How to avoid clogging your engine with sand

[Julian]

Says you. Maybe I do not have your expertise but I am an engineer by education and a mechanic by experience. I have owned jet pumps boats and skis since 1990. I have maintained, modified and rebuilt numerous Kawasaki, Yamaha and Rotax axial flow single stage jet pumps. The procedure I use to clear the pump works for me so we just have to agree to disagree.

I'm not saying your approach won't do anything, but it will be WAY MORE EFFECTIVE if you turn off the engines.

 

[Divouneh]

It’s an old threads but still interesting . I have a Scarab 165; my area has lot of shallow areas. I always set idling when we reach 2 ft, last week I had for the first time real contact between hull and stone, most of the time leaves, branches, grass are the main issues: the only solution is to jump on the water to clean up the intake.
In the same time, I have a jet boat to run on shallow area and also for the safety ( we are skiing a lot) .
Yes, I do have some minor repairs to do at the end of the season, no major scratches on my hull …

 

[Tylenator]

So where exactly does that stuff go?

my wife beached the boat the other day on an island - tried to reverse out without pushing off too far, and on enginethrottle got stuck in reverse.

she got it home on the other engine.

I checked both impeller areas, they seem OK. Took boat out, jiggled the stock throttle several times till it let me go back to neutral, then turned that engine fine.

forward works fine both sides but run reverse I’m not sure I’m doing a whole lot other than revving the engine - on either side.

This happened to us the first time we beached our FSH. Even though we had our engines off while we were up in the shallow areas, I guess enough loose sand was washing around from the tide/current that it got all up in the nooks and crannies of the buckets. When I reversed out after pushing the boat into the water, I was stuck in reverse, and I was MOVING TOWARDS ANOTHER BOAT. I had to quickly kill the engines and run to the front and throw the anchor in. The anchor caught it fortunately stopped me feet before coming into contact with the other boat.

We no longer beach the boat.

 

[msavold]

The culprit isn't usually in the buckets themselves AFAIK. Although sometimes it can be inside if it's a bigger rock, the more likely place apparently is at the pivot points on the sides of the buckets, between the nozzle and the bucket "arm". That's where I've had a pebble stuck...