MAaudio34

Hey Bill,

I recently put a new motor into my 1996 Seadoo XP. I have everything back in and I was putting the pump in. I went to put the pump on and I can get it all the way on exept for about 1/8 of an inch. I have the cone on and I have tried turning the driveshaft while screwing it down. It just gets stuck. Do you think that I could have the motor too far towards the rear of the boat?? Im trying to get this thing put back together as soon as possible. So if you have anyidea about this feel free to let me know. Thanks Bill.

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1996 Seadoo XP Limited

Mr. Bill

The proper way to get the motor in the right place is to move it forward or backwards, whatever it takes, to get some end play in the driveshaft. All the end play that you need is about 1/8th to 3/16ths of an inch with new rubber bumpers in each end of the shaft. Of course this is with the jetpump installed tighly to the transom. You cannot run it with a bound-up driveshaft.

Try loosening the motor mounts, not the 2 rear rubber snubber mounts, but the part of the mount that bolts down into the hull. Loosen the front mount the same way, where it bolts to the hull. Then slide the motor forward just enough to give you the driveshaft endplay that you need.

Now, if you have not moved those mounts when you pulled the motor, you must have another problem. Here are some other things are that may be wrong. You left a rubber driveshaft end bumper inside the PTO when you pulled the driveshaft. If so, use a sharp pointy tool, like a scratch awl to poke into it and pull it out. I use 90* needle nosed pliers myself, but the awl or a 90* bend in a piece of acetlene welding rod or anything like that can be used too. You may need to loosen the clamp on the carbon seal hose at the back, then remove the whole carbon seal and hose to make room to get the leftover bumbper out of the pto splines.
On the other hand, there may be one inside the impellor taking up space.

Also, if you swapped impellors and somehow got a Kawasaki impellor instead of a Sea Doo impellor, the center internal hub on the kawasaki impellor will be a bit longer that the hub on the Sea Doo impellor. The hub is the round part in the center of the impellor with the impellor threads in it. Skat Trak, for instance, uses the same molds for both Sea Doo, and Kawasaki 140 mm pump impellors. I suspect that Solas may do the same. After they pull the impellor from the sand mold, they machine the hub to the proper length to fit the type of pump that it will be used in. Both have 18mm fine threads in them. I have seen this happen in my own shop as far back as 1989. I thought the impellor was for a Sea Doo, but it turned out to be a Kawasaki impellor. This makes the impellor sit futher away from the vanes in the pump, and thus, the Sea Doo driveshaft is a bit too long.

Did you change the impellor shaft inside the jet pump ? If so, you first must allways put the old shaft next to the new shaft to be sure they are both the same length.Trust me, they are not all the same length.

Earlier models of Sea Doo's used a very thin roller bearing at the rear of the impellor shaft, later models used a much thicker roller bearing. This can move the impellor forward or back.
If you installed an impellor or rebuilt the jetpump and had the shaft out of the pump, be sure you put the thrust washer in the pump so that is what is touching the cenrter hub of the pump. Next goes the flat roller bearing, then the shaft goes into and through the roller bearing and then the thrust washer and last, the center hub of the jetpump. You need to be sure that the flat bearing stays centered on the shaft as you install the shaft, because it can drop into the groove at the back end of the impellor shaft if you are not carefull. The way to know it stayed centered, is to install the cone by hand until it fully seats onto the back of the pump. If you must use the three screws through the cone to "pull it down tight ", you just pinched your flat bearing and ruined it. You will need another new flat bearing, as you cannot use even a slightly bent roller bearing. It has to be perfect.

If you make that mistake changing an impellor and allow the shaft to move rearward at any time, the flat bearing can drop off center, If if you did not remove the impellor shaft from the pump, or handled the pump after removing the impellor, the shaft can move rrearward, as the cone keeps it from doing that. . So be carefull when removing the pump from the vise holding the impellor shaft when you changed the impellor. You must carry the pump by holding the weight of the pump by only holding the impellor blades. This keeps tension on the bearing and it and the impellor shaft will not move rearward as you move the pump around from the vise to the bench before installing the cone back onto the pump.

I put a thick coating of axel grease on the bearing surface of the impellor shaft before I slide the flat bearing onto the shaft. That way, I can center it on the shaft and hold the shaft upside down without it falling off. Then being carefull, I can slide the shaft through the thrust washer and into the hub of the jetpump. I also put the grease onto the hub side of the thrust washer to hold it in place on the jetpump hub, so it cannot fall out or move if I am sliding the jetpump down over the flat bearing and impellor shaft when I put the impellor shaft vertically in the vise. So, you see, the impellor shaft, flat bearing and thrust washer can either be installed into the pump housing from the rear of the pump housing, or you can slide the pump housing down over the impellor shaft if it is clamped vertically in a vise.

So, exactly what did you do when you removed the motor ? Did you change anything else ? Maybe you used a different model PTO ? The 787 RFI uses a different PTO than does a carbureated model. Does anything I mentioned above pretain to you ?

FYI, Sea Doo driveshafts come in 17 in. and 18 inches long depending on the model. There are other longer lenghts too, but they would not even be close in a 1996 hull.