My parents recently picked up a couple old seadoos to leave in the water. One of them has a bad pump and vibrates pretty bad. Has anyone taken on this project?
90% chance its not the pump but the drive shaft coupler. Not sure the age of the units
its easy
remove ride plate
remove water line and steering cable
remove upper bolt, should be 4
Grab it from the back and pull while shaking.
Theres a chance the drive shaft will pull back as well. No big deal.
Look inside under the seat at back of motor. Inspect where the drive shaft and rear of crank come together. Remove and replace coupler, no tools for this, its just a piece of rubber. If its missing a piece thats the vibration
Then check pump, are any turning veins bent or chipped.
Check leading edge on prop. If there are dings or chips that could be the vibration.
If it does look bad then buy another prop.
To remove old prop you will need a prop spline tool. Some props come with it. They are cheap.
Remove cap off the end of the pump, looks like a cone. This will be full of oil so once your ready to pop that cap off hold the pump upside down. Usually 3 bolts, like 10 mm
drain oil.
Put the end of the pump shaft in a vise or get a big crescent wrench and do it in the floor
the insert prop spline tool in and unscrew the prop. It WILL be tight as hell.
Then screw new one one, snug, dont kill it. Fill the cone looking thing full of gear oil. hold pump and pop it back on, should have a o-ring there.
Use the rubber drive shaft cone or o-ring that comes with a new prop, very important. This stops cavitation.
Then re-install pump, you will prob have to line up the driveshaft at the rear of the motor as someone pushes the pump in. This will be when you install the new coupler
Now, the vibration could be a few things. The prop, the coupler, the pump gasket that is against the hull, the drive shaft seal and carrier (Pretty common failure)
Or even bent intake grate causing turbulence
My suggestion, do this at home a week before a planned trip, good chance you need parts once it all apart.
amazing how I remembered all this, I miss my anniversary every year but this i can spit out. A prop change would take us about 7 minutes, but that was a factory sea doo race mechanic.
Job is easy.
Depending on the model, there are different ways to pull the nozzle housing. The spline tool is really about the only specialized tool you'll need, the rest can be done with pretty normal tools. If it ends up needing an impeller, and not just the coupler, won't be a bad idea to replace the wear ring as well.
Done it about 5 different times on late 90s and early 2000s sea doos and every time the vibrations were from the pump bearing going out after running dry or the oil in the pump cone running dry from lack of maintenance or broken seal. Typically taking the out the housing also because of the excessive heat making parts oblong.
it is really easy to do with typical tools and loke mention the proper spline tool to get the impeller off
I agree it may not be the pump also check the motor mounts by trying to move the motor side to side had something similar and it was motor mounts that rotted out.
- Look for a brass spacer on the drive line (some have it) to prevent fwd-rear play.
- If the pump was run without oil, it may be quicker to buy a complete pump assembly from a used parts guy than to find bearings and shaft and hope the housing isn't destroyed.
- there is a plastic clearance ring in most pumps. cheap to replace if you see any daylight between the blades and ring.
- use good sealant when you reinstall the pump. ANY airleak will cause cavitation. intake housing needs to be sealed as well.