[hpfiend]

Hey all-

I was wondering what was recommended for a project boat...

We have rented a few pwc's over the years and would like to have one of my own. The first were early 1990's yamaha waverunners which we liked a lot- fast enough to be fun and you didn't have to be a ballerina to get on them without them flipping over. We then rented some seadoos about 5 years later or so which we did not like at all- they were very hard to get on and were always tipping under turns that weren't even that agressive. I rented a seadoo again in the bahamas back in 2002 which I did like a lot but those are probably really expensive... I definitely prefer the sit down style to the original kawasaki stand-ups.

However- are engine/jet pump parts available for pwc's this old? Are the parts affordable? Which powerplant is most reliable/cheapest to repair/foudation for playing with modifications? Is it better to buy one with hull damage or engine damage as far as figuring if it is worth to fix? I figure I can build a trailer pretty cheaply if one doesn't come with it.

I am in ohio btw so they are less available than somewhere near the ocean I would think.

Thanks for any help you may be able to offer!

 

[Ernest T]

Parts for mid-90's Yamaha skis are pretty easy to find, but may not be cheap. Early 90s would be 500, 650, and 700 engines, and I know that there are still some out there. I'd say that the 800 or 1200 series engines would be the easiest to find parts for and were reliable and fairly easy to work on, but those didn't come along until the late 90s. They are also more stable than the earlier skis.

You can get complete engines, head rebuild kits, and most parts from SBT: SBT Jetski Engines, Parts & Accessories for Yamaha skis back to the early 90s. I wouldn't call them cheap, so you would probably want to find something in fairly decent shape to start with.

IMO it would be much easier to deal with engine damage and problems rather than problems with the hull. Yamaha switched to a SMC type of hull, which as I understand it is harder to repair than fiberglass. The older machines that you are talking about may be fiberglass (I don't know when they went to the SMC hull), but even so they can be tricky to repair correctly and will rarely be as strong as the original after the repair.