wave runner problems

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lenny

Guest
My mother in law gave my family there old ski. It's a 97 Yamaha Wave Venture 1100 cc triple. Ski has been in salt water all it's life with only 52 hrs of use, looks like crap from sun fade. Impeller was stuck in wear ring so I replaced that. Cleaned the carbs and flushed the tank. Machine fires up runs strong but,,,,,,

After running for about 30 seconds temp warning comes on and ignition goes to limp mode. I spent about 4 hrs so far looking into why. I get water circulation out the pee hole. I pulled off the hoses I could get off and were clear. I blew air through the system in different directions. When The temp warning comes on the water out the pisser is only warm and not hot, the heads are warm to the touch but not hot. Seems like the machine thinks it's warm but isn't. There is no thermostat but there is a thermo switch that senses the temp which ultimately cuts the revs as to not overheat. I tend to think the thermo switch is the culprit but I am no expert and don't want to start throwing parts at it, especially since the switch is 80 bucks. What could I be missing. I do not believe the carbs are running lean. The thermo switch is mounted on the outer case of the exhaust and had a good amount of corrosion. I did take it out and cleaned it up to look like new but if I gas it for 10 seconds the temp warning comes on and takes about 2 minutes to shut off. With the diameter of the pisser hose, I believe I have full volume coming out of it. I tend to think it's not a flow issue but with a life of salt water comes corrosion, so they say. Any ideas?
 
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mjkaliszak

New member
You can remove the hose or hoses that run from the jet pump to the engine and blow or flush them out to see if anything is blocking the flow. It is possible for the intake line to have sand, mud, weeds etc.

You do not have a seperate water pump. The intake line starts in the high pressure area of the jet pump. The jet pump pushes water to your engine.

I copied this from PWC Today, regarding a 1996 700 Wave Venture. Strange thing is that there were only 4 threads regarding overheating, none about the TSS, which would lend my to believe these temp sending switches don't fail much. You can check the switch but need to know the ohms. I never had luck testing these things before because their value changes at the temp changes. I never understood them well they might have a thermistor inside of the body ??? The above guy had a pebble stuck in 1 of his lines. You do have to start at the pump line and work your way forward. I can assume that you have a " couch " which are a plumbing nightmare. We have a couch for a rescue boat & tube puller. I wish I could be of more help, maybe someone here can tell you how to check that switch. I had 1 fail in a sled 1 time and it still had resistance when cold. What happens if you un-plug it ? does it still stay in limp mode ?

Does it over heat when you run it on the hose ? Ground water is about 55 degrees. You said that your pisser water isn't hot . No surprise it doesn't run long enough. There is a product called " Salt Away" that you can flush your system with, ( FYI ). I would say you did a good job troubleshooting this 1.For it to fail right away I would test the switch also. I concur with your "culprit diagnosis ". You should join PWC Today and sign up or another forum, I go there for help from time to time. If you want I would be willing to post a Part Wanted thread for you to get a used switch. Just a thought. It might save you some money.
 
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lenny

Guest
mjkaliszak said:
You can remove the hose or hoses that run from the jet pump to the engine and blow or flush them out to see if anything is blocking the flow. It is possible for the intake line to have sand, mud, weeds etc.

You do not have a seperate water pump. The intake line starts in the high pressure area of the jet pump. The jet pump pushes water to your engine.

I copied this from PWC Today, regarding a 1996 700 Wave Venture. Strange thing is that there were only 4 threads regarding overheating, none about the TSS, which would lend my to believe these temp sending switches don't fail much. You can check the switch but need to know the ohms. I never had luck testing these things before because their value changes at the temp changes. I never understood them well they might have a thermistor inside of the body ??? The above guy had a pebble stuck in 1 of his lines. You do have to start at the pump line and work your way forward. I can assume that you have a " couch " which are a plumbing nightmare. We have a couch for a rescue boat & tube puller. I wish I could be of more help, maybe someone here can tell you how to check that switch. I had 1 fail in a sled 1 time and it still had resistance when cold. What happens if you un-plug it ? does it still stay in limp mode ?

Does it over heat when you run it on the hose ? Ground water is about 55 degrees. You said that your pisser water isn't hot . No surprise it doesn't run long enough. There is a product called " Salt Away" that you can flush your system with, ( FYI ). I would say you did a good job troubleshooting this 1.For it to fail right away I would test the switch also. I concur with your "culprit diagnosis ". You should join PWC Today and sign up or another forum, I go there for help from time to time. If you want I would be willing to post a Part Wanted thread for you to get a used switch. Just a thought. It might save you some money.
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thanks for all the info. I did join PWC yesterday and posted my problem but no responses yet. It wont overheat on the garden hose because there is no load on the unit. I don't want to beat the snot out of it out of water plus the jet pump bearings could get to hot out the water for so long. I was just checking if I had flow out the pee hole. I can ride the thing in the water for a hr if I just run it light, I mean real light and the warning will not turn on. I ran it without shutting it off yesterday for an hr or so going from overheat back to normal just by staying off the gas. Like I said earlier, even when it says hot, the pisser water and heads are not hot so I don't think it's hot. I found a thermo switch on ebay used for 19.95 yesterday evening and bought it, looks like a good seller. I wonder if I put the sensor end in a pot on the stove and monitored the ohm's while heating it up to near boiling, it should switch at some degree
 
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tealracing16

Member
When I bought a used ski I also searched for a manual online. I found a service manual that I downloaded for free that I used after I found the engine needed a top end, jugs and all. If you heat it up on the stove you should be able to test it like you said, but you need to know at what temp that is supposed to be. Kinda like checking your water temp on truck, if you don't know how hot the water is and what temp the thermostat should open how do you know if its right? Good luck on this and you def did the right thing with checking the hoses. One of mine was full of sand and starving the engine of water. I would make sure your wear ring is centered right, mine is actually off to one side which is going to wear my ring out prematurely.
 
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lenny

Guest
I found my problem. First I'll say I made some wrong observations. I was correct on the motor not getting hot but wrong on the exhaust not getting hot. I removed the thermo switch from it's housing and ran it for about 25 seconds and the tail of exhaust was hot but the water out the pisser just warm, head warm. Earlier I made the assumption the sensor was bad but it wasn't. As soon as I hit the gas the pipe heated up tripping the limp mode because of overheat. I figured I better tear down the exhaust and from initial inspection it appeared fine, from a rookies perspective, ha ha ha.

I tore deeper and removed the head and cap. I did find a bit of sea weed and a fair amount of shells and and but not enough to see it overheat. I saw the water inlet on the underside of the exhaust manifold and seen the ports where it comes up into the cylinders. There are no cooling ports on the reed side. Water just comes in the exhaust side and fills the cylinder jackets and up through the heads, into the exhaust. Since I didn't see anything that was alarming on the motor I took a close look at the exhaust and disassembled it completely. The beaches we rode at in Fl was crushed shells as the sand, (hard on the feet) and I found the the very end of the exhaust with a load in it and the bypass hose clogged completely. There was also a hole in the exhaust where the sand was sitting. There was no flushing this out, this was also in close proximity to the thermo switch thus the reason of excessive heat and no circulation ion that particular area of the exhaust. Actually there were 3 small holes in that area totaling roughly a 1/4". I am glad I did tear deeper so I could see the bore, things look okay there. I have learned a bunch now ands the thing I learned the most was to never assume. I need to take my time and think practically, than things make sense. I found a complete exhaust on eBay for 88 bucks shipped and it looks clean.

If other guys are having similar issues, I would look at the exhaust because that tail section is far away from the flow and could easily be a place to deposit debris. Pull off the bypass hose that seems like a loop at the end of the exhaust where it ties into the large rubber elbow just before passing through the hull into the rear hull area, after that there is not more water in the exhaust, it goes right into the big silver muffler that out the machine. Does the exhaust get circulation to keep the motor area of the hull cool. Anyways, It cool to find the obvious instead of throwing parts and money just to accomplish nothing.<!-- google_ad_section_end --> <!-- / message -->
 
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lenny

Guest
gasket set came a few days ago and I am puttin it back together now, maybe take er for a cruise tomorrow
 
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lenny

Guest
got the old ski out on the big lake today and the machine runs flawlessly. I must say the lake was perfect for riding. Water temp is still somewhat warm and I wasn't cold the least bit. There was little chop but nice swells, like 5-7 ft. I was getting some air. I wanted to bring the camera but was worried about it getting wet so I left it home
 
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