02inNH

Started taking on water where the drive shaft goes through the hull.
Dealer repaired ($800) by pulling engine (I think) and slathering on a lot of black sealant.
Leaked a few weeks later, dealer repaired again (free) with a different white epoxy.
Leaked again a few weeks later, dealer repaired again (free, plus loaner jetski) with same white epoxy but kept out of water 7+ days to fully cure.
It's been a few weeks, no leak yet but I'm concerned about next season.

Dealer tells me that the epoxy (rather than a mechanical seal) is a Kawasaki thing. Can anyone shed a little light on that(like is it true)? Anyone have any experience with this sort of leak? Can anyone steer me to a shop manual that would detail making a repair like that? pulling engine? Is there any "aftermarket kit" that would make a mechanical seal like the stuffing box on my inboard? Could something be loose / misaligned that's causing the epoxy to fail?

I'm mechanically inclined, have worked on my cars / boats but know little about jetskis (I've never owned one, this is actually my brother's). He's leaning toward trading it in but they're only offering $2000 for it. I'm considering buying it from him. If the epoxy holds, great. If not, I may pursue the dealer for a refund of the $800 and try to fix it myself.

JUST-IN-TIME

they use the seal on all ski's
i like the yamibond stuff better then kawibond

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Knightofwyte

I'm not very familiar with the newer Kawi's, but all of the older ones had a seal that was around the driveshaft that prevented water from entering... They may have changed that on the newer ones. The old style seal is similar to whats used on inboard boats, it involves 2 or more rubber tension seals that have a small amount of grease for both lubrication and a water tight seal. You said you're mechanically inclined; the seals are nearly identical to the main seals on a car engine.

Yes something out of alignment can cause things to leak at the shaft. The engine could be out of alignment from when they removed it.

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