Are there rocks in my pump?

[Mike Greenwood]

Got my ski running (thanks guys) but after about 5 minutes of seemingly flawless operation, it sounded like I had rocks in my pump. I immediately pulled her out and checked for debris, none present. As I look with a flashlight into the pump I see evidence of metal to metal contact(metal wear) on inside of impeller screw housing. What gives? Bearings, wear item? Please advise!

[HiPeRcO]

Pull the pump and inspect.

[ripcuda]

Probably bad pump bearings... allowing the impeller shaft to wobble and contact the wear ring. Definitely pull the pump... 4 long bolts... and inspect. Once you pull the pump out and grab the impeller with your hand... you'll know.

Hopefully your impeller and wear ring aren't too damaged causing clearances that are too great. The whole jet pump is rebuildable... with seals, O-ring and 2 bearings.

Cheers!

[Mike Greenwood]

My man.....thank you. If I were to even think about doing something normal on this ski......I'm consulting you 1st!

[Mike Greenwood]

Thanks hyperco

[Makon]

If you wind up needing to build the pump assembly, you will need the impeller removal tool (watcon has those for sale, about 15-20 bucks), some 1/2" drive tools and either a bench vise (smart method) or a ratchet strap and your ski trailer (I had no bench vice!). Once you get the impeller off the shaft, its cake to rebuild. New bearings go in real easy after you clean the stator housing and bake it @ 275 deg. and throw the bearings in the freezer. If you do this, be sure to put some anti-sieze around the bearing outer raceway so it goes in smooth and isn't a complete pain to remove later.

You can also bake the stator housing to remove the old bearings. Heat it up, then use a hammer + screw driver to tap them out.

There is a generic Polaris jet pump bearing rebuild kit out there that comes with all the bearings, seals, orings, and that tail cone gasket (which is getting harder to find by itself).

[K447]

... bake it @ 275 deg...

I would suggest 200F is plenty. No need to cook the grease out of the new bearings.

And wear leather work gloves when handling the hot stator

[Makon]

Yeah you can get away with lower temps. I went a bit higher on mine because I was moving slow and the housing cooled off a decent amount before I got to putting the bearings in. I definitely wouldn't heat it up that high with new bearings in it!

You can also use a torch, but I would be very careful that you don't indirectly overheat the bearings when installed. The oven is easier and you have better control over the temp.

[Mike Greenwood]

Pulled off the steering nozzle. Rotated the impeller housing 180deg. And reattached the steering nozzle. Noticed the impeller had a bit of damage on the low pressure side of it. Honed out the defects protruding in the inclined plane. Reassembled per factory spec then proceeded to remove the ride plate. Man that was a pita. Some goofball used at least two full tubes of silicone to glue it in place. The bolts were not set at 8 ft lbs either. Could only imagine a local shop here in Tulsa had something to do with that....good work following factory guidelines there monkey. Either way, took her out and amazingly enough it ran top notch. Even took the mrs with me for her first ski ride. Good god, the girl hasn't held me that tight since I don't know when.

[K447]

Did you actually remove the jet pump and manually check the impeller for smooth rotation and zero slop in the bearings?