Flames

[Blaine]

Just hooked up the new 580 motor I just got from ya. This is probably normal but I have never noticed it before, after starting the machine with no pipe on it I noticed when I rev it I can see blue type flame from the manifold , Is this normal or do I have some timing off ??¿

[Technical Support]

I'm sure it's perfectly normal, however I can't ay I ever had the need to start the engine without the exhaust on to verify.

[Bill O'Neal]

Flames are normal, and VERY DANGERIOUS if the motor is installed in the hull along with the gasoline tank.

[96xper]

Well we all know Blaine is a rookie, how close did you get to it to notice the blue flame, hahahaha, still got hair?
Hey Blaine, email me, gotta get in touch with you about a ski.
96xper.

[Bill O'Neal]

Let me tell you a story. An expensive story.

About 18 months ago I recieved a summons to go to court over a suit filed against my shop, A PWC manufacturer and the dealership that sold a guy a watercraft 5 years earlier.

The suit claimed neglegence on all of our parts for the sale, the manufacture, and the servicing of the ski.

Through depositions, our attornies detrimined that the plantiff had taken the ski to a high altitude lake and launched the ski without first starting the motor on land before the launch. The ski had a marginally charged battery in it that was last charged in my shop two weeks earlier, but was not a new battery. After first trying to start the ski and not having success, he pulled the choke and cranked it till the battery died. Instead of pulling the ski from the water, he towed it to a cove with his other ski, a similar PWC that we had also serviced two weeks earlier. He jumped the battery from the other ski. After cranking awhile, and almost killing both batteries, he sent his son back to the truck to get the trucks battery. He continued cranking with the choke out until he hydrolocked the motor with raw fuel. He then removed the sparkplugs and cranked the motor some more, spraying raw fuel up into the air and all over himself and the ski. He then decided to see if he had spark, so he grounded the sparkplug to the head and hit the start button.

After the flash fire had burned the hair off of his face and was treated by the shore patrol medic, he returned back home, he was relating this story to his sister and her husband, a lower eschalon ambulance chasing attorney from San Diego, during a family barbeque a few weeks after the lake trip.

After 6 months and $15,000.00 in defense expenses, my company was released from the case. The manufacturer settled with his attorney for $42,000.00.

The plaintiff got around $25,000.00 and his brother-in-law attorney got the rest.

Someting is really wrong with our court system. This idiot deserved a Darwin Award, not a big fat paycheck. The judges of America that allow this to happen are the real bad guys in this deal, imo. Ever wonder why a PWC cost 30% more than it should ? That is how much of the price of a new watercraft, or new car, or whatever, cost you when you purchase a product in America.

Yes, I'm still seething over that settlement.

Flames from your motor without the exhaust pipe installed? SD lucked out that it didn't blow up and attract the attention of some lawyer.

[ April 02, 2003, 09:56 AM: Message edited by: Bill O'Neal ]

[mattgross]

its just like the Mcdonalds coffee law suit, where the person spilt the coffee in there lap, and won a buck of money for being carless. now if you look at a the coffee cup it says, caution our hot coffee is served hot, duh, but thats what companies have to go through all the time. and has anyone seen the warning adds on some jetskies aboutthe water jet. i think its on a poilaris. well that warning is on there because of a law suit i bet

[Gypsy]

Lawyers have killed the concept of bad luck. They have also replaced the consequence of stupdity. It used to be pain, now it is cash.
They have essentially made small business owners responsible for weveryone they ever did business with. If Bush really wants to help teh economy he should forget the Tax cut and work on some kind of legal reform. These leaches are killing small businesses which provide most of teh jobs.
I 'll get off my soap box now.

[cbeastwood]

Bill,

Just curious, can insurance cover court costs such as those, or did they have to be paid out-of-pocket?

- Craig

[Bill O'Neal]

Insurance could cover just about anything,,, If you could buy it.

The courts have set it up so that even though I was released from the case, I have no recourse to recover my costs, no matter how frivilious the case against me was. I must prove that the case was filed with malice. Try to prove that one.

It is not the lawyers that screw us. It is the Judges that do not read these cases and refuse to hear these cases.

Remember, Judges are lawyers too. Many still have financial ties to their former firms. They are not impartial about allowing their cohorts to make money.

[thomas]

"Remember, Judges are lawyers too. Many still have financial ties to their former firms. They are not impartial about allowing their cohorts to make money."

Bill, you took the words right out of my mouth!