The jet ski season has just started and we have already busted one ski. Jenna was down visiting MJ this weekend. We figured we would have an afternoon of fun on them.
As MJ left the ramp area, his ski started to bog down and wouldn’t get out of the pocket. We could hear the engine rev, but it didn’t develop any power! I told him it sounded like something got sucked up into the impeller. He jumped off the machine and went under to clear the intake. In the water he couldn’t find anything plugging the jet pump. He brought the ski back to the ramp and together we put the ski on it’s side. There was a 1 1/2″ nylon web strap wrapped around the drive shaft and in the impeller. We couldn’t clear it at the ramp.
When we finally got the nylon web strap out, it was 10′ long. There was a family at the ramp that had no clue about the water and they were trying to paddle a canoe. Of course they flipped the canoe. We think the strap may have been a tied down strap they used to transport the canoe and they left it in when they flipped.
MJ got lucky and sucked it up.
This morning we went back to the ramp to go out and found that the starter wouldn’t engaged the flywheel. We could hear it spin but the engine wouldn’t turn over. Turns out when MJ was in the water trying to clear the blockage, he got back on the machine, started it and limped it back to the ramp. In doing so, the starter sheared the teeth off the flywheel.