Since there is a couple of people working on their pump swaps or thinking about doing them I thought I would provide some information as I recently finished mine. First off I won't be trying my swap out until Friday, but I can give you the information about the swap itself. Also my swap info is for doing the Kawi 650 pump.
First off what you need is the Kawi pump (I used an X2 pump since I had a couple of those laying around), 900/1100 zxi drive shaft, (1) 20x52x15 bearing (fits yamaha housing and kawi shaft), (2) 20x52x7 seals. Along with those you'll need some fiberglass, grinding/cutting tools, and lots of beer. Here is a link to a post that helped me greatly with the swap -
http://www.x-h2o.com/showthread.php?...highlight=dang
The best place to start after disassembling the whole pump/drive line is with the factory Yamaha bearing housing. You want to remove the midshaft (save the yamaha coupler from it) and then proceed to remove all the bearings from the housing. A press is needed for this and be careful as you don't want to damage the rubber part of the housing. Once the bearings are removed press in the 20x52x15 bearing. You'll want it to be in the same spot as the original bearing. Install the clips back on the inside on either side of the bearing. From there you will press a 20x52x7 seal on either side of the bearing. I pressed mine all the way flush against the clips. At this point your bearing housing should be ready to go. When we pressed in the bearing we used Maxima grease that is water resistant, don't forget to use some sort of grease. Install the housing back on to the hull.
Next is to get your zxi shaft ready to use. Simply remove the Kawi coupler and thread on the Yamaha one (the one you pulled off the mid-shaft) . Tighten good and don't forget the loc-tite. This is all that is needed for the shaft.
So now comes the fun parts. You'll want to remove the stock pump shoe. I accomplished this in 20 minutes with a heat gun, a couple of chisels, and a few large flat head screwdrivers, and a rubber mallet. I only broke two corners off the shoe. Some people just choose to destroy the stock shoe while removing it. There is a small chance while removing the shoe you'll cause a little damage to fiberglass, but if you are taking on this project it's nothing you can't handle.
With the shoe removed it's time to start flattening the pump mounting area. This is accomplished by lowering the front about 5/16" and raising the rear about 1/8". See the above link for some great pictures on where to lower and raise the mounting area. JD gives some good info and pictures on this, I'll throw one at the bottom of this post. When I did the front I hit foam, which you should too. No biggy, I just grinded down and built it back up a bit stronger to the height needed it. I actually built them both up a bit more than needed and then sanded them level all the way across. Don't forget to fill in the stock mounting holes and remove the stock inserts from the top.
Time to get the pump ready. You'll need to grind the edges and ribs off the pump. Again the above link has some great pictures of this, I'll also attach one of JD's pics below. I add the removing the ribs that circle the pump as it will make attaching your rideplate easier later. You'll also want to fill in the stock cooling fitting on the 650 pump and retap it to the other side. Easy to do and you can find the sizes needed by searching for dual cooling tapping. I never tapped anything before and did this in about 5 minutes.
You'll next need to grind out the shoe area to fit the 650 pump. I accomplished this by taking some poster board and making a template by wrapping it around the front of the 650 pump/pump shoe. I then transferred the template to the pump shoe area and started grinding to make it match. You'll want the rear of the pump shoe to be flush with the flat spot where the stock shoe was at. Find a picture attached. I got a little carried away as you don't really have to remove much material, so I had to fill some spots back in. The best way to grind this is to have the pump next to you and continually grind a little and test fit. You'll do this a lot. Once you get the pump fitting in, measure from the point of the pump cone to the bottom of the mounting area. You'll want it to be at about 3.5". Also check to make sure it is even from side to side. Forgot the measurement, but it's the same either direction, not too hard to figure out.
If everything seems straight, aligned, and good you are ready to drill the new pump mounting holes. Hopefully when you pulled out the old inserts you filled in the holes they left. With he pump sitting where you want it and in the hull you use a long drill bit to drill the holes all the way through the hull to the tray area. At this point mount the pump with some long bolts/nuts and flip the ski over. With the ski right side up slide the zxi shaft into the pump and test fit the motor. Make sure everything is aligned to factory specs.
IF everything looks good pull out the motor, shaft, and pump and finish your pump mount inserts. I had some extra 550 pump inserts and bolts so that is what I used. I cut/grinded an area in the tray that fit the inserts and was deep enough for the bolts to reach. It took a little glass work, but not as much as the leveling of the pump mounting area. I also used a little epoxy around the mounting holes to give it a good seal where it passes through foam. Once all the glassing is dry mount the pump as you normally would. I didn't need shims on my pump doing the mod this way. Once the pump was aligned I did some minder sanding/reshaping of the pump shoe area to make it all flush and then put a good bead of silicone around the pump shoe area.
Now is time for the intake grate. This is pretty easy as I just used my FX-1 Pro-Tec grate. All I need to do was elongate the rear mounting hole. Some intake grates will mount straight up as they already have the hole elongated. This is a nice thing about the 650 pump, no need to switch intake grates.
As for the ride plate you'll see by test fitting your plate that it probably doesn't sit on the mounting areas. To solve this break out the grinder and grind away the ribs where ever they are touching the pump. You'll see what I mean when you test fit it. Doesn't take much time to get it sitting all nice and flush. I also needed to grind down the front of the plate a small amount. At this point everything should be mounted and flush. you will however notice a minor gap between the front of the ride plate and the pump. This can be solved by adding some material to your ride plate (I plan on glassing in some extenders) or just filling with silicone, which is what I did for now. At this point you should be good to flip the ski back over, install the shaft, and install the motor, tank, pipe, etc, and get ready for a test spin.
If your like me and did the X2 pump you get the benefit of having an adjustable up/down trim. To secure this and have it adjustable without running a lever and cable you can make a little adjustable knob thingy. I'll attach a picture from JD's install that he sent me. Mine is ugly and temporary, so I'll use his pictures since they give a good idea of what you need to do. Really easy once you look at it for a couple of minutes.
I'm sure missed a couple points which I can add later. I will also post some updated pictures once I get it tested and pull it apart for cleanup and paint. I hate showing ugly pictures. Oh yeah, don't forget to hook up the steering cable (using the fx-1 ball joint on the 650 nozzle) and the water/bilge lines.
To get the steering cable straight you may be able to adjust it enough (I got lucky) or you may need a steering extender, like the Pro-tec one. I'll be ordering a protec one just to give me some adjustability I don't have right now.
Oh and since it will be asked I did the 650 pump and the swap this way for a few reasons:
no more midshaft (or having to find a replacement fx-1 shaft should anything go wrong)
cheap and easy to find drive shaft
cheap pump and once this mod is done swapping for a new 650 pump is straight bolt and play
X2 trim
I had the pump already
Less grinding and glass work than the SJ 144 one
Lots of info I found on this swap made it easier
Thanks to JD (Special FX) and Steve (SteveUK) for the help and answering of questions I had, plus the photos they provided to me to help the swap along.
The pics attached are of JD's swap (his pics) and a couple of mine. Also showing the max up/down of my trim.
Linear Mode
