Repairing damage and a leak caused caused by a rope being sucked into the impeller

[Dave burke]

Many thanks. I’ll definitely go with them.

 

[Jameson Clark]

Well I popped my rope cherry this weekend too!

Ironically enough, on the same lake where @Seadeals got his. Just one week later and under similar conditions. Two boats anchored out in a cove with multiple tubes floating around attached to the boats. Storm snuck up on us and I was rushing getting people and floats on the boat. Checked and THOUGHT I was clear. Started the port side motor and one of the tube lines sounded like a zip line coming across the water as it sucked in. Shut everything down and had my brother pull me to a close dock where we hunkered down for the storm and slowly got all the rope from the clean out port. Took about 45 minutes of work but finally got it cleared about the time the storm passed and we were back out tubing soon after.

I have been boating my whole life and this is the first rope incident I have ever had. Dang, those intakes pull water in hard. Lesson learned!

 

[Dave burke]

So I ordered and received the white plastic housing on saturday (it was definitely item 13 on Jet Unit 3). Part is called a joint pipe. Here’s what I did last weekend:

- removed the old, broken joint pipe. Two of the 3 screws were bent presumably because they were torqued by the rope
- good news is that I did not see any damage to the fiberglass in the tunnel
- as Buckbuck or Swatski suggested, ran some water from a garden hose into the engine compartment, hoping nothing would come out of the shaft opening. Unfortunately, water poured out when water level in the engine bay got high enough. See pic below.
- the was a lot of silicone around the joint pipe so I’m hoping the leaking was because the old joint pipe Was no longer there.
- once I removed the joint pipe I saw, strands of rope peaking out so I pulled on them with some needle nose pliers. To my surprise, about 6 more inches came out, wrapped around a black piece of tube. Actually the rope was molded to the tube because of the friction. See pic of the black tube below.
- part of the joint pipe was still in the tunnel and I tried different ways of removing it. Finally decided to cut it out but did not want to use a power tool because the broken piece sits inside a sleeve that looks like it’s rubber or some sort of foam material. So I used a hacksaw blade and handle assembly to slowly cut the joint pipe in two places. I figured once get this done, I can pop off the cut piece (the two cuts are probably 30 degrees apart) and hopefully the rest of the joint pipe can be pulled out.
- unfortunately I broke the hack saw blade (2x), had no spares, and ran out of time and could not finish the cutting.
- I decided to order 3 new tapping screws (part 14) and the rubber/foam sleeve (part 15, called “Pipe 1) in case I need them.
- I can’t figure out what part number the black tube is. I looked at Jet Units 1, 2 and 3 but don’t see anything that looks like it. It’s very thin, soft plastic and does not appear to do much
- my dealer is 2 hours away so I took the pics and the pieces to a local Wave Runner dealer hoping that the propulsion technology is the same as in the boats. They really weren’t much help

I got home tonight and did some searching on the web and this site and the only thread I could find was from MIDLIFECRISIS about 4 years ago. And his situation was much worse than mine because he had extensive fiberglass damage.

So with all this additional background, here are my questions:

- anybody have a good idea on how to remove the broken piece of the Joint Pipe?
- anybody know what the black plastic tube is? The diameter is slightly larger than the impeller shaft
- anybody replaced the part called Pipe 1? Were you able to do this from the impeller tunnel?
- any other suggestions?

Many thanks.

 

[swatski]

Damn. Sounds like it could be the intermediate bearing/housing issue.
I remember @MIDLIFECRISIS disaster cracked tunnel thread, maybe he can chime in.
I don't know many here with experience in the intermediate bearing... Maybe @Cobra Jet Steering LLC

--

 

[buckbuck]

You are going places where few man have gone before. Please document with pictures to make it easier for the next guy.

 

[MIDLIFECRISIS]

The tube that went from my through hull fitting ( white thing that cracked on yours) to the bearing housing was just a rubber hose with hose clamps.

 

[Dave burke]

Will do @buckbuck . I’m surprised this hasn’t happened more often. Bad luck I guess.

@MIDLIFECRISIS, thx for your comments. In my boat, the white sleeve that cracked seems to sit inside the rubber hose. Is that what you had as well? Did you fix it from the impeller tunnel or from the engine bay? Not sure about your boat but I have very little room to access the bearing housing.

 

[Dave burke]

@MIDLIFECRISIS , sorry to be a pest but you seem to be one of the few people who have had a similar problem to me so any additional info you can provide (see my questions above) would be much appreciated. Thx

 

[Dave burke]

@MIDLIFECRISIS, I reread your post on the repair you did. A couple more questions when you have a chance:

- you indicated you were going to replace the white plastic part and the rubber sleeve (parts 13 and 15). Did you do this?
- did you also replace or reuse part 16, the hose clamp? I’m beginning to think that one of the reasons I’m having such a hard time removing the broken part of the white plastic sleeve is because the rubber sleeve (part 15) is clamped to it. I can’t see this though as I’m working from inside the impeller tunnel.

Thx.

 

[MIDLIFECRISIS]

Yes the through hull fitting is hose clamped on the hull side and the engine side. you have to pull the hatch off from under the swim deck seats. Then undo some hose clamps to get stuff out of your way. then you can seethe rubber hose to unclamp it. not a fun job. while I was in this deep, I went ahead and put a bilge pump with a float switch in there, used the same wire that came off the pump the factory used. I always thought where the factory pump is was kind of dumb, a lot of water can stay under the engine floor.

 

[MIDLIFECRISIS]

Looking back what color was your rope? That wad (black tube you pulled out) looks like a burnt up rope.. It should not be in there. You can stop looking for it..

 

[Dave burke]

Rope was black. I was hoping that was burnt rope but didn’t want to be overly optimistic. Many thanks for the confirmation.

So if I’ve got you, I need to remove the swim deck and I’ll see a hatch underneath? The other thought I had was to remove the engine hatch? Did you try that?

 

[LukePrinsloo]

if you need help replacing the intermediate bearing housing let me know.
I just finished it and I have the hurt sternum to prove it. (and the bruises on my thigh from the engine lid latch).
it's not terrible once you know how to do. 2 hours to take out, 1 to put in.
To move the motors was actually REALLY easy if you are inclined.

 

[MIDLIFECRISIS]

I'm talking about you have to take all the screws around the hatch where the cleanout plugs are at.

 

[MIDLIFECRISIS]

@LukePrinsloo he won't need to change or mess with the bearing. Just the hose on the other side of that wall.

 

[Scottintexas]

So if I’ve got you, I need to remove the swim deck and I’ll see a hatch underneath?

I couldn't get the info to copy but here is the page from parts manual,
https://www.yamahasportsplaza.com/oemparts/a/yam/57cee53d87a8660d540c3b9c/jet-unit-4

As midlife said above the hatch is the cleanout plug tray
you'll have to unscrew the inspection cover #7
reach in and undo the clamps that hold the black cleanout tubes to the hatch
then unscrew the hatch and remove it, (there may be cleanout hatch safety switches for you to disconnect also)

 

[MIDLIFECRISIS]

The big tubes for the clean outs are silicone the tray also. The kill switches are mounted to the actual deck won't have to worry about them. Check the rubber tube that you are doing all this for. You don't want to get it all back together and find out that you have a hole in what I'll call the shaft tube.

 

[Dave burke]

This is great guys. Many thanks.

Heading to my cottage on Saturday and will let you know how it goes

 

[Dave burke]

Well, problem is fixed and it only cost less than $25 for the parts, and a lot of time and worry. At least now I understand how the connections between the engine and the impeller work. And they weren’t obvious, at least not to me.

While many of us have sucked up ropes before, as @buckbuck said, I seem to have gone where few have before in that in my case, I developed a serious leak which almost sank the boat. I thought I’d document the experience to help others who have similar problems in the future.

Before getting into the details, I want to thank everybody who helped me work through this problem. I seriously considered taking my boat to the dealer (who is over 2 hours away) and thinking I might be stuck with a $500 insurance deductible but because of your help, I was able to repair the problem at minimal cost, although it did take some time.

The problem started when I sucked in my bow rope which I stupidly did not secure to the grab rail or elsewhere. The rope caused the engine to stop and at first I thought there was a solenoid problem because when I tried to restart the engine (I didn’t know why it stopped at first), all I heard was a clicking sound. Eventually I opened the clean-out port and saw the problem.

Since we weren’t far from shore, we pulled the boat from the water and cut the rope in several places until it seemed like it was free. All that was left was a small piece of rope which did not seem to be interfering with the shaft turning. See below:



I put the boat back in the water and ran it slowly up to about 4000 rpms and it seemed to run fine. By this point the weekend was almost over so I left the boat in the water, hoping the problems were over. Boy was I wrong.

Because I wasn’t sure if I should leave well enough alone, I posted a new thread on this site and @buckbuck suggested I pull the pump since it’s pretty easy and I would be able to see the problem better and hopefully remove the rest of the rope. I did so (it was pretty easy to pull the pump), was able to remove what appeared to be the rest of the rope. See next pic:



Other than clearly needing to replace the white sleeve, I thought all was good.

I did some research on the web and with the help of several others, I was able to figure out the part I needed was a “Joint, Pipe”, part number 13 on Jet Drive 3 on Yamaha Sports Plaza or Babbitts. I ordered the part from Babbitts and had it by the next weekend.

When I got back up to my cottage, I knew I had a more significant problem as the boat had taken on a lot of water. I was worried that engine damage had occurred but fortunately, once I drained the bilge, the engines started up and the boat ran fine.

I pulled the boat from the water to replace the broken part. I removed the broken Joint Pipe and pulled out more pieces of rope including a piece that was so burned it had melted in the form of a black tube. At first I thought this was another broken part but eventually concluded (with @MIDLIFECRISIS’s help) that it was just a melted piece of rope.

I then wanted to see if I could tell what was causing the leak (I was worried it might be the intermediate bearing so I ran a garden hose into the engine compartment. Here’s what happened:



The water was literally pouring out and now I’m thinking WTF, the intermediate bearing is damaged and I’ll have to take it to the dealer and probably claim on the insurance.

I did some more research on the web and this site on impeller shaft leaks and eventually came across @MIDLIFECRISIS ‘s post on a problem he had. With help from him and others, I was able to determine how to finally fix the problem.

Here’s what I did:

1. Removed the hard plastic plate underneath the clean-out port door, to expose the space below. After removing all the screws, I then disconnected the clamp attached to the drain pipe between the two clean-out ports. I thought that the plate might be connected to the clean-out port tubes but it was just a friction fit. After manœuvering back and forth, the plate separated from the clean-out port tubes and I was able to remove it. See pic:




2. I could then see the rubber hose that connects the impeller shaft covering (not sure of the correct name for this fitting) which I assume is part of the intermediate bearing. See 1st pic below (apologies for the fingertip). I loosened the two gear clamps and pulled the hose free. I then used a hacksaw blade to cut out the broken joint pipe. This hard to do and I had to cut it in two places (carefully so as not to damage the rubber hose). See 2nd pic:





3. Once I removed the broken joint pipe, I cleaned out the old silicone (there was a lot on the joint pipe end and none on the other end (that I could see) and reinstalled the rubber hose onto the intermediate bearing. I then applied a fair amount of silicone to the impeller tunnel opening and new joint pipe and pushed it into opening in the impeller tunnel. This required a fair amount of force because the rubber hose was just on the other side of impeller tunnel opening and the joint pipe is a very tight fit into the rubber hose.

I then attached the joint pipe with 3 new screws (the old ones were bent). And I had to use a larger screw in the top hole since the fiberglass is thin there and the hole was stripped. See 1st pic below.

I then tightened up the two gear clamps on the rubber hose and applied lots of silicone on the joint pipe side. See 2nd pic below (apologies as the picture is somewhat overexposed).





4. I then ran a garden hose into the cavity around the rubber hose, expecting (and hoping) that no water would leak out. I did have a very slow drip, which I didn’t think it would be a big deal but just in case, I re-tightened the three screws on the joint pipe and lathered more silicone around the black hose/joint pipe connection. That stopped the leak.

I thought I’d let the silicone set overnight so was unable to water test the boat last weekend but will do so this weekend.

So the moral of my story (other than the great people who are members of jetboaters.net) is if you ever suck up a rope and crack this white fitting called a joint pipe, be careful, you likely have a leak, which may not manifest itself right away.

One other thing I learned as a result of this experience is that a fair amount of water can accumulate in the cavity underneath the swim platform and I don’t believe there’s a way to get it out other than pulling the boat out of the water and removing the drain plug. @MIDLIFECRISIS said he put a bilge pump with a float switch in the cavity. I haven’t done this but am thinking I will as I wet slip my boat and don’t want to be taking it out of the water regularly to drain it. Have others done this?

 

[tdonoughue]

Wonderful write up. Thank you! Awesome trail you left for others to follow.

As to your question, yes, several have moved or put a second bilge pump down in the actual bilge (I didn't--my second one is in the engine compartment because I am lazy). Don't have a link handy, but with a little searching here you should be able to locate a few examples.

Nice job.