Hello, I just recently bought a 97 SPX800 that had had a boot replaced on the 'shaft' that the water shoots through. I put it in the water today and started it up (that was a fiasco in and of itself - it kept making the chugging sound and then would fire up for about .5 seconds and then stop. It took about 15 tries of that before the ski finally started and started moving, but then it seemed fine). I went for around....2 minutes, max, and everything seemed good and then suddenly the ski started limping. I took it back to the loading bay, by the time I got back it started limping even worse, maybe 8-10mph, and it started to look/feel like it was sinking. I hopped off, beached it near the loading bay and looked under the seat and the hull was filled 1/3 with water - probably 1/2 way up the battery or slightly above that, but not high enough to hit the engine cylinders or carbs. Anyway, I immediately put it back on the trailer and let it drain out and after it was empty started the ski to make sure it fired up ok - it started immediately and I gave it a couple revs and then turned it off - I'll do a compression check later.
I have a picture of a clamp that broke, see below:
The boot the clamp goes around was just replaced before I bought the ski because it was leaking somewhat (maybe 1" of water in the hull every 10-15 minutes according to previous owner). My question is, is this "put together" right? Notice the zip tie on the larger section of the boot - is that normal? Was it just really bad luck with a faulty clamp and all I need to do is put a new clamp on? Just seems rather easy to fail but maybe it was just bad luck. I noticed when the ski is actually in the water, that whole assembly rotates which I assume is how it pushes water through, so I'm trying to wrap my mind around how that rotates with the clamp around the boot around the shaft.
Anyway, is there a good chance anything else on the ski was damaged? The water came up to almost the top of the big white round flat piece on the left side of the picture. Steam was coming out when I pulled the seat off, of course - the battery wasn't fully submerged and the ski started up out of the water with no issues. I'm still curious why it wouldn't start in the water - would that clamp being broken when I put it in the water make it hard to start the ski? It was like every time it tried to turn over it would just go 'clunk' and then stop, then I would push the starter button again (made sure to choke/prime some) and it would act like it was going to start and then clunk and stop. Eventually it started but less than 2 minutes after that is when it started limping.
The guy I bought the ski from is contacting his mechanic to figure out about getting the work redone/checked, but I figured someone on here would know better about what I could do either myself, or sanity check this guy's install to make sure the boot/clamp is actually on right.
Ok, second question ( related though), I have 2 skis and when I went to put the second ski back on the trailer at the end of the day, I had to back the trailer into the water with the seadoo on it (the plug was back in though), and after ~5 minutes in the water just sitting there not started or anything, it filled up ~2" with water. Would the water be leaking in through that same broken clamp or is it now possible I have another part broken on the ski? I ran it at the lake last weekend for 10 min or so and had no issues at that time. Thanks so much in advance!
97 SPX800 hull filled up partially with water due to broken clamp, help!
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