Jet Boat Thread

[J 2]

Bought a new to me 20 year old 21' open bow jet at the end of last season. Impressed on how clean a boat it is. Box of receipts with some quality work done over the last couple of years. Ran it a few times, engine sounds and runs good, noticed unusual vibration for a jet. Covered it and it's been sitting for 6 months. Now for my laundry list of going through this boat top to bottom cause it's finally getting warm out. There's only 1 place open for me right now and that's the local lake. Had to hang up the snow skis & golf clubs for the duration.

Decided to fab a new ride plate since the current one was obviously bounced off some rocks for quite some time. Looks like boat was anchored nose out to close to shore. Went to the local metal house and found remnants the perfect size, 0.25"/8"/24", found 2! $16 out the door. Glad I went there in early March.

Wedged down a few degrees to lower thrust height. This will be a work in progress to find the sweet spot. Plate up 1.5 degrees.

 

[J 2]

Found this loader to be dangerous. Went to the trouble of having a quality ride plate & shoe installed, loader holes drilled and tapped all the way through. Then use these short not strong screws. I'm installing a plate and running open for a while. This ride plate set up has plenty of bite to grab water. Besides this is a cruiser that I want to ride well. Don't care about speed in this one, smooth and enjoyable with a light titty bounce.....

 

[J 2]

Found my vibration. Drive line angle off. I've always had the engine sitting higher than the pump shaft to get the right angle, engine seems low. Checked the engine angle and pump angle, they're the same which may or may not be good. Have to pull the bolts off the motor mounts and slide it forward to get the drive line off, I removed the bolts, no room to get it off. It was clearly binding. Pump shaft spins by hand which is a good sign. I don't like this drive line, I have a better one. I knew it had a oil leak, now I know it's leaking low due to the amount of oil I see since I put it away. Probably poor connection at the drain plug where a drain hose was installed.

 

[Carlson-jet]

Check the crank end play if it was a tight fit. Looking forward to what else you find. Those old drive-lines do make noise to an astute ear for sure. I should pull mine and check it again. It grumbles under certain conditions. It seemed tight and ok but I question it.
Nice job on the ride plate. I have a similar loader but the welds are way nicer. Don't know the brand but is has some type of coating that is not paint or powder. I would question if that thing was fixed and made to look new again. the droop looks like place diverters version. Does it have the horizontal or vertical separator?

 

[J 2]

Check the crank end play if it was a tight fit. Looking forward to what else you find. Those old drive-lines do make noise to an astute ear for sure. I should pull mine and check it again. It grumbles under certain conditions. It seemed tight and ok but I question it.
Nice job on the ride plate. I have a similar loader but the welds are way nicer. Don't know the brand but is has some type of coating that is not paint or powder. I would question if that thing was fixed and made to look new again. the droop looks like place diverters version. Does it have the horizontal or vertical separator?

Drive line was tight, binding tight due to the angle. There needs to be angle, I'm having to read up on it again. It's been a few years since I did one of these in my Daytona. The droop does have the vertical separator down the middle, I think it's the American Turbine version. I had a PD full droop once, it has the ability to bolt on one of those funky ride plates. The vibration was mostly idling around, shook the boat enough for my wife to notice when I asked her if she felt that.

 

[mash on it]

That drive line angle is horrible, as in it will break parts- thrust bearing in the pump, wipe out the mains in the engine.

I have always rigged the drive line absolutely straight. I know i can't get it perfectly straight, a half a degree is enough for u-joint needle bearings to rotate. 3 degrees is max for a u-joint. Looks like yours is double that. Pump housings crack/shatter from drive lines like that.

Keep us updated

Dan'l

 

[J 2]

Fortunately I know it wasn't run very long like this. 1-3 degrees is what I remember, did look a little last night at some threads about this. I feel like the engine was set on a rail kit lower than it was originally. They went with a Victor Jr intake + spacer and cut a hole in the engine hatch for the carb, I like a smooth engine hatch for the girls to lay on. My 1st thought was engine needs to come up then thought about what that changes, fuck. The spacer isn't needed for this application. Very clean engine, was told a old guy they know who used to build engines did the rebuild after a valve broke. I'm cool with that. Compression test is on the list to see where it's at, I don't care much about where the numbers are as long as they're close. I'll take a look under the valve covers too. Replace all of the water hoses... Yea, lots of oil in the nice clean engine compartment

 

[J 2]

Well the verdict on the oil leak is in. Fucking stupid too. Engine was set to low, rested it right on top of intake bolts which are correctly ground to the nut. On top of the driveline angle being way off. Punched holes in the bottom of the pan. I set the engine on wood blocks to raise it a little so I could see underneath. Knowing what I know now the guy I bought it from straight up lied his ass off about the oil leak. He had quite a few oil soaking pads under there, he was very detailed and anal about everything. Kind of like myself, but I never would have sold this with pan damage like this. I still have the text thread from when I bought it. Want to politely state the facts about the oil leak & engine not being close to what he stated. I knew I was buying a used boat and there would be issues. Fortunately I'm skilled enough to do the labor, if not we're talking $$$$'s. I happen to have a Hamburger's oil pan & gasket for my other motor that's not quite back together. Same as this one, I just might be ready for the lake this weekend. The problem with this is if I'm going to pull & replace the pan how do I not pull the bearing caps and take a look. Then it goes from there. I know this engine needs rings based on my compression test...

 

[J 2]

Raised the rail kit 5/8" and back 1/2". Looks pretty good to me. Also discovered the engine was so low that the Bassett T was set right in the middle of the pan and actually put a small crack in the pan too. Decided to go with JB weld for the season. The 2 cracks were about a 1/8" & 1/4" long so I wire wheeled the paint off to the metal, acetone to clean then a nice layer of JB. I'll find out when I run it, should be fine based on some Youtube videos of I watched of guys fixing way worse problems than mine. Replaced the drive line with a 1310 I had sitting on the shelf. Used the Spicer 1310X U joints with no zerk, I like these. Can't even remember all of the little fixes I did along the way. Overall it was a well taken care of boat. Lucky for me the hole for the carb is fine, no adjustments necessary