vx110 hull leak - Page 2 - PWC Forum: The best hang-out for Personal WaterCraft enthusiasts

Team Ruiner · 06-23-2012, 12:06 PM

Hey guys. I will be using these skis to freedive spearfish out here in the gulf of mexico. I am noticing that they leak, so I am here asking what else I need to know before attempting this repair. Is there anything else I can seal while I am here? does sealing the ride plate and intake grate help make these hulls water tight? Assuming the parts come off w/o breakage, are there any gaskets or anything that i need to replace when reinstalling the engine. what about alignment of engine and driveshaft? I have never worked on a jetski, but it seem like your making it out to be fairly easy. any advice on moving the motor and all would rock.
thanks!

Oh, can I get a plastic plate to install while i am in there? or is the metal better?

Ernest T · 06-23-2012, 07:49 PM

Be sure to note the location of any spacers on each of the motor mounts when you remove the engine. You will want to put them back exactly in the same position when you reinstall the engine to get the coupler aligned. You might want to take a look at the motor mounts while you have the engine out to be sure there are no cracks.

Clean the parts really well, but do not use alcohol, which will prevent the 5200 from setting properly.

Nothing else that I'm aware of that you would need to replace while you are doing the fix. There are no aftermarket joint pipes, so if you break it your replacement will be exactly like the one you remove.

Sealing the intake grate has nothing to do with preventing a leak. There is no seal kit for the ride plate. They make seal kits for aftermarket intake grates to help reduce cavitation.

venxxxxx · 06-24-2012, 09:40 PM

Its not so hard and fairly simple to do. If its just a leak at the seal, what i did was remove my engine and took the plate out with some heat gun to heat it up. Seal/glue peeled off alot easier. But instead of reusing the old plate, i went and ordered new ones from boats.net... should come tomorrow (monday 25th). Be sure to give yourself at least week for the order to arrive...

If you want to tune up the engine, get an after market intake or modify an auto one to fit on it-thats what im going to do.

I will post some pics when im done with mine sometimes this coming up week.

venxxxxx · 06-27-2012, 11:11 PM

Here's my hull repair images:

I used a shock spring from my old boat's latch to keep it tight and under tension for a good day and a half. The 3m5200 product i used had a curing time of 48hrs, but it needs more time to cure all the one in the housing.

I had to patch my hull with JB-underwater repair putty (the white patch in pic) because while removing the shaft I had a bright idea of trying to push it out using the impeller bolt
so i took a few layers and the upper bolt socket right off inside the aluminum jet housing. Got rid of that and I wanted to be safe so I got a new set on boats.net for about $40 incl s/h.

Hope these pics help and encourage someone to do his own repair.

Editted:

I went out riding on it for 30min and NO LEAK!!!! I can safely ride out far and go fishing on this thing now!!!

FireStorm · 07-04-2012, 01:02 PM

I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I would really appreciate some help. Our 2007 VX Cruiser is leaking, so we are attempting the repair discussed above. We took it to a mechanic, who lifted the engine and put 5200 on top of the old stuff instead of taking the plate off, cleaning it, and completely resealing it. Needless to say, the ski is still leaking. So we figured we would need to redo that fix so that it is done right. It also appears that the ski is leaking at the seam below that one as well (where that black piece joins the fiberglass). Here is where we are at so far:

So that brings us to my questions.

1) Does anyone have any tips for removing 5200? We are using a heat gun and trying to scrape it off but if someone has a better idea we would love to hear it since this method isn’t exactly quick. And there is a lot of 5200 to remove….I’m pretty sure the mechanic used a whole tube. Some of it has already been removed in the picture.
2) How can we reseal that lower seam (where the black plastic piece joins the fiberglass)? I can’t tell if it is possible to take that apart so we can clean and reseal it. If it can’t be taken apart, should we just clean it as best we can and put 5200 over it?
3) After we got the ski back from the mechanic, we ran it and after we took it back out of the water we found an engine shim blocking the siphon (the siphon didn’t appear to be working so we looked). We asked the mechanic about it, and he said he dropped it but couldn’t find it so he just replaced it with a new one. Well, when we lifted the engine, there were no shims at all. Once we started to clean the hull out, we found two more shims, some broken/old bolts and a quarter (pictured below). I know we didn’t drop any shims…do we need to be concerned about the alignment of the shaft once we put it back together? How can we figure out the correct alignment? We had planned on just keeping track of where the shims were, but obviously that won’t work now.

Here's the stuff we found in the hull:

Thanks in advance for the help, and thanks for reading all that.

Ernest T · 07-05-2012, 11:12 AM

1. There is a product called Debond that will remove 5200, but I'd be careful on areas that you want to keep sealed.

2. Don't know the answer to resealing that area.

3. You check the coupler clearance to make sure you have the engine aligned. Here is the page from the manual:

FireStorm · 07-06-2012, 09:21 AM

Thanks, I will definitely check the alignment when we are done. So is that black part a part of the hull? It looks like it is to me, since that seam that is leaking goes all the way back to the rear corners. I can't see a way to remove that piece really. It looks like the black part is plastic and the tan part is fiberglass. I'm thinking about just cleaning it really, really well, sanding it, and trying to seal it with 5200. I thought about using fiberglass or Marine JB Weld, but I am afraid they will be too rigid and crack. Does that sound reasonable? Are there any options I'm missing?

Ernest T · 07-06-2012, 10:19 AM

Yea sounds like a sound plan. I'd go with the 5200. If you can get the parts clean, it should work just fine. I'm guessing that is part of the inner hull.

venxxxxx · 07-06-2012, 06:43 PM

The two broken screws are from the 4 bolts connecting the shaft to the aluminum housing. The other bolt is to hold down the plastic shaft cover, the broken clamp-trash, the shims will have to go back on the mounts, and can I have the quarter ?

I fixed my problem the hard way from the beginning and its still leaking somewhere but not as much as before. So im okay with installing a bilge pump just in case.

But to see if your hull leaks elsewhere, just fill her up with water when you had the engine out. Look under and see if water drips anywhere. I dont think you would need to reseal the hull part. Most of the leak are from the pump and shaft area. If you have to remove and reglue the whole hull, i'd say toss that hull and look for another one lol because its just too much work!

Gluck in repairing it. She will be so much dryer after the repair.

v4tuna · 07-18-2012, 12:07 PM

I am reading this thread and all related where everyone is using 5200 but wouldn't a softer caulk work better a little more flex rather than a hard adhesive like 5200 just asking