My Never-ending Jet Ski Project

I spent the week following the Chile ‘almost’ trip at my mother’s summer house in the Outer Banks. When I arrived there, I opened the garage door, and was immediately confronted with my arch nemesis of the last several years; my piece of junk jet ski.

Ten years ago, a friend of the family was upgrading his 45 foot yacht to 65 foot model, and no longer had room for his jet ski. In an act of ‘generosity’, he offered the jet ski to me for no charge, the only issue was that it wouldn’t exactly start. The ski was only four years old at the time, a ’96 Polaris SL780, and it was barely even broken in. Since I was working at a motorcycle dealership at the time, I figured that I wouldn’t have much trouble in obtaining parts and/or service advice from qualified mechanics, so I took it.

From there, I purchased a service manual and immediately began to tear into the ski, trying to locate the source of the starting issue. Everything looked new and seemed to be functioning properly, but the engine just wouldn’t turn over. At this point, I assumed that the engine must have been seized, so I decided to disassemble the motor. Of course, I found nothing out of place or broken at all, however I saw this as a major accomplishment as it was the first time I had rebuilt any engine.

Eventually, after a great deal of trial and error, I realized that the previous owner had run over a rope with the ski, and the small piece rope was jamming the entire drive train. Okay, so I found the problem, and I actually found a great deal on a high-performance replacement drive system from one of our watercraft distributors. I installed the new drive system eventually, after countless minor setbacks, and actually got the ski to run (on a trailer, in my driveway).

It was a couple more years before I actually tried to put the ski in the water and take it for a ride. I remember that first day I put it in the water, the anticipation was insane. I started it, made it to the end of the marina, hit the gas and it stopped dead in the water. I had to swim it back in; carburetor problems. I was pretty fed up at this point and parked the ski In the garage for another year, until last summer. By then, I was committed to success. I rebuilt all the carburetors myself, replaced all the fuel lines, cleaned out the gas tank, and actually had the ski running well by August ‘09 (in the driveway, on the trailer, of course).

I finally dropped the ski in the water… success! It screamed across the water at 60 mph. I ran it for 10 minutes, and brought it back in as I had to go to work. The next day, I was off work and extremely excited. I took the ski out for the afternoon. After a half hour or so, the ski shut off. Then it sank to the bottom of the bay. I had to have it towed all the way back, and once I got it on the trailer, it drained water for several miles back to my house. I knew it was done for, and I left it in the garage.

So, I got back from my ‘almost’ trip to Chile over spring break, opened up the garage, and there it sat, mocking me. It actually made me laugh, and I ended up taking it all apart again. I’m currently rebuilding the carburetors again, and I’m determined to have it running, and floating, by June. Wish me luck.