Help: Ski rope caught in impeller
Jeff Thieme
Oops...While pulling a tube on my 1976 Tahiti jet boat I accidently
sucked a nylon ski rope into the impeller, I immediately shut down the
motor and rowed back to my dock.
Questions:
Has anyone had experience extricating a rope from the impeller? My
Berkely owners manual says I can remove the hand-hole cover to get at
the obstruction, but it appears I'm going to have to take the boat out
of the water since it is below the water line. Should I disconnect
the drive from the engine and rotate the jet drive in the reverse
direction? Any chance that will allow me to pull the rope out from
the intake grate?
How do PWC'ers get ropes out of the impeller? I have a Sea Doo and to
the best of my knowledge there is no hand-hole on the drive line to
allow access to the impeller.
What is the chance that I've ruined the aluminum impeller? It
happened right at take off so I probably wasn't turning much over
2000rpm before I killed the motor.
John Galbreath Jr.
You are right that the boat will have to be removed from the water. I
have done this twice on jet skis, I used a sharp knife (be careful) to
cut the rope away from the drive shaft. If you find you do need to
rotate the shaft, removing the spark plugs will make rotation easier.
--
John Galbreath Jr. http://www.ABSCOFireplace.com
ABSCO Fireplace & Patio
Birmingham, Alabama mailto:Jo...@ABSCOFireplace.com
Brian Victor Jarvis
Jeff Thieme wrote:
>
> Oops...While pulling a tube on my 1976 Tahiti jet boat I accidently
> sucked a nylon ski rope into the impeller, I immediately shut down the
> motor and rowed back to my dock.
>
> Questions:
> Has anyone had experience extricating a rope from the impeller? My
> Berkely owners manual says I can remove the hand-hole cover to get at
> the obstruction, but it appears I'm going to have to take the boat out
> of the water since it is below the water line. Should I disconnect
> the drive from the engine and rotate the jet drive in the reverse
> direction? Any chance that will allow me to pull the rope out from
> the intake grate?
>
> How do PWC'ers get ropes out of the impeller? I have a Sea Doo and to
> the best of my knowledge there is no hand-hole on the drive line to
> allow access to the impeller.
>
> What is the chance that I've ruined the aluminum impeller? It
> happened right at take off so I probably wasn't turning much over
> 2000rpm before I killed the motor.
Had that happen to me with my Yamaha a few years back. We used a sharp
knife and had to remove the intake grate and cut the rope from around
the drive shaft (took a while, too). I know that we removed the spark
plugs thinking that rotating the shaft would help; didn't help too much
(if I remember correctly). Just spent time slicing the rope and
removing the pieces with needle-nose pliers.
brian (in Ohio)
=====
Rod McInnis
Jeff Thieme wrote:
>
> Oops...While pulling a tube on my 1976 Tahiti jet boat I accidently
> sucked a nylon ski rope into the impeller, I immediately shut down the
> motor and rowed back to my dock.
>
> Questions:
> Has anyone had experience extricating a rope from the impeller?
It's been a while, but I have done this. In fact, it was in a 70's
vintage Tahiti with a Berkely jet. (Just to indicate how long ago this
was, it was a fairly new boat at the time.....)
>My
> Berkely owners manual says I can remove the hand-hole cover to get at
> the obstruction, but it appears I'm going to have to take the boat out
> of the water since it is below the water line.
When I did it, we were able to work at least some of it out through
the inspection port. It was a tad below the water line, but the rate at
which the water flowed in was slow enough that we could work for quite a
while before we had to worry about the amount of water getting inside.
Them we simply put the cover back on until the bilge pump caught up.
But just out of curiosity, why don't you pull the boat? We did it in
the water because we were many miles from the trailer.
>Should I disconnect
> the drive from the engine and rotate the jet drive in the reverse
> direction? Any chance that will allow me to pull the rope out from
> the intake grate?
I never tried that. I doubt that it would help much. I've seen this
happen a few times, and each time the pump housing gets packed with
shredded ski rope. It is going to come out in little tiny pieces, not
as a single strand.
