I Don't Know What Happened

[Simply Slinky]

I was out riding my SL 650 earlier this afternoon. The roaring was gone after a good greasing, but my wife and I were riding up the river and she got out ahead of me... I was following her around a bend when all of a sudden it sounded like the driveshaft broke in two and it started vibrating something awful. It wouldn't gain any speed over about 6 or 7 miles an hour (not enough to even plane out with me on it - about 270 lbs). I pulled over to a sandbar and took off the seat but couldn't see anything visibly wrong. I put the seat back on and turned it over to check the intake... nothing... everything looked normal. Well... after turning it over it had just about half filled the hull with water so I drained as much of the water out as I could and cranked it up. After running it a bit it seemed to be running fine... although a little sluggish from the residual water in the hull. What I'm wondering is, could it have been something lodged in or over the intake (maybe even stuck on the impeller) causing cavitation or the vibration and noise I was hearing? I hope it was something that just fixed itself and not something that occurred temporarily only to happen again next time I'm out.

[Bryan Glynn]

Absolutely, anything that got sucked in, like a rope or bag or whatnot, could certainly do what you described. Make sure you really go over it before you hammer it again, in case you have some damage you over looked. Check your motor mounts, also.

[Simply Slinky]

Thanks,
I appreciate the quick response. In terms of hammering, that was another question I was going to ask at some point on here too. The power band of the ski is not continuous. I can gradually apply pressure to the throttle and it will continually speed up until a little past half way when it will dip and then only slightly throttle up from there. I feel like the ski should have greater output than it does, although I got it up to about 40 today... but for some reason I feel like it should have a few more RPMs in it after I hit that dip in the power band. My wife always out-runs me on her WaveVenture 700... and it makes me mad [img]smile.gif[/img]
Any quick advice on how to milk some more RPMs out of it? Thanks for the help... you guys are great.

[Simply Slinky]

Also... what are the best/first mods to add to this ski that wouldn't break the budget. I thought about a Stinger Spacer, pump wedge, and maybe some flame arrestors, but seeing as though this is my first ski... I don't want to tear up the engine. Thanks again...