Secretweapon

Got my frist ski last week--an 02 xlt1200. It looks brand new inside and out and runs like a bat out of he!! (at least I think so). It had 65 hrs on it.

After running it last week for about 2 days of good riding (and it ran perfectly), I was running it in the drive with the flush hose on and since the seat is off I can hear everything in the engine. When it is in just idle speed the engine knocks rather abrubptly and often. When I give it a little gas, the knocking goes away. Is this normal??? Also, I noticed engine oil in the bilge area. Not a lot, but I don't think any should be there.

Any ideas? Or am I just over concerned as a new owner.

Ernest T

Carefully check the oil lines. For some insane reason Yamaha decided to use zip ties to secure the oil lines on many of their skis, and having one of these lines come off is probably the biggest cause of engine failure on these engines......especially n the 3rd cylinder for some reason. Also check the power valve system, since that is another point of failure on that model.

The rough idle may be nothing, or could be an indicator of a dirty or gummed up carb. The carbs need to be cleaned and/or rebuilt every 3 to 4 years.

__________________
2008 Yamaha FX HO Cruiser
2010 Hurricane Sundeck 2100

Secretweapon

Ernest,

As I mentioned in another post, thanks again for the reply. Since I'm smart enought to follow oil lines (I assume), I'll do that first. As far as what a power valve system, I'll have to put more thought into that one. One day (soon I hope), I'll be up to speed on all this ski stuff.

tiagobaracho

scretweapon,
knocks are usually the transmission to the turbine.. .What happens is that the engine does not turn the crankshaft exactly the same speed all the time as a electric motor would do.. It go faster and slower depending the position of the crankshaft... If you think that inside is like a bike, you will imagine that easily. And since jet ski does not have a clutch wheel, so there is no heavy load at the end of the crankshaft to stabilize the rotational speed, so in certain way it does push faster and than slower, than faster, than slower within one rotation and that causes the connection to the turbine to knocks a little ... some jet ski have a rubber part between the turbine mount on the shaft and the crankshaft mount, and it also helps reducing the knocks but it will still have where the shaft meets the turbine.
Try to listen on youtube a video that you can hear the same engine running without the seat and compare... sometimes helps..

Secretweapon

tiagobaracho,

As with the suggestions from Ernest, thanks. I will try that out. As you can see by my number of posts, I have just joined this site. Since I never had a ski till now, never looked at these forums. Will probably just sit back and watch and listen from others till I learn enough to be able to accurately/respectfully answer others concerns.

Thanks for your response.

TOM...