Monkstr6100

I don't "mind" skiing in some wind because wind water is constant. You always have the same chop. And its good to learn to ski with that wind pushing you one way (tail wind) and then adding super brakes the other way down the lake (head wind). I am a open/public water skier. So what is the worst is the random set of rollers, weather they are from a rich kids wake boat, or just a jet ski. When you are focused on your skiing and last min stuff the tip of the ski into/under a roller, and then its game over!

Does it seem to run rich? Don't know this engine off hand, but it should have a small filter for Fuel Pressure Regulator. Pull it out and clean it. Easy to do and FREE.

The GTS is not and never was made to be a luxury ski boat. It is a ski tug that still looks great, skis great, will blow the pants off of other boats speed wise, and costs a fraction of the price. It is funny how some people almost get upset when they hear how great any GEKKO skis and especially after they hear the price. I am not trying to start anything, but see it as a good thing that the big names have some lower price competition, cause that will hopefully make them pull there heads out of the clouds and lower the CRAZY prices of a boat that is only 21' long! Just my $0.02

like @Orlando76 said, don't be afraid to travel a bit. When I buy a new to us vehicle I always am willing to travel a bit. My theory is, look in cities that have BIG money. To these people, a few year old boat/car/suv is old and junk, when to the average joe like me, its perfect and lots of life left. Craigslist is your friend. Check EVERY day and be READY to buy. The good deals will go fast most of the time. But beware of the craigslist weirdos! A lot of strange people can be met through craigslist sales. HA! Sad but true.

Anyone that doesn't want the tracking of a GTR must not have ever skied behind one or drove one!

check the fuse first. Or at least put a volt meter or test light to the pump terminals and verify you ARE getting power when it makes that click that you think your hearing. Also, hook up a fuel pressure gauge and check for pressure, and also bleed off the pressure. If you have no gauge then you CAN just push in the shrader valve and bleed it off. Had a buddies mastercraft that would vapor lock, and then the fuel pump would not cycle cause it already sensed to high of pressure, bleed off and boom, it would start. Not very likely but still possible. Whatever you do, don't just start throwing parts at it cause "my buddy Jimbo replaced this and it fixed it". Diagnose.

Diacom is a great tool. I got mine used from a boat tech that retired so I did save some money. I have the software on my laptop. Way better than the scan tool because you can see EVERYTHING on one big screen and not have to scroll through it all. If you fix your boat one time you have already paid off the price. SO many people these days just throw sensors and parts at a motor because "my buddys was because of this" "my boat did this and I replaced that and it worked" ! Also, Diacom lets you see how many REAL hours are on an engine and what RPM range all the hours were in. So when buying a boat you can see if they just put a new hr meter/gauge in two years ago or if its the original with the actual hrs on it. It will NOT make a great mechanic out of someone that is NOT a mechanic though. You need to know what you are looking at.

it was set up wrong by the previous owner so I never questioned that it was completely wrong!

did you contact perfect pass? I know I had issues with mine and eventually wore/broke the cable. Turned out that my servo was mounted WAY wrong AND had a cable about 2' to short for the merc black scorpion engine. Called perfect pass, AMAZING customer service, and they set me up with the CORRECT mounting bracket, cable with slight bend at end, and a printed off sheet showing my EXACT motor setup and how to mount and run the cable. ZERO issues since. Life is good.

Update, because I hate it when others forget to follow up on what worked in the end. The sensor on the front of engine was the knock sensor provided by GM, but not used on that model year. Pulled a few plugs to check compression, all that I checked had great ~150psi compression, BUT all the plugs were badly fouled. Replaced all 8 plugs and it fired right up. Ran rough for sure at start up till it cleared all the gunk out. Ran and drove great! Still bothers me what caused it to foul all those plugs, was told they were new this spring. But that's the joy of working on other peoples boats, having no idea what for sure happened. Thanks again. Zach J.

Update, because I hate it when others forget to follow up on what worked in the end. The sensor on the front of engine was the knock sensor provided by GM, but not used on that model year. Pulled a few plugs to check compression, all that I checked had great ~150psi compression, BUT all the plugs were badly fouled. Replaced all 8 plugs and it fired right up. Ran rough for sure at start up till it cleared all the gunk out. Ran and drove great! Still bothers me what caused it to foul all those plugs, was told they were new this spring. But that's the joy of working on other peoples boats, having no idea what for sure happened. Thanks again. Zach J.

Also. If anyone has this engine, do you have a sensor at the front of the engine by the crank just below/next to the crank mounted water pump? This one does with no wire plugged into it? Seemed very strange

Let me ask a buddy if he wants this or if he wants to buy my ski. Either way I am sure this will be sold soon.

The kill switch was the first thing I told the guy. But now that I looked at it and I have spark I assume it is not. But GREAT place to start for sure. I will also add it cranks super fast. Faster than my merc 330hp scorpion. Almost like bent/broke valves and no compression. Will check compression in the AM.

So a friend has a 2004 Malibu 23 some thing or another V drive. It has the 380 hammerhead. Said it ran perfect one day when they parked it for the night and the next day NO start. It will crank over like crazy, but just barely fire after a 5-8 seconds of cranking. Like a fraction of a second of firing, that's it! It has spark(checked with inline tester), 56psi on fuel rail, cheesy cone air filter but still getting air. I hooked up my diacom and it had two codes. Low system voltage and also general warning #1 telltale set? Both codes would come back as soon as we cranked it over. ALSO, manifold air temperature was reading at -40. I am assuming that sensor went and is causing the timing to be way off? Am I headed in the right direction here? And help would be awesome.

My wife always just held/wore both of our daughters. We do bring the car seat if we are going on the lake to spend the day but NEVER have had them strapped into it. I assume it would be an anchor. and if you plan to keep them in a vest the entire time make sure to spend the money on a GOOD vest that will be comfortable for them. If the baby is not happy, NOBODY on that boat will be happy.

And some words of wisdom for anyone else planning to do this. Remove EVERYTHING that you think has ANY chance of being in the way. Come up with a way to raise and lower the back end of the engine right from the start. My engine house would not reach so I used the mast of the hoist to support my garage truss and then hooked a come a long to the truss and used the rear lifting eye on the engine. You can NOT get away with just removing the velvet drive. I had no idea of the size of this till I got it opened up. You need to also remove the bell housing. Re install took only 2 hours while the disassemble took about 4 or so hours. Hope this saves you guys a little time, all at my expense.

Update. So the damper plate did in fact fit. Was way different but fits and works. One of the springs in the old plate was loose and could see where the retainer for that one was broken. Now the thing is that it still makes some noise in neutral sometimes and at the very start of reverse. Only ran in the driveway XTAX20Hso far, and have seen where others had some chatter at first couple of times out but then it kinda broke in? Hope this is the case. Now I am going to change the drive fluid with new ATF.

I ordered the 1516 today. Great tech reps at skidim. He said he is not 100 percent sure this one will work as the black scorpion 5.7 has its own special one that sells for $568. So I hope this $100 one works as he was pretty sure it would. Talked to him for 10 min. Thanks guys and wish me luck.

And @Horton I have since thought of several other dirty titles I could have used but decided NONE of them are family friendly enough to post.

All four coupling bolts are in place and tight. Only ran it with the banging for a second and didn't want to put it back in the water to test more and risk causing more damage. Needless to say I was in less than a good mood and it was also already after sunset, public water people issues. I want to do the full rebuild, but with the holiday week upon us I know if I can get a new flex plate and that IS the issue I will just swap that for the time being to get back in the water. Thank you everyone for the input so far.

So my velvet drive in my 2006 GTR gekko gave up at the end of tonight's ski session. The velvet drive is a 10-17 004. Serial 104054. When idling onto the trailer I slid into reverse and it started banging away all of a sudden. Then even noise for a second after putting in neutral? I shut it off in a hurry. I then started it in neutral once out of the water and the noise was still there but way less and the prop shaft was spinning slowly. Could this be just my dampener plate? Or is it clutch plates in the trans? Pulled the dip stick and couldn't see any shiney metal shavings. My partner can be very harsh with shifting to reverse while still moving forward. Will be pulling the trans in the next night or so but wanted some experts to weigh in first. Thanks guys in advance. Zach J.

@hbfs good choice. I have that exact same set up. That X Vest offers a lot of body/rib support, and is still no limiting at all on movement. The Vice gloves with the dowels only took me about 2 sets to get used to, and now I LOVE them. The only time they give me issues is when I overly think about them.

That's a before picture. Have to take or find a after one. But gives you an idea of where I had gaps. I removed the whole thing, sandblasted, drilled out to 1/2 holes, and made a stainless shim for it. Fits very tight now.