For now.
Old Jet Ski’s (...yes I know that neither of them are Kawasaki Jet Ski’s...) always need some kind of work or maintenance...BUT I FIXED IT! I completed the engine swap on the Yamaha WaveRaider 760 (aka Pack) and re-did the whole fuel system. I got it started up Friday night and we went out Saturday!
This was my first ever full engine swap by myself in a vehicle. I’ve pulled and rebuilt a motor with my dad when I was getting my first truck, that was over 15 years ago. It’s also my first experience with 2 strokes.
Once I had the engine replaced in Pack it was turning over but wouldn’t fire. It was a good first step but then I decided since it wouldn’t fire I’d replace the fuel lines and rebuild the carbs....and it still didn’t fire up. I was concerned I screwed something up at this point.
As you can see I kept the 90's theme going under the hood with clear neon tubing for the fuel lines and all neon zip ties.
A fellow OPPO reminded me that the fuel “pumps” in these are driven by vacuum. I figured it wasn’t firing because the engine needed to be running to get the vacuum up and pull the fuel. So I dumped some gas/oil mix straight into the carbs and it fired right up! I watched the fuel flow all the way through the new tubing.
So we took them out on the lake Saturday. I got Pack up to “48 mph” (quotes because the speedo’s in these things are rarely accurate) and it stalled. I had lots of stalling. It has a really rich gas/oil mix for breaking in the rebuilt motor (1:32) plus I probably need to adjust the carbs a bit.
Fanny was also out (1996 Polaris SLT 780) despite having a little bit of low compression in cylinder 3. This one hit “50 mph” with my wife riding it. She had a blast on these things, her first time riding. Though at the end of the day she asked why the “red light has been blinking on the dash”....so who knows this motor might be toast now. Going to re-do a compression test on it and see how it looks. Good news is I know how to swap a 2 stroke motor now...
I also put new tires on the trailer - this was a huge upgrade.
