mike84c

Bought a 2001 GP1200R from a guy on my lake, only had 25 hours on it, but he said, after the first year it "never ran right" so I got it very inexpensively. Got it home, charged the battery, and started. It runs fine on the trailer dry, but when I opened the hose to provide water, it immediately dies. Would get it started again dry, but immediatly dies again with water. Checked the compression, 118 across all three cylinders. I then bought a "d" plate and chip, and swapped out the cat conv. It then seemed to run fine on the trailer with the hose hooked up and open. I thought the problem was fixed, so dumped it in the lake, and went about 30 yards, and quit. Pulled the plugs, two had water droplets on them. Back on the trailer, it re-started and runs fine dry. Figured, maybe a leaking head gasket, so pulled the head, everything looked perfect, no bridging across the gaskets, or other noticable issues. So now I'm trying to figure out where the water is entering the cylinders. Have there ever been issues with cracked exhaust manifolds that let water enter the exhaust stream? Does anyone have a schematic of the coolant path?
thanks for your help

nate_s89

It could even be something as simple as water in the gas. Try draining the current tank, and then refilling with fresh gas from a pump and then add some antifreeze to absorb any left over water. You can never count on a jet ski running on a trailer. As soon as it is under load it is a whole other story.

mike84c

thanks Nate,
I certainly could be water in the gas, and you're right about running on the trailer being totally different from running in the water. I'm still thinking that the water entering into the combustion chambers (cylinders) is cooling water though, since it originally would die on the trailer as soon as I would start to open the garden hose valve, it would instantly die. That sympton has gone away with the installation of the d plate, not sure why, but in any case it was dying on the trailer with no load on the impeller. I'm not exactly sure where the water first meets the exhaust, usually its down stream somewhere away from the engine. Have checked the gray coupler, it is intact and tight. any other suggestions?

mike84c

I took some advice from the forum, and drained the 11 gallons of gas in the ski dry, replace it with fresh, and dropped it in. It ran better, but still would only pull for a few seconds, then die. I pulled the plugs, this time they were clean, no water, so I knew it was something else. I pulled the carbs off, and opened one up. It was pretty grimey in there, so I ordered three rebuild kits. They arrived and I rebuilt them, one by one. When I got to the third carb, noticed that the fuel pump gaskets were put in backwards!. Fixed that, re-assembled the ski, and now it runs perfect.
It seems that the original owner had the ski sink off his dock at the lake the first year he owned it (2001). He brought it into the Yamaha dealer he bought it from in Connecticut (initials are "r"'s) and they cleaned it up, rebuilt the carbs, charged him a lot of money, and he brought it home. According to him, it "never ran right again" after that, and it basically ended up sitting around covered for 6 years, (only 25 hours on it when I got it this year for $200). Anyway, a bunch of hours troubleshooting, a few hundred dollars in parts (carb kits, D-plate, chip), and it's right again. Be careful who works on your stuff, even dealers screw up!

JUST-IN-TIME

crappy untrained techs

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