750sx

I got a 750sx for my mom and sister to ride on when we go jet skiing. I am not a huge fan of the 750's they are nice and wide and have a good ride to they. However, I just don't like that ride and there handling. I guess it is just different then I am used to. Anyway got a sick deal on this 750sxi pro has lots of after market parts on it. Has aftermarket exhaust, dual 40mm carbs, and an aluminum handle pole.

X2(8)

God I love this thing every time I go and look at it in the backyard. It is probably because I have done a lot of work on it. There is still a few more thing that need to be done. I need to put the pump assembly back together, need to get some motor mounts to put the motor back in, need to get a fuel door for the front, and get the turf done. Just one step at a time I guess; this winter project is my favorite one by far can't wait till she is water ready:)

bars

another must on upgrades would defiantly be to change out those stock 90 degree handle bars those suck to turn with. There are all sorts of handle bars i personally like my 45 degree bars i think they are the best. Then they also have a straight bar too.

carbs

There are all sorts of carbs and to be honest i dont know a lot about carbs especially when it comes to tuning them which is always a pain. What i do know is there are two major brands for Kawasaki mikuni and keinth either or works fine. Then of course they have round body or square body bases; I would go with a square body they are a little newer style. then of course they have small and big bore sizes. those range from 30mm-46mm. in my opinion 40 is a good easy medium. IF you want to go balls to the wall try and find a 46mm it is a sick ride.

intake grate

another easy mod to do to your ski is to put a better intake grate on it. there are many different types of intake grates; i believe the top loader is the best in my opinion( the first one pictured). However, others say that running no intake grate is the best it is all by opinion. This part basically just forces more water into the pump when you are riding.

start and stop

next we have a must have modification to your ski. This is that start and kill switch buttons; you are going to want to upgrade to the one with the lanyard. what this does is shuts off the jet ski when you fall off. Although the ski is designed to turn in a circle when you fall off. However, it is best to get the kill switch with lanyard. There is another way to do a less expensive way to do this. If you tune your carb right it will die out if you fall off

old jet ski fun

just found some old videos of when i first started riding boy was i a rookie

ride plate adjustment

One easy upgrade to do on a jet ski to make it ride better on the water is to change the ride plate. However, i would buy a used one compared to a new one it is a lot cheaper. This simple bolt on part will make turns easier and just a smoother ride in general. Also you are able to modify that as well. if you notice that in choppy water your front end of your ski will go up and down this is what slows your ski down. If you put 3 washers on the back 2 bolts and 2 washers on the 2 blots behind those it will keep that front down a little better for a nicer ride.

650sx (6)

This time I decided to do my last major upgrade to my 650. Oh yes I am talking about putting a high compression head on my ski. What this does is gives the jet ski high compression in the cylinders and add more horsepower. It is pretty simple to install just take off the old cylinder head put a new gasket on then put then new head and tighten it down. You may have to tune your carb to the new head though because of the change in compression.

X2(7)

Finally, I got her all prepped for paint. All the high and low spots on the body are sanded down. Next what I did was wash the body down with soap and water then dried the body. After that I tapped off al the spots that I didn't want painted. Man did it come out great. Although, the gun was having some issues with overspray.

getting it ready

Getting the ski ready for spring is a critical thing to do! Obviously you want to get some new gas and oil. Also it is a good idea to go through all your water and gas lines. Make sure they are clean and have no cracks or holes. It is a great idea to change all your gaskets on yours ski it is pretty reasonable too for only $40. Be sure to check all bolt are tightened down and change out the spark plugs.

winter time

It is time to get the skis ready for winter time. In order to keep your jet skis in good condition till the next time you take it out after several months of it sitting. what you want to do is to make sure you run all that gas out of the tank. However, you want to add this stuff called fuel stabalizer this help keep the inside of your motor and crab clean. Run the ski till all the gas is out of the tank. Then you are going to want to disconnect the battery in your ski this prevents from long term battery wear. If you want to go the extra mile buy a battery tender and it will save your battery so ou dont have to drop another $100 on a new one.

old times

For most of us that cruise on the water know that those good old days of riding on the lake or river are coming to an end. Yes that is right the good day of frigid waters are here; winter is here and it is time to get the skis ready for next season where you do all the projects. getting them painted motors ready and any other odds and ends. Next post I will be going over how to get your ski ready for winter or to sit for a couple months.

tapping lines

I had a post the other day that talked about adding dual cooling lines; in it i mentioned you needed to tap a line in the pump. What i meant by this is you have to drill a hole in the side of it and then use a metal tapping kit to put threads on that hole you just drilled. when you do this you must know what drill bit size threads you want. Below is a chart with conversion sizes for what drill bit you need for the size threads you want. BE aware you must use grease when tapping and always do a full turn and a half. Then after that full turn and a half you want to go counter clockwise to let the loose metal flakes to work there way out of the threads.

truck dunes good weekend had fun needed to post

650sx turf

Before I had got my new turf put on it was painful to ride on and i hated it so much. However, the guys at jet trim really did a good job on it it is everything I wanted. I can ride on this all day and my shins are not that sore plus with all the fins and raises they put on the turf makes me way more balanced on the ski i absolutely love my ski now.

650sx (5)

Dual cooling is a necessity for any high performance motor in a ski. It helps keep the motor cooler since higher compression puts out more heat. Since i want to put a high compression head on my ski later on i started to get it prepped for dual cooling. you have to tap a second hole in the pump out let then run another water line in through the hull i will post a diagram. Then you will have to tap another line into the exhaust manifold. After that you just need to run a line from the head to the pisser or out of the ski. First is stock water lines then dual water lines.

X2(6)

Got some painting done just not the whole body of the x2. I had painted the exterior parts the ride plate, hood clips handle bars, and bumpers. These are super easy parts to paint seeing how they were all straight so I just lightly sanded them with the 320 I have to dull up the previous paint. Then just laid them out and sprayed two coats of the purple paint and let me tell you they came out more amazing then I thought.

657 GTX

This is my dads ski that I had to rebuild. It is a older ski and it honestly not worth the rebuild, but we decided to rebuild it anyway. we had a huge loss of compression it was only putting out 80 psi per cylinder. Now it is critical to have a good compression 120-150 is a good range. Therefore, I obviously needed to do a top end rebuild; my dad bought all the parts and I tore it apart. The pistons in there were so chewed up.Plus this motors top end was a pain to get out and even worse to get back together. I will never rebuild one of these skis; however with some dumb luck i got it all back together and got it fired up.

X2(5)

Finally, getting some work done on this gas cap area towards the front. The guy who owned this ski before me made a huge mess of it. There are two holes by the front one is for the gas cap the other is for the oil cap. What most people do is take out that oil or pre-mix mechanism out and pre-mix the oil into the gas. It is just more of an insurance that the ski has proper oil so you don't blow the motor. The mechanism that comes stock is known to fail a lot; that is why they are taken out. Anyway instead of patching the hole the guy cut out a licence plate, painted over it, and then silicone it to the ski. I know pretty ghetto; so i ripped it off then did it the right way with some fiberglass resin and bondo filler.

X2(4)

Here we go again some more endless body work. For those of you who do body work you will under stand. I had sprayed the body with primer; however do not do what i did. It was suppose to be a quick dry primer; i did not wait long enough and the primer gunked up when i tried to sand it. This had caused bumps in the body that i had just sanded smooth. This was very aggravating after all that work i did i had to start over. However, i did find some low spots that needed some work. After a little more work i used some 500 sand paper and got that hull very smooth. Now i have to do some work up by the gas cap and i am ready for paint.

X2(3)

Did some more body work on the good old X2. It is pretty close to being done; just a few more spots on the body that need to be smoothed out. You want to use a good 120 sand paper on the fiberglass to get off all the old paint. Then you want to use bondo filler on all the low spots then sand those smooth. If you want a really good shine on the new paint that is going on your jet ski it is best to use a really high sand paper between 320-500. Also before you paint it is good to spray down a primer to be able to see how close the body is to being straight then you are good to paint.

650 sx repair

One of many problems with jet skis in general is the fact that they have a fiberglass body or hull. This makes it very easy to get a hole in the body if it hits anything. On my 650 i have no idea what happened, but i got a quarter size hole in the bottom. I have not done any body work on fiberglass before; i have on cars but this was new too me. If you go online you can buy some fiber glass resin with fiberglass fiber. You want to clean the area as instructed and mix the hardener with the resin then apply a light coat. After that you then should apply the fibers to patch the hole. Then get a paint brush and dab it till it is fully covered. Repeat these steps a few times and sand then paint the spot for a nice finish product.