It was a very long and tedious process. Reach in with a pair of
cutters, and cut whatever you can. Grab any piece that you can and try
to pull it out. At first, it will be individual strands. After a
while, it will be multiple strands at a time. After what will seem like
an eternity, you will eventually get a recognizable chunck of ski line
out (probably no more than a few inches). After that, you're home free.
Rod McInnis
Dennis Traynor
nospam....@STC.Net (Jeff Thieme) wrote:
>Oops...While pulling a tube on my 1976 Tahiti jet boat I accidently
>sucked a nylon ski rope into the impeller, I immediately shut down the
>motor and rowed back to my dock.
>Questions:
>Has anyone had experience extricating a rope from the impeller? My
>Berkely owners manual says I can remove the hand-hole cover to get at
>the obstruction, but it appears I'm going to have to take the boat out
>of the water since it is below the water line. Should I disconnect
>the drive from the engine and rotate the jet drive in the reverse
>direction? Any chance that will allow me to pull the rope out from
>the intake grate?
>How do PWC'ers get ropes out of the impeller? I have a Sea Doo and to
>the best of my knowledge there is no hand-hole on the drive line to
>allow access to the impeller.
>What is the chance that I've ruined the aluminum impeller? It
>happened right at take off so I probably wasn't turning much over
>2000rpm before I killed the motor.
Jeff, I had this happen on my PWC once. Took it out of the water,
removed the spark plugs and rotated the shaft backwards as the rope
was pulled out.
Dennis
K & P Dickinson
John Galbreath Jr. <ABSCOFi...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in article
<33C186...@worldnet.att.net>...
> Jeff Thieme wrote:
> >
> > Oops...While pulling a tube on my 1976 Tahiti jet boat I accidently
> > sucked a nylon ski rope into the impeller, I immediately shut down the
> > motor and rowed back to my dock.
I'm so glad to know I'm not the only guy to pull this trick!:)
Kurt Dickinson
(big time unlimited fan):)
Hans Nygaard
Jeff Thieme wrote:
>
> Oops...While pulling a tube on my 1976 Tahiti jet boat I accidently
> sucked a nylon ski rope into the impeller, I immediately shut down the
> motor and rowed back to my dock.
>
> Has anyone had experience extricating a rope from the impeller? My
> Berkely owners manual says I can remove the hand-hole cover to get at
> the obstruction, but it appears I'm going to have to take the boat out
> of the water since it is below the water line. Should I disconnect
> the drive from the engine and rotate the jet drive in the reverse
> direction? Any chance that will allow me to pull the rope out from
> the intake grate?
>
> How do PWC'ers get ropes out of the impeller? I have a Sea Doo and to
> the best of my knowledge there is no hand-hole on the drive line to
> allow access to the impeller.
>
> What is the chance that I've ruined the aluminum impeller? It
> happened right at take off so I probably wasn't turning much over
> 2000rpm before I killed the motor.
You to eh? Lot's of labor if it's jammed in there good. Knife & pliers
are in order. You should buy a hand-hole extension that will allow you
to access the intake while in the water. Just an idea for next time!
Hans
------Hans Nygaard------no-spam mailto:ha...@nygaard.com------
-----------http://www.image.dk/~nethobby/hans.html-----------
I haven't lost my mind, I have it backed up on tape somewhere
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates, 1981
-------------------------------------------------------------
Ron
Jeff Thieme wrote:
>
> Oops...While pulling a tube on my 1976 Tahiti jet boat I accidently
> sucked a nylon ski rope into the impeller, I immediately shut down the
> motor and rowed back to my dock.
>
In the future I recommend using a non-nylon tow line. Nylon stretches
which would make a line break more dangerous.
John Ciocca
I did the same thing a few weeks ago while pulling the kids
kneeboarding. Pull the intake grate, cut the rope off, go to Wal-Mart
and buy a new one. At least you were able to row in...I had to be towed
a good mile in a half.
JC
Stuart Caruk
In article <01bc8ce2$ed85d5c0$0c9f...@dcknsn.rightathome.com>, "K & P Dickinson" <dck...@rightathome.com> says:
>
>
>
>> > Oops...While pulling a tube on my 1976 Tahiti jet boat I accidently
>> > sucked a nylon ski rope into the impeller, I immediately shut down the
>> > motor and rowed back to my dock.
