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Good afternoon everybody. I recently (last fall) acquired a 92 Yamaha Waverunner 500 from a relative. It had been garage/shed-kept for much of its life. I don’t have any other history on it besides that. When I brought it home, I realized that the trailer needed a lot of work, the ski also needed some work, but looked great for its age. I put a battery in it, rebuilt the carb, new fuel filter and it fired right up. I had an issue with the starter solenoid sticking and it would crank as soon as I hooked up the battery. That issue has been resolved with a new solenoid. Also, I was having an intermittent no-crank issue. I narrowed the issue down to a corroded start button, which has been cleaned and no longer an issue. I’ve had this ski almost a year and last weekend was the first time I had it in the water. I made sure it was water-tight and then let her rip. I noticed that after about two minutes of riding (not hard, but on plane), the ski would lose power and would not go above 1/4 throttle or so. I beached it and started searching. I figured a fuel issue, so I reset the carb adjustment screws according to my Clymer manual. Plugs were good, fuel was fresh, everything seemed fine. I immediately noticed it was taking on water. I took it back out after about a half hour, same thing. Got on plane and it lost power again. At that point, I stuck it on the trailer and did my best to enjoy the rest of my day, definitely disappointed. I didn’t realize until that night (and remembering burning myself in the engine while adjusting the carb) that it was probably overheating and the thermoswitch was killing it. Upon some interwebs research, I THINK I figured out the issue. Taking on water and overheating pointed me to the homemade flush attachment on the ski. It’s open to atmosphere when not in use. I didn’t know any better and realized that this needs to be called off. Can anyone confirm 100%?
Today, I’m planning on checking compression, filling the hull with water to check for leaks, and running it again on the hose to see if the overheating issue is strictly in-water. If anyone has any other pointers or advice, that would be greatly appreciated. I’m a mechanic by trade (and hobby) and grew up around boats and skis, but have never really worked on them before this one.
Today, I’m planning on checking compression, filling the hull with water to check for leaks, and running it again on the hose to see if the overheating issue is strictly in-water. If anyone has any other pointers or advice, that would be greatly appreciated. I’m a mechanic by trade (and hobby) and grew up around boats and skis, but have never really worked on them before this one.
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