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Please see below.
On Thu, 15 Sep 2005 23:34:16 -0400, Larry wrote: Jack Erbes wrote in news:gaWdnSlacsDilLfeRVn- : Thus, it is uniquely equipped for fishing in shallow water providing you don't suck up mud into the pump! MUD isn't the problem. This Sport Jet ISN'T the kind of jet for shallow water fishing, like the Australians produce. If the smallest rock gets sucked up through that intake grate and lodges between the spinning impeller and the VERY CLOSELY POSITIONED stator vanes behind it, the right- angle gearcase in the pump simply is torn apart before the pin shears. You might as well throw the pump away. A new complete Sport Jet is cheaper. Mud isn't any problem at all, nor is weeds, all of which are soft. I added the "Salad Shooter" intake grate Merc makes to replace the cheap one the OEMs buy. This grate opens to allow weeds to be sucked into the pump and VOILA! World's Largest Salad Shooter comes shooting out the back. Take a former Sport Jet owner's advise, for your own good. DON'T LET THAT INTAKE GRATE GET ANYWHERE WITHIN THREE FEET OF THE BOTTOM, even in mud! There's always that little rock or other piece of hard crap in there that will just make your Sport Jet ownership SUCK! Well, a few things have changed since you owned your boat. The grate on the bottom is stainless steel, very heavy duty, and hinged. I have owned this boat for three years now. Last year I went too close to a mud bottom and managed to get the pump plugged. I was at the south end of a 37 mile lake with my truck and trailer at the north end. It was 3:30 pm and the maximum speed I could make was 5 mph! I tried all the tricks in the owners manual. Nothing worked. Finally, in desperation, I gave it full throttle and after a small explosion, out came the mud and weeds. This year, I experienced a problem similar to what you mention. I was launching on a small lake with a rocky bottom. There was a strong wind which kept pushing me back to shore. Before I could get far enough away, but with the engine running, I was grounded and a few small rocks were sucked up past the grate (it is hinged, although I don't know why). It shut the engine down. We pulled the boat out with the trailer and I used all manner of tools. The grate is held on by two SS hex bolts and two fasteners whose name escapes me only they are VERY non standard. The heads are similar to those found on some automobiles - star shaped but otherwise like a hex key. I was able to get all of the rocks out finally and everything has worked since. Question - When was the last time you had the stator off the pump to change the rear bearing lube oil and carefully inspect the shaft seal that keeps the water out of the poorly-designed bearing? Ever seen its guts? I learned how from a Merc mechanic. When he took it apart, we found the shaft seal GONE! The damned Mercury Platinum Dealer's expert mechanic didn't seat it properly and the shaft just tore it off, running the bearing on seawater, sand and what little oil didn't leak out. I learned how to do it myself so it wouldn't happen again. Your dealer hasn't a clue about Sport Jets and DOESN'T WANT TO KNOW.... He fixes OUTBOARDS. There is no stator, only a shaft with a rotor on it. If you take it apart, be SURE to put grease on the 4 stainless bolts that screw into the cheap aluminum housing.....OR THEY'LL SEIZE! It took us over an hour to work them loose without breaking them off INSIDE the housing. My mechanic gave up. I took R-22 refrigerant and froze the bolt to -50 C by dripping liquid freon onto the bolt head, shrinking the whole bolt. That was the only way it will come off. DON'T LET THEM HEAT IT WITH A TORCH as it will really screw up the Merc paint job and ruin the pump. Freezing the bolts, then working them back and forth, got mine off. They were hard seized! STUPID DEALERS! The grease keeps the electrolysis from INSIDE the bolt holes just fine. The housing is stainless steel. You still want to protect the bolts going in, but they use something like blue loctite to prevent their vibrating out. You couldn't separate the pump from the engine without taking the engine out of the boat. That would be really difficult - I hope I never have to do that. I don't think there is a rear seal, instead a shaft comes down vertically from the engine and engages a right angle drive which turns the pump rotor. Just a few hints. I loved my Sport Jet, the 175hp carb'd model. Mine was a Sea Rayder F16XR2 16' yellow with purple bimini. Chick magnet! Mine is very pretty as well, but I'd like it more if it were a better boat! Oh, one more hint to save your Sport Jet....... Take the flywheel off the top of it with a proper puller. The core of the stator coils (about $300 at a dealer) is OPEN TO THE WET! Idiots....My first one rusted solid, shorting out the magnetic fields and stranding me with no spark! Before yours rusts solid, and it will, GREASE the surface of the soft iron cores wherever you can see them around where the magnets whirl around the outside of them. Grease up the inside of the flywheel, too, to keep the magnets from corroding all up. The new core, an aftermarket product better than Mercury's, never rusted or corroded at all coated with a nice layer of marine grease....(c; The guy I sold it to has never had a problem with it in 2 years. I've never had the plastic top off, but this uses EFI so it might not be the same engine. I have to say, however, that the first engine I had died after 3 weeks leaving me stranded in the middle of a (thankfully very popular) lake. I got a tow to shore. It turned out that one of the fuel injectors broke inside the engine scarring up the head and gouging a cylinder wall. Merc wanted to fix it, but I had my dealer insist and they replaced the entire engine. Well, that's what he said, but it turned out to be what we used to call a "short block" and one of the air injectors was bad as well. They fixed that, but it took over a month and the season is short here. The dealer loaned me a bigger boat while this went on, thank goodness. Remove the chinzy oil injection made out of PLASTIC and all its plumbing. The hole the pump fits into has a cover plate you can get from the dealer for free after you remove the gear drive. Every new powerhead has this coverplate on it and dealers just toss them away as they re-install the oil injection nightmare. Mix your fuel at 40:1, oil company brands TC-W3. 1 quart to every 10 gallons of gas...or close to that, not critical. After a thousand hours of running premix gas, the inside of the cylinders is barely worn, the rings still real tight and in good condition and all the bearings in the crankcase are LUBED, not dry like 100:1 oil injection the way the greenies and government bureaucrats want them. The new owner still mixes oil at 40:1 in the tank and at 1600 hours on a 1997 Sport Jet it purrs like a kitten. LOTS of powerheads are blown by oil injection failures, STILL! Thanks for the tip, but with EFI, you don't even use regular oil, it must be synthetic. This stuff ain't cheap! This year it was $38.00/gallon. Every mechanic has told me NOT to use regular oil - that it will damage the engine. The oil injectors are metal, not plastic, btw. If any injector fails, there is a warning system that lets you know. There is a computer similar to those on automobiles on this engine. -- Larry email is rapp at lmr dot com 09/16/05 9:38:03 PM |
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