Fun Friday on the lake. Saturday, not so much...

[Mister Fister]

Wife an I took the day off Friday and spent the whole day on the lake. Unfortunately, there are fishing tournaments every weekend on our lake so we figured Friday would be a good day to try and dodge the bassholes. Had a good time but I was on edge driving the whole time as I have never seen so much debris on the lake. Scrap wood from houses being built, beer bottles and cans, random styrofoam and plastic bits, etc. I was dodging crap left and right and was surprised I didn't get spotted for BUI. Came home and we decided to go back out again the next morning. Saturday comes and we get out on the water. Less boaters at the ramp but way more boats on the water. Seemed like there was even more crap in the water that day. We were out for about 3 hours and decided to try and go find another swim cove. On our way to the next spot the engine all the sudden changes RPM and the boat loses significant speed. 1st thing I do is shut it down and check my shorts for brown marks. Started the boat back up and it was fine until I gave it a bit of throttle. Sounded terrible but not like engine trouble. Opened the clean out hatch and could not see or feel anything. Drove 5mph back to the dock and go the boat on the trailer. Brought the boat home and started pulling apart the pump and found a little piece of wood stuck on the impeller. I got it removed and put back together but I have a hard time with how easy it was to freeze up the impeller. Sucks because I don't think the debris issue will get any better.





I also noticed a good amount of dings on the impeller fins and got those cleaned up to the best of my ability.



I also noticed a good amount of wear on the impeller sleeve (not sure what to call it). Would this be something to be concerned about? Should I go ahead and replace it?

 

[Miitch]

yuuuup.. that'll do it.. Ive seen ziplock bags ruin peoples day. Glad you were able to make it home safe.

despite your work on the impeller, it still looks pretty chipped.. Im still a bit new to this side of maintenance, but i would guess that an impeller of that condition might cause some performance issues? maybe somebody more experienced can chime in.

The impeller sleeve, or wear ring as its typically called, is there to basically protect the impeller, and maintain proper propulsion. The more space between your impeller and wear ring, the less propulsion you will have, which will result in decreased performance. from the pictures, it looks like just a couple of scratches, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. Again, maybe somebody with more experience can confirm or add to this.

 

[jimbobalu]

Why is this such a problem with Yamaha jet boats? I have a PWC and have never had something jam the impeller except when I ran through some milfoil and it clogged the intake grate, not the impeller, just had to take a dip to pull it out.

 

[Mister Fister]

Why is this such a problem with Yamaha jet boats? I have a PWC and have never had something jam the impeller except when I ran through some milfoil and it clogged the intake grate, not the impeller, just had to take a dip to pull it out.

It's funny you say that because I thought the exact same thing. My Dad bought me and my 2 brothers a brand new 1995 Kawasaki 750 Jet ski when we were kids and the only thing that ever got sucked up was a rope and that's because one of our friends didn't understand you cant drive over rope. The lake we grew up on was so nasty that my oldest brother to this day wont let his kids swim in it.