to give that a try and I'll pick up so dielectic grease from autozone tomorrow

Thanks for all your help

 

[Bobert540]

I had my spark plug wires done at JSS. They did a great job. The MSD boots stay on and don't pop off as easy as the stockers. Might be something worth looking at. Check your ebox and make sure there isn't any corrosion.

 

[sflsurfrider]

yup. coil wires, with 99.99999% certainly.

 

[keefer]

Agreed that it is probably electrical, I was having similar problems when going to the surf. I turned out to be water entering the lanyard / stop switches. The salt water would cause resistance in the stop circuit and it would make the ignition do weird things. Very intermittant and the boat ran fine in fresh water. I replace the entire start/stop cluster and the problem was solved.

 

[Freakrider]

put water and salt in a spray bottle....start ski and throw a blanket over you and motor compartment or test in a dark garage....spray coil wires with saltwater and watch the wires light up like a christmas tree if they are bad and leaking volts along the wires...I had a bad wsm coil once that rode fine in lakes but in surf after first jump it started cutting out...those wires failed the test...oem replacement did not....

 

[KEVIN26]

:1244:

 

[djkorn1]

coil wires? , try these cheap solutions first cutback wires, dielectic grease in sparkplug boot, at daytona half the skis had saltwater gremlins, it doesnt matter that it ran good in the lake, saltwater will cause the wires to screw up if they have any defects in them

This is the answer. ancake:

 

[Captain PegLeg]

I had the same prob. Switched to MSD boots with dielectric grease, prob solved.

 

[masterblaster]

buy a new 62e coil and be done with wire cutting

 

[Shadow7874]

how do the plug wires attach to the coil? i have a problem on my 550 that weas ficed by cutting back the wires so i would like to run new ones but not sure how to attach them

 

[N3vrSat1sfied]

my 750 sx was doing the same thing last week. Like it would barly come out of a stab or a big jump. It just bogs and barely moves then everything goes back to normall. I have JSS coil wires with msd caps. Maybe i just need to regreese? I didnt think it was electrical but maybe...

 

[SXIPro]

unscrew the sparkplug boot and cut a 1/4 inch or so from the spark plug wire, on the superjets the coils hardly screw up, 90% of the time its the wires, i even put a little dielectic grease on the end of the spark plug wire before i screw the boot back on,i even had s bad sprkplug boot on my x2 go bad i put a ngk boot on and it worked great, i have fixed may skis with saltwater gremlins like you described i spend my winters usually in florida

I had to go almost 2" back on mine to find a decent chunk of wire with enough strands still attached. This was on an '04. The ends were in horrible shape, really brittle.