2000 Kawasaki 1100 ZXi

[twdorris]

I believe I will be picking one of these up tomorrow afternoon. From
my research, they seem reasonable, although folks are quick to talk bad
about the CV carbs in terms of low/mid range power. Are they really
that bad? For reference, this will be my first ski other than a couple
rentals. But I'm always looking to tweak my cars, so I expect I will
eventually (perhaps not immediately) do the same for the ski. So I'm
looking to get the details from those that know. Anyone want to share
some proven upgrade paths for this thing? Vendors feel free to reply
as well. I have no problem calling on someone to walk me through it
and sell some parts at the same time.

Thomas Dorris

[pwcskier]

The other problem is that if one of the CV slides fail to lift it will
burn up that cylinder. When the slide pulls up it pulls the main
needle similar as the one on a dirt bike. If it fails to pull, then
that cylinder will not get the fuel/oil it needs. The other two
cylinders are enough to keep the engine running.

Dave

[twdorris]

Thanks for the follow up. I'm learning more about these things every
minute.

Thomas Dorris

[twdorris]

Post by twdorris
I believe I will be picking one of these up tomorrow afternoon.

Ok, the thing is sitting in my driveway. The trailer has been tagged
and the ski will be registered first thing tomorrow. Shop manual and
user's manual are on the way. Thank you internet. I figure we'll drop
it in the water this weekend, make sure it floats and moves around on
its own, then start "adjusting".

There's a bog in the engine with sudden changes to throttle angle off
idle. It's a significant bog if I snap the throttle open off idle.
Then a second later, it revs right up like normal. Open the throttle
up more slowly and no such hesitation. It's as if the engine runs lean
for just a split second, then takes off. May be time to shove the
wideband up the tail pipe and confirm.

Sorry if this is simple stuff. I'm new to 2-stroke engines and I'm new
to jet skis. Speaking of which, any pointers to a good "jet skis for
dummies" type book or at least some light reading while I await the
user's manual to bring me up to speed on the do's and don'ts? I don't
even fully understand this whole water getting sucked into the engine
thing yet. Water can get into the cylinders!? Yikes! I need to do
some reading to figure out how this thing is laid out and operates.
Any tips and pointers would be greatly appreciated. I've searched 'til
I'm blue in the face. Just can't find any good collection of the
basics.

Thomas Dorris

[simpleton]

Mr. Dorris, check and see if that Kawi has an accelerator pump and that it
is working properly.

DSMLink rules...

Post by twdorris

Post by twdorris
I believe I will be picking one of these up tomorrow afternoon.

Ok, the thing is sitting in my driveway. The trailer has been tagged
and the ski will be registered first thing tomorrow. Shop manual and
user's manual are on the way. Thank you internet. I figure we'll drop
it in the water this weekend, make sