2016 195 Impulse Throttle issue...

[ModyGP]

Hey All, before I call the shop and get the standard "Bring it in and we'll check it out", I thought I'd ask the group and see if I can fix without the $85/hr debug charge.

Out this weekend, wakeboarding. I had pulled my daughter about 12 times out of the water, she's ~110lbs. No problems, she pops out of the water with partial throttle.

We switch to my son-in-law, he's ~230lbs. To pull him out of the water I have to full-throttle. I made 3 pulls, no problem. The 4th, I give it the beans and nothing but rev.
No forward engagement.
I tried a few times, same procedure, same result. Get the line slack out with idle forward, once the line slack is gone I give it full throttle. I don't slam forward, but it is
a fairly quick forward push on the lever.

I tried reverse, no problem. I did a few cycles forward and reverse, the forward didn't engage but the reverse did.

I give up, drag the s-i-l in, pack up and idle back to the dock.

I was playing with it on the way back to the dock. I had it up to about 15mph, and it was rev'ing fairly high. Then all the sudden it just grabs and starts acting normal.
Rev's drop and we get onto plane. I throttle up and it goes just fine.

I stopped, played with it, and it wouldn't reproduce the issue. It was time to go home anyway, so we left.

I checked it in the garage, other than some play in the gate in neutral position, nothing seems out of whack.

Any ideas?

1) I accidentally bumped the center throttle button and disengaged the cables, and it took some time to snap back in place.
2) The gate wasn't coming all the way up in the water, and self resolved. I can't reproduce in my garage. Nothing seems loose.
Is the gate supposed to completely lock up when in full throttle? I can move it about an inch to lock it up by hand and the cable doesn't move.
3) Impeller not spinning, but then it probably would do the same in reverse.

Thanks for the help/advice,
-Jamie

 

[Rick Rousseau]

Maybe something got stuck in the impeller and then cleared itself? Just a thought.

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

I agree with @Rick Rousseau . Sounds like that's what happened. A stick or something got stuck in there. Allows you to idle fine, reverse fine, but no power. That's typical of something getting stuck. Since it now works, it's hard to believe it was something else.

I would have a close look through the grate with a flashlight to make sure there's no damage to the impeller/ring. See if there's gauges in the plastic or dents in the impeller.

 

[ModyGP]

Thanks for the quick replies!

 

[ModyGP]

I went and crawled under the boat. Checked through the grate. I don't see any damage to the impeller and no major issues with the ring.
It looks the same as it did 4 months ago, the last time I was under there before the summer season started.

I guess I'll find out next time we hit the water. I'll test close to the dock, just in case, so it's not so far to row/swim.

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

Yeah, if it was a piece of wood, it will rarely cause significant (if any) damage. Rocks, shells, etc. definitely.

I sucked up my first piece of wood after 3 years and only because I knew I was being stupid and going through 12" of water slowly. lol I was able to dive under and pull it out since I carried the tools. I JUST took apart the pump this past weekend to replace O rings and re-grease, the ring/impeller is in mint shape. The wood caused no issues but the symptoms when it happened we're identical to yours. The only difference was that the boat vibrated when I throttled up.

 

[ModyGP]

Yeah, if it was a piece of wood, it will rarely cause significant (if any) damage. Rocks, shells, etc. definitely.

I sucked up my first piece of wood after 3 years and only because I knew I was being stupid and going through 12" of water slowly. lol I was able to dive under and pull it out since I carried the tools. I JUST took apart the pump this past weekend to replace O rings and re-grease, the ring/impeller is in mint shape. The wood caused no issues but the symptoms when it happened we're identical to yours. The only difference was that the boat vibrated when I throttled up.

Thanks Luc! This helps ease my nerves.