New 165 ID with reverse bucket problem

[Dean P]

I'll check mine again.

 

[Torkrench]

Here is another video of the slop in the lever

20200515_131716.mp4

drive.google.com

 

[Dean P]

When my bucket is lock it is locked. I have about 1/2" of play but it is not coming down. Here are more pictures of the mechanism.

 

[Dean P]

 

[Dean P]

From the video, it appears the lever has no spring pressure on it. Check this:

 

[Torkrench]

From the video, it appears the lever has no spring pressure on it. Check this:
View attachment 119114

Yeah there is a spring there, just has a lot of slop before the lever makes contact with it.

 

[Torkrench]

The plate is there, you can just see the top edge of it.

 

[Dean P]

The plate is there, you can just see the top edge of it.

I see it now. My bad.

The spring is necessary to move the lever out of the way to clear the plate. But, that lever needs to latch. You should be able to engage this with the boat out of the water. Is there a setting/mechanical screen where you can do this? If yes, when you move the throttle forward, you can hear it click/latch. That's how I adjusted mine.

 

[Torkrench]

I see it now. My bad.

The spring is necessary to move the lever out of the way to clear the plate. But, that lever needs to latch. You should be able to engage this with the boat out of the water. Is there a setting/mechanical screen where you can do this? If yes, when you move the throttle forward, you can hear it click/latch. That's how I adjusted mine.

Yeah, that's the problem. If I put it into forward, the bucket goes all the way up and the latch drops into place. Even with the latch fully engaged in the locking plate, I can pull down lightly on the reverse bucket and the latch just pivots out and over the edge of the locking plate and releases.

 

[Dean P]

Yeah, that's the problem. If I put it into forward, the bucket goes all the way up and the latch drops into place. Even with the latch fully engaged in the locking plate, I can pull down lightly on the reverse bucket and the latch just pivots out and over the edge of the locking plate and releases.

Sounds like more pressure from the cable needs to be applied to the level to make sure it stays engaged. I believe the best way to prove a point is to go from one extreme to the other. Try turning that nut 5 times CW and observe changes. Then from that point turn 10 times CCW and observe. Hopefully you can draw a conclusion and adjust accordingly.

 

[Torkrench]

Sounds like more pressure from the cable needs to be applied to the level to make sure it stays engaged. I believe the best way to prove a point is to go from one extreme to the other. Try turning that nut 5 times CW and observe changes. Then from that point turn 10 times CCW and observe. Hopefully you can draw a conclusion and adjust accordingly.

I'm not sure if that will help. If I disconnect the linkage from the bucket and then apply forward pressure to the point in the bucket where the linkage connects, it still won't keep the latch locked. It seems like it's something to do with the locking plate, the lever, or the spring.

 

[Dean P]

I also stuck a wide screw driver behind the flanged portion of the SS plate so the "hook" had a little bit more to bite on.

@ScarabMike is really good with these. Maybe he can shed some lite on this.

 

[Torkrench]

I also stuck a wide screw driver behind the flanged portion of the SS plate so the "hook" had a little bit more to bite on.

@ScarabMike is really good with these. Maybe he can shed some lite on this.

Alright, so I tested today with the 5 turns on the linkage. Definitely still has a little reverse thrust in neutral but much less than before. I think I'll do another 2 or 3 turns and see if I can get the bucket to lock. I thought about modifying the locking plate a little with a screwdriver, but wasn't sure if that'd cause any problems. I did that and it seems to hold better if I manually lock the bucket now, so if I can get the shifter to pull it all the way up, it should be good.

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

So this entire thing is fascinating. I checked my setup. The clip never reached the latch at all. But if I manually push the bucket up, it will reach and locks.

Here's my question, if I adjust that lever arm with the but to make it pull up higher until it latches, presumably that means my neutral will no longer be correct. Is there another way to adjust neutral?

I'm starting to wonder something. My nozzle is set to be pointing down. The nozzle sleeve is set so that the nozzle points down. Presumably the previous owner or manufacturer did this to prevent porpoising. But I've read others have the sleeve set so the nozzle points up. I'm wondering if when they adjusted the sleeve, they repositioned the bucket so neutral was good. But in the process, it doesn't latch anymore since it's positioned lower.

I'm willing to try the up position all around, but again, how do you adjust the neutral or bucket without playing with that lever arm?

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

Crazy. Turned it 10 times CCW and it now latches. Lol Glad this never happened to me before.

But yeah, now the bucket sits high relative to the nozzle. So I most likely have to bring the nozzle up with the sleeve. I think that's how Scarab normally installs it.

Please feel free to comment here. Excellent learning going on. Big thank you!

 

[Torkrench]

Crazy. Turned it 10 times CCW and it now latches. Lol Glad this never happened to me before.

But yeah, now the bucket sits high relative to the nozzle. So I most likely have to bring the nozzle up with the sleeve. I think that's how Scarab normally installs it.

Please feel free to comment here. Excellent learning going on. Big thank you!

Did you adjust from the back or the shifter?

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

From the back.

 

[Torkrench]

From the back.

Interesting, I still haven't been able to make that work for me. I can the pin and the black cap out and adjust the nut, but I can't get the metal cable sleeve to slide so I can get the nut back into place. I've tried using enough force I'm afraid of bending it. I still have done adjustability in the front by the shifter though so I have been adjusting it there.

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

Ah yes. It was hard but definitely could slide it forward and backward as mentioned. Had to to get the nut back in the slot. So it must be stuck.

 

[Torkrench]

Just an update to the reverse bucket situation. I adjusted the cable as much as I could at the shifter and as long as I firmly put the shifter into forward, the bucket makes a clunk sound and is then locked. I just instruct anyone who is driving to make sure that they hear the clunk if we are going to be doing anything more than just slow speed navigation. That pretty much got rid of my slight reverse thrust in neutral and the boat hasn't popped out of forward since I did the adjustment. I would like to get one more turn on the cable and I know I can do that in the back, I just haven't been able to move the cable back there and i'm concerned that I'm going to bend something if I keep trying. The risk isn't worth it right now.

I also had quite a bit of porpusing between 30mph and 40mph. I tried turning the jet nozzle bushing around to angle the nozzle down instead of up and lost quite a bit of thrust from a stop. I think the jet lifting the back of the boat slightly caused the pump to not get as much water and didn't launch as good. I ended up 3d printing a centered bushing like the one you can buy and I like the feel with that bushing installed.

I really wish that you could add the sea doo trim control to the back of ours. I might look into what it would take to swap the parts over one day. I took the boat out to 2 different lakes this last weekend, one at about 6000ft. elevation and the other at about 2500ft. The difference in how the boat performed between sea level(where I normally run the boat), 2500ft, and 6000ft is pretty big and I feel like if I could have adjusted the trim, I could have optimized the setup for each elevation.