I had planned for a fun weekend, relaxing, riding Sea Doos, fishing, a beer or two and later a whisky by the fire. The weekend turned out to be nothing like that.
Friday evening arrival and all was well. We unloaded the food we brought for the weekend. For this weekend, I didn’t have a tub full of tools or a truck bed full of materials to build something with. The plan was to accomplish nothing, just enjoy.
After a BBQ burger, we headed down to the dock to hop on the Sea Doos for an evening run. Problem. One of the Sea Doos was bogging down and had a vibration when giving it some throttle. Something is not right. The first assumption was a plugged intake or weeds stuck in the impeller. Unlike weeds stuck in the boat prop, simply reversing the throttle doesn’t toss these away. I pulled off the key fob, hopped in the water and felt underneath for a mass of weeds blocking the intake. This would not be the first time this has happened.
Nothing. All clear. A Miracle? I started the engine and gave a little throttle. Same result. It was not an intake issue. This was going to be more difficult. I knew (hoped) it was going to be YouTube to the do-it-yourselfer rescue.
We hooked up the Sea Doos to the dock and traded the evening powered ride for a paddle in the kayaks.
Then we spent the rest of the evening with a beverage in one hand and the other on the mouse streaming through YouTube as I learned more about the brake/reverse gate, steering connection, housing, impeller, and other associated parts on the back end of a Seas Doo. I have a good set of hand tools at the cabin. This would be a morning spent on disassembly then reverse the process to re-assemble, then off the lake waters for the powered recreation portion of our weekend. I’m not a mechanic, but I can usually work my way through a decent series of mechanical processes.
Next morning did not go as well as intended. I had put a wide plank at the water’s edge, pulled the Sea Doo up backwards, and tied it off with ski ropes to a couple trees. I could get at many of the bolts, some with limited angles or range of motion, but not all. Next I borrowed the neighbours Ski Doo lift. Better, but not quite. I made progress, but just could not quite get at some parts. I was really trying to avoid towing the Sea Doo to the boat launch, putting the Sea Doo on a trailer and dragging it back from the boat launch to the cabin. That seemed like a waste of time. Wish I would have done that to begin with.
With the Sea Doo up in the air, everything was easier. I had all the angles. Easy access, just like in the YouTube videos. It was now Saturday afternoon. The leisure portion of the weekend was fading away fast. I had taken a few breaks in the process, sometimes just to think. Sometimes to stretch out from uncomfortably contorted positions trying to get tools to impossible places.
But from this point forward, it was good news. The steering linkage I couldn’t quite de-couple only took a couple more turns. The housing and other bolts were simple, just a ratchet and extension. Pulled off what was needed and found a 1″ by 3″ chunk of driftwood caught in the impeller, wedged between a blade and the wear ring. Fortunately, we didn’t try to force this loose, before we know what the problem was, or we could have ended up with some parts to replace. In summer, who knows how long to get those, certainly longer that right now. With no damage seen and the chunk of driftwood removed, time to re-assemble. That was quick, after all, I had easy access, just like the YouTube videos. Within an hour, we had the Sea Doo back on the water and running 100%, in time for supper by the time we were back at the cabin with the Sea Doo and trailer.
After supper we did get out for a short ride, before the evening showers. The satisfaction of fixing something was rewarding, but I would have traded that for the weekend of recreation and leisure we had planned. Rain continued the next day spoiling any water fun plans.