Get your popcorn, boys. Buddy of mine is simply sick. This saga could be a short story. Last year he buys a 2000 xl 1200 (or maybe xlt, whatever they were that year) had 40 hours, new hydroturf. The seat, stickers, hull, factory cover, all perfect. Rides it for 5 hours or so, it starts showing an overheat warning. Takes it to the shop, where they determine the previous owner had wired/rigged the oil injection cable at full wide open, this apparently clogged the cat and was throwing the warning. So he drops however much in the new cable, cat removal/block off, etc. Takes it to the lake, is running well, uses it an hour or two, then begins to sink, quickly. Dealer had failed to tighten the exhaust to hull connection, which came loose, and allowed water to flow right in. We tow the ski back to the lift, it fills about 2/3's with lake water. He pulls the plugs, wd-40's what he can, and gets her fired back up, tightens the exhaust hose, he's back in business. Uses it another hour or two at the end of the season, and takes it home. This spring, goes to fire it up, nothing, buys new battery, nothing. Determines starter is bad, attempts to remove starter, bendix? is seized from the sinking. Gives up one fixing it himself, and takes it to a different dealer. They call with the good news, motor needs to be pulled to remove the seized bendix, he vomits and ok's the work, $1000 later, new bendix & starter replaced, engine back in place. Implores the dealer to check over everything to ensure the ski is in good shape (even considers trading it in on fx 160). Takes the ski back to the lake for our week's vacation, July 4th week. Runs it for a tank of gas or so, ski starts running strange, then just dies as he running 5000 rpm. It will start back up, but something's amiss. Gets towed back in, puts her on the lift, won't hardly run. Decide to change plugs, still running like crap, will run fine for a while, then just die. He's on the phone with the shop that pulled the motor (a little pissed when he see's a motor mount bolt missing), finally sick enough, early in the vacation, decides he's trading her in on a vx110dlx if he can find one, was willing to drive back to Louisville from Cumberland for a new ski. This is Tuesday the 5th. Can't find a deluxe anywhere close, sleeps on it, decides to just take ski home after vacation and trade it off, thinks it's cursed! Finally gets out to the dealers today, looks at the Kaw's, Honda's, Doo's, orginally looking for cheap 4stroke, decides on the RXT (yeah, I pushed him that way a bit) and is ready to pull the trigger, sends the yami around to the shop to verify trade value, expecting 3500+ or so (he goes for a burger). Pulls back up and sees his ski sitting out front, uh oh. Salesman comes out with more good news. Ski has zero compression in cyl 2, and little in cyl 3, motor is french fried, 50 hours on the clock. Gag, choke, vomit, tears. SeaDoo dealer says it is worth nothing to them, kindly remove it from their lot. Goes back to the yami dealer that that did the starter work, they feel sorry for him and offer him $1200 for trade towards an fx 160 cruiser. He ok's the deal. Expects to pick up the new ski Friday morning, then he tells the wife. She balks. He's going back to the dealer in the morning to see if he can get back out of the deal (the dealer will probably be thrilled, he didn't want the blown ski anyway). Then. . . . . . . . well that's how I ended up here tonight. Reading old posts, trying to figure out if he should put the carcass on ebay, and take what he can get, or order up an sbt block and attempt to install it himself, or pay someone to do it. Decisions, decisions. . . . . You can imagine he's a bit disgusted with the machine, and short on leasure (and wrench) time. I didn't get to the rules on core charges yet, I'm assuming if the block is cracked, the core is useless. We don't know yet if the block is cracked, I guess that will weight heavily on his decision. How much for a motor from sbt if no core? I saw $1500 with core. Sorry you had to suffer through this mess. Any moral support (or hard facts) you can offer would be appreciated.
-Mike
-Mike
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