Yamaha Visibility Spout purpose

[Boricuaspr]

Hi guys,

I understand that the rear visibility spout is a safety feature, but I am not sure if its also related to the cooling system of the engine or other components.

Ive seen some youtube videos that people install a on/off valve.

I only wish to re route the sprout water stream directly to the water. Is there some kind Visibility Sprout delete kit.

[K447]

The Yamaha visibility spout has nothing to do with engine cooling or anything else. It is simply a small diversion flow from the main jet pump exit nozzle. The amount of water it diverts is a tiny percentage of the total jet pump flow and does not affect anything else.

If you lower the RiDE bucket (directions are in the owners manual) you will see the visibility spout water feed is a simple rubber hose connecting from the top of the jet pump up to the plastic deck fitting. The rubber hose can be disconnected from the deck fitting and just allowed to hang and flop around. Or it can be plugged/capped in some manner.

Others have installed a compact and light weight plastic ball valve inline with the rubber hose. If you do this be sure to position the valve so it does not interfere with the reverse bucket when it moves upwards.

On my own Yamaha I removed the jet pump nozzle and installed a threaded NPT metal plug into the metal fitting on the jet pump. This is a semi-permanent deletion of the visibility spout feature.

[Boricuaspr]

The Yamaha visibility spout has nothing to do with engine cooling or anything else. It is simply a small diversion flow from the main jet pump exit nozzle. The amount of water it diverts is a tiny percentage of the total jet pump flow and does not affect anything else.

If you lower the RiDE bucket (directions are in the owners manual) you will see the visibility spout water feed is a simple rubber hose connecting from the top of the jet pump up to the plastic deck fitting. The rubber hose can be disconnected from the deck fitting and just allowed to hang and flop around. Or it can be plugged/capped in some manner.

Others have installed a compact and light weight plastic ball valve inline with the rubber hose. If you do this be sure to position the valve so it does not interfere with the reverse bucket when it moves upwards.

On my own Yamaha I removed the jet pump nozzle and installed a threaded NPT metal plug into the metal fitting on the jet pump. This is a semi-permanent deletion of the visibility spout feature.

Thanks for taking the time to explain! Pretty clear now. I will just install a shut-off valve to easily reverse to factory if I ever decide to sell the ski.

[TimeBandit]

Yes, good explanation.
I went with adding a valve myself. However, when I don't want the visibility flag, I don't necessarily completely close the valve... instead I leave it slightly cracked as to permit a tiny bit of flow (aka very small flag). Why?
I look back at it occasionally as a quasi coolant system supply health "tell", especially if I loose thrust (due to clogged seaweed against the intake). Here's the logic: Although the visibility spout system does not have anything to do with cooling system, it can tell you if the jet pump nozzle chamber is indeed making any water (thrust) pressures. So if at any point there is not enough pressure to power the tiny flag, there's likely not enough pressure to power the cooling system either. Hope I explained that right.

[ncdoo]

And if there's not enough pressure to power the tiny flag, you're probably not moving very fast.

[K447]

... if the jet pump nozzle chamber is indeed making any water (thrust) pressures. ...

If there is enough clog in the intake (weeds) to affect engine cooling then the loss of jet thrust will be very noticiable on every squeeze of the throttle.

I have had occasions where the clog was significant but I still had some thrust, and eventually the reduced water flow through the engine cooling can trigger an engine overheat warning. *

But I knew already from the dimished thrust that I had a big clog (I was riding in a very weedy area) and I wanted to get away from the weed zone before clearing the grate area.


* If the engine overheat warning does occur, shut down the engine right away, get into the water and clear the clog.

Upon engine restart the warning will re-trigger right away. Engine stop and another restart should clear the old warning. If the overheat condition has actually subsided the warning will not re-occur.

[TimeBandit]

And if there's not enough pressure to power the tiny flag, you're probably not moving very fast.

True, I should of highlighted at-idle is whete this adds value, as at idle you're not moving very fast yet there is (under normal conditions) enough pressures in the nozzle to power the flag and coolant.

All I'm saying is that there can be some marginal value retained in repurposing the full flag as a small tell. We already have discharge tells/pissers, so I see this as a way to "see" nozzle pressures at idle as a supply tell. On-throttle... well ... wind blowing on your face is tell-enough

[bizeagle]

I added a spout shut off valve to my FX Cruiser HO. It was pretty easy to do. It is really just a valve that is used for in ground lawn sprinkler applications. It works just fine. So I can turn it on or off when I want to.

[K447]

I added a spout shut off valve to my FX Cruiser HO. It was pretty easy to do.

It is really just a valve that is used for in ground lawn sprinkler applications. It works just fine. ...

There is very little water pressure feeding the visibility spout so those compact plastic irrigation ball valves work nicely.

[Dust N' U]

I put a valve on mine mainly for when I was pulling a tube or knee board but once it was turned off I haven't had it back on.