Sucked up about 3 feet of ski rope

[ericcarr2000]

Quick question. While letting the wife take the ski out today she accidentally got a little too close to the rope I had hanging there to tie it off and she sucked about 2 feet up into the intake grate. I cut the rope off right at the intake grate and started her up. She started up and she runs however she seems to be sluggish and doesn't seem to go as fast. I didn't notice the rest of the rope come out at all so niw what am I to do? I didn't ruin her did I?
when I get her home I will take the intake grate off of her and take a closer look but when it happened we weren't able to pull the rope back out which is why I decided to just cut it.
let me know you're thoughts. It is a 01 sea doo rx di.

 

[JimS123]

There might be more rope stuck inside. But its more than likely your drive shaft is bent.

This happened to my son. The dealer said the shaft was OK. But after a few hours the manifold bolts vibrtaed loose and the boat sank. Engine was a total loss.

You really couldn't tell it was bent because it was a 2-stroke and they vibrate anyway.

Don't pull the grate. Just crawl underneath it and look. If there is rope in there, use a needle nose pliars. Pulling the intake grate may cause a whole new set of problems.

 

[ericcarr2000]

Ok I had to pull the grate to ba able to cut the pieces of old carpeting off of the shaft. That's not where my particular rope is though. I shined a flashlight directly into the back of the her drive and bam... There is was, the purple and yellow rope wrapped around that part of the shaft. Is there s way to tell if the shaft is bent or not?

 

[JimS123]

What's carpeting?

Run it and see if you detect vibration. That may or may not show if its bent. The only sure way is to pull it and have a machinest measure it.

 

[ericcarr2000]

Well I don't really notice anything different like vibrations. It just seems that it isn't running to the same speed as it did before the rope sucked up in it. How hard would it be to pull the shaft?

 

[jbcurt00]

Ok I had to pull the grate to ba able to cut the pieces of old carpeting off of the shaft. That's not where my particular rope is though. I shined a flashlight directly into the back of the her drive and bam... There is was, the purple and yellow rope wrapped around that part of the shaft. Is there s way to tell if the shaft is bent or not?

As Jim asked:

What's carpeting?

 

[JimS123]

Well I don't really notice anything different like vibrations. It just seems that it isn't running to the same speed as it did before the rope sucked up in it. How hard would it be to pull the shaft?

"Seems" means what? You have a tach, don't you. Is it or isn't it?

Finally tell us what ski. 2 or 4 stroke?

Pulling the shaft is best left for pros.

 

[ericcarr2000]

Well you see, carpeting is this new flooring material that you can walk on, lol..... I assumed it was from someone's bunk boards.

As Jim asked:

 

[ericcarr2000]

It is a 2 stroke I believe. It mixes the gas & oil. It is s 01 sea doo rx di ski. It does have a tach, I just never looked at it because you have to toggle between the different modes.. I'll go out on her here in a bit and see what the max rpms is.

"Seems" means what? You have a tach, don't you. Is it or isn't it?

Finally tell us what ski. 2 or 4 stroke?

Pulling the shaft is best left for pros.

 

[jimmbo]

Gee it takes a big hit and a stainless prop to bend a prop shaft on an outboard or IO. A little piece of rope can bend the shaft on one of the Lake Lice?

 

[ericcarr2000]

Well she idles at 1400 and is at 6850 rpms at wot.

 

[JimS123]

I wasn't being snotty when I asked about the carpet. You don't usually find it down there, and your explanations have not been complete so far.

Funny about that rope and the shaft. I speak from personal experience since a sucked up rope did indeed bend my shaft. It was a 1999 GTI. OTOH, I have also sucked a rope in my I/O and other than bogging and stalling there was no mechanical damage.

Your tach data shows the engine is turning at speed, so if you can't make headway and all the crap is cleaned out you have an impeller / wear ring issue. If it were mine I would crawl down underneath and inspect the clearance and look for damage to the blades and gouges in the wear ring. Of course, you need to know what to look for.

Good luck.

 

[WaterDR]

My daughter's dumb ass boy friend did this....he was a dumb ass for other reason too. Any way....crap happens. In our case, it happened right at the beach and right in front of me. We had to turn the machine on its side which was not easy as it was a 1000 lb SUV. Took an hour or longer to tear the rope out. No long term damage although I sold it this year and bought a new one.

Like the previous poster said, if the rpms are good, its a clearance issue or perhaps the prop got damaged a bit.

 

[jbetzelb]

IK might have done this on my jet ski. OK I did. Same thing, I cut the rope and got it back to shore. Ran it a little to see if it would solve the problem and spit it out. I had to tear the pump apart to get the rope out. It didn't look like the rope was stuck on anything that would hurt performance but it did in my case. Listen to what people say about a bent shaft. I didn't think mine was bent. A year after the rope incident the shaft actually broke. Looking at the break point it appears it slowly vibrated the shaft until it finally broke.

 

[ericcarr2000]

Is there a way I can pull it myself and just replace it? How difficult if a job is this?

 

[cablebandit]

easy job. go to the seadoo forum for some How-Tos. When mine sucked up a rope, it tore the rubber boot that goes in the end of the impeller eventually allowing water in the pump and killing the bearings and shaft. It also destroyed part of the "shaft saver"....plastic piece around the driveshaft. This caused a lot of cavitation and affected top speed and planing. Yours may not have those items...mine is a 96

 

[jkust]

A little late but what I do so I don't suck the rope up is take a pool noodle and run the tow rope through it so the rope is always a noodle length away from the ski. It gives you a more leeway so if you are working the waves correctly while at idle speeds, you won't have a problem.