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:
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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:
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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:
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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:
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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:
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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).
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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?