>
>
>I'm so glad to know I'm not the only guy to pull this trick!:)
Hey, if you use a jet ski to pull skiers this is bound to happen.
I've done it twice. I now keep a divers knife attached to my life
vest. If you suck up the rope you can flip your boat over, cut it
as close to the intake grate as possible, reboard, and IDLE to shore
where you can completely extract the rope. Beats getting stuck in
the middle of the lake with 3 guys and an Airchair, waiting for help.
Larry KN4IM
John Ciocca <ucci...@inet1.inetworld.net> wrote:
>Ron wrote:
>>
>> Jeff Thieme wrote:
>> >
>> > Oops...While pulling a tube on my 1976 Tahiti jet boat I accidently
>> > sucked a nylon ski rope into the impeller, I immediately shut down the
>> > motor and rowed back to my dock.
>> >
>>
>> In the future I recommend using a non-nylon tow line. Nylon stretches
>> which would make a line break more dangerous.
>
>I did the same thing a few weeks ago while pulling the kids
>kneeboarding. Pull the intake grate, cut the rope off, go to Wal-Mart
>and buy a new one. At least you were able to row in...I had to be towed
>a good mile in a half.
>
> JC
I've been reading these posts this week and I keep asking myself the
same question over and over. "Why don't these guys put floats on
their skiropes??" It's so easy to do and the benefits you guys seem
to know already. The floats let you see where it is and it can't sink
under into the propulsion system, PWC or whatever. I have floats
about every 8 ft on mine. As soon as the skiier drops it, it looks
like I have a line of orange and yellow fishing line behind me. You
can't miss where the line is.
The floats are plastic balls with a hole down the middle and nicely
tapered. I got 'em from WalMart of Kmart in the fishing department,
but pool floats would also work. Tie a knot on each end so it can't
move down the rope. They weigh nothing and stay nicely out of the
water when your skiier is up. When he IS up, they make a long line of
warning devices that everyone can see a long ways off.
PLEASE, tell your skiiers to HOLD THEIR DAMNED SKI UP HIGH while they
are waiting for you to come around!! I saw an idiot skiier in a dark
green camo fishing PFD almost get run over by a MasterCraft this
weekend!! All skiiers should be REQUIRED to wear international orange
PFDs....dumb, dumb, dumb... Maybe we should make them ski with a bike
orange flag sticking out of their vest so we don't run over them. On
a PWC it's worse as you're going fast and are so close to the water.
IDENTIFY YOUR LOCATION!
Larry, aboard a SEADOO? What WILL we DOO now?
da...@cris.com
>IDENTIFY YOUR LOCATION!
Real good idea/practice! Some years back we were ready to pull a
skiier up when some fool hauling butt approached us laterally. We
couldn't believe it when he ran right between the skiier and boat,
cutting the rope and it popped back and hit the skiier in the face(he
should have let go).
Picked up very pissed skiier and chased the guy down across the lake.
4 20-somethings approached beer bellied drunk demanding explanation.
An apology and another ski rope from said drunk neutralized the
situation.
Danny
da...@cris.com
Hook
Stuart Caruk wrote:
>
> In article <01bc8ce2$ed85d5c0$0c9f...@dcknsn.rightathome.com>, "K & P Dickinson" <dck...@rightathome.com> says:
> >
> >
> >
>
> >> > sucked a nylon ski rope into the impeller, I immediately shut down the
> >> > motor and rowed back to my dock.
> >
> >
>
> Hey, if you use a jet ski to pull skiers this is bound to happen.
> I've done it twice. I now keep a divers knife attached to my life
> vest. If you suck up the rope you can flip your boat over, cut it
> as close to the intake grate as possible, reboard, and IDLE to shore
> where you can completely extract the rope. Beats getting stuck in
> the middle of the lake with 3 guys and an Airchair, waiting for help.
removed the intake gate and then used a small torch, watch out for
melting nylon burns. It worked very with the Berkley. Put the grate back
on and back to the lake.
Happy Boating
Ric
DogOnIt
http://www.greenapple.com/~rhooker