Easy way to clean debris out of your jet pump (without pulling plugs or going in the water)

[Julian]

I have a small adjustment to offer that had worked great for me...

Get the boat to make a large wake 7 or 10 mph, bow up. Moving forward.

Kill engines. Boat falls off wave, and the wake that was following you slams into you from behind.

Voila, crap cleared, restart and go.

I'm surprised this works....I would think you'd still have forward momentum, in which case no water would be able to backflow through the intake.

 

[Beachbummer]

The slap is pretty significant, and while you are moving forward, is going much slower than before, so the water flows in reverse.

It's all relative

 

[MadMike]

Great tip here. First day on the water in Lake Cumberland a couple of weeks ago with the new Scarab, down around the mouth of Fishing Creek, picked up some debris. Threw it into reverse, built up some speed, slapped the throttle to neutral and killed the engines. Boom! Debris cleared and we were on our way again.

 

[WetWillie]

Nothing was getting this guy out...

 

[Beachbummer]

Reverse trick was NOT getting that out!!!

 

[txav8r]

View attachment 76756 Nothing was getting this guy out...

That is NO way to catch fish! lol

 

[WetWillie]

That is NO way to catch fish! lol

Wasn’t big on fishing before; this did not help my outlook on fisherman in my area they seem to treat the lakes as their dumpster with bait container trash, wads of fishing lines, and tackle strewn all over our lakes... Pisses me off that they really seem not to care at all for others/environment and half don’t even have proper licensing to be out there in the first place...

 

[David D]

Question (sorry if it’s been answered - I didn’t read every post): I told my bro-in-law about this. He did it several times in one day. By the end of the day, he lost one of his engines. He took it to the dealer and they said he had water in the engine.

Possible? Are there any cautions we should be aware of? I know, for example, we should only be towed at slow speeds or cut the water circulation when the engines aren’t running. But how would this “trick” be similar?

 

[David D]

Question (sorry if it’s been answered - I didn’t read every post): I told my bro-in-law about this. He did it several times in one day. By the end of the day, he lost one of his engines. He took it to the dealer and they said he had water in the engine.

Possible? Are there any cautions we should be aware of? I know, for example, we should only be towed at slow speeds or cut the water circulation when the engines aren’t running. But how would this “trick” be similar?

I was just thinking about my own post. I’m thinking that the “trick” may not have caused the engine to fail - perhaps that was something else. But the water may be from crushing back to the dock with just one engine running??

 

[WetWillie]

I can only speak for what I did with the fishing lure stuck above; since we could not clear the obstruction while in the water; I started both engines and left the one in neutral and drove back on the other while maintaining a 3-5 mph pace while monitoring the pissers... Luckily we were less than 1k yards from our ramp and we just anchored in the no wake cove there and swam/ate the rest of the time...
You can also block the cooling line to the motor if it is a starting issue or damaged engine with a big clamp...

 

[Julian]

Question (sorry if it’s been answered - I didn’t read every post): I told my bro-in-law about this. He did it several times in one day. By the end of the day, he lost one of his engines. He took it to the dealer and they said he had water in the engine.

Possible? Are there any cautions we should be aware of? I know, for example, we should only be towed at slow speeds or cut the water circulation when the engines aren’t running. But how would this “trick” be similar?

I suppose that if you only started one engine and reversed for a long time with the intake completely clogged you might be able to force water back into the engine, but this is unlikely. I never do this with only one engine running though...use both.

Much more likely he drove with only one engine running over no wake speed.

 

[Jamie Lynne]

1) Put it in reverse, and get the boat moving backward (faster the better)
2) Kill the engines (pulling the lanyard off is the fastest way)
3) Put the throttles into forward (this allows water to be pushed directly into the exposed jet nozzles and force stuff in the tubes back through the grate, or off the grate).
What I do is grab the lanyard with my left hand, put it in reverse with my right hand, get up some speed, yank the lanyard with my left and instantly put it onto forward with my right.....works 95% of the time. The only time it didn't work for me that I recall was when I sucked up a flexible frisbee...and it was lodged hard in the intake grill.
This works great for weeds, sticks etc.

1) Put it in reverse, and get the boat moving backward (faster the better)
2) Kill the engines (pulling the lanyard off is the fastest way)
3) Put the throttles into forward (this allows water to be pushed directly into the exposed jet nozzles and force stuff in the tubes back through the grate, or off the grate).
What I do is grab the lanyard with my left hand, put it in reverse with my right hand, get up some speed, yank the lanyard with my left and instantly put it onto forward with my right.....works 95% of the time. The only time it didn't work for me that I recall was when I sucked up a flexible frisbee...and it was lodged hard in the intake grill.
This works great for weeds, sticks etc.

Worked like a charm. Took a few tries but man I'm feeling like miss fix it now. Thanks so much

 

[seventyeight]

View attachment 76756 Nothing was getting this guy out...

or this...

 

[Jester429]

Hopefully the kid let go

 

[Bubblehead]

I can only speak for what I did with the fishing lure stuck above; since we could not clear the obstruction while in the water; I started both engines and left the one in neutral and drove back on the other while maintaining a 3-5 mph pace while monitoring the pissers... Luckily we were less than 1k yards from our ramp and we just anchored in the no wake cove there and swam/ate the rest of the time...
You can also block the cooling line to the motor if it is a starting issue or damaged engine with a big clamp...

There is no neutral. Impeller was still turning at idle speed.

 

[WetWillie]

That may be so under normal conditions; but with the lure lodged it didn’t spin as freely until in the second detent as I inspected it with the plug out while holding the kill switch... It would start up after a load around 2500rpm but was obviously off balance and made a helluva racket... Checked with help during diagnosis process with the help I had on the boat... not to say that while under way there wasn’t enough force to spin the impeller more than some but it certainly wasn’t as much if not obstructed...

 

[Jester429]

Isn't the impeller direct drive off the motor? I don't see how the motor could run with the impeller jammed to where it wasn't spinning.

 

[biffdotorg]

Isn't the impeller direct drive off the motor? I don't see how the motor could run with the impeller jammed to where it wasn't spinning.

You are 100% correct, the motor is direct drive to the impeller. If the starter was spinning the motor, it was grinding the lure. If the motor was idling, it was grinding the lure. All that did was cause additional rub on the wear ring, but it kept water from backing into the engine. That was a correct statement above, there is no true neutral on these boats.

 

[smurf00]

Thanks for the tips!

 

[BigAbe75]

On the e series boats, what is the trick to manually control the gates? Either for the reverse move or to open the gates while being towed? Or, just to reach in there while on the trailer?

I assume the gates don’t move unless the engine is started normally? Or, will they adjust with the key on and not started?

If you have forward engaged and pull the kill switch will the gates close automatically or stay open?

Or, am I incorrect in assuming that the gates are now motorized in conjunction with the e-throttles? (I’m pretty sure I read that)