I bought a motor over a year ago from SBT. Installation went well thanks to my friend’s help. He’s a mechanic. It ran rough at first then smoothed out. I took it down to the lake to ride it. It started up and then died in the water. I could get the motor started easily out of the water, but once I put in the water it died. I had no idea what could have been the problem since I’m not a mechanic, but I didn’t think there was a problem with the motor (since it was new). I thought maybe it was a carburetor problem or maybe an impeller issue. So I put it off. Well last Thursday I hired a mechanic to meet me by the lake to help diagnose the problem (I figured a tune-up). He said that I have a dead cylinder (no compression), so I tore the motor apart to see. To my surprise there was no wrist pin retaining clips on either pistons. They had come out and tore up the cylinder walls and pistons. So I called SBT and sent them pictures. They said my warranty is over, and they would only take off $100 on the purchase of another motor. Why should I buy another motor when this one was defective?
The warranty department offered to sell me a new sleeve, piston kit, and gasket kit for $175.85, but I have found out that the sleeve will cost me $200 per cylinder to install and it will be difficult to find somebody to install them. Then I decided to have the cylinders honed out for $120, buy new Wiseco pistons for $300 (with shipping), and a $50 gasket set. That is the cheapest I will be able to rebuild my motor. I have a hard time buying another motor from SBT. I talked to a mechanic that has been servicing watercrafts for 25 years. According to him, SBT remanufactures good Yamaha and Polaris motors but they seem to have problems with Kawasaki motors. I find SBT motors unreliable and have even shown SBT-technicians pictures of the torn-up shiny new cylinders and pistons (I ran this motor for 5 minutes). You can even see pieces of the retaining clip sticking out of the piston head. My mechanic says that I could not have prevented this, that the motor was bad from SBT.
I’m very disappointed in SBT, I watch your tech tips on IJSBA races and read your forums. I will have to probably wait tell next summer to have enough money to buy another motor, and enjoy my favorite sport of jetskiing.
The next motor I will have to check compression and possible get a bore scope to see if the motor is running good.
Please let me know what you guys think of this?
The warranty department offered to sell me a new sleeve, piston kit, and gasket kit for $175.85, but I have found out that the sleeve will cost me $200 per cylinder to install and it will be difficult to find somebody to install them. Then I decided to have the cylinders honed out for $120, buy new Wiseco pistons for $300 (with shipping), and a $50 gasket set. That is the cheapest I will be able to rebuild my motor. I have a hard time buying another motor from SBT. I talked to a mechanic that has been servicing watercrafts for 25 years. According to him, SBT remanufactures good Yamaha and Polaris motors but they seem to have problems with Kawasaki motors. I find SBT motors unreliable and have even shown SBT-technicians pictures of the torn-up shiny new cylinders and pistons (I ran this motor for 5 minutes). You can even see pieces of the retaining clip sticking out of the piston head. My mechanic says that I could not have prevented this, that the motor was bad from SBT.
I’m very disappointed in SBT, I watch your tech tips on IJSBA races and read your forums. I will have to probably wait tell next summer to have enough money to buy another motor, and enjoy my favorite sport of jetskiing.
The next motor I will have to check compression and possible get a bore scope to see if the motor is running good.
Please let me know what you guys think of this?
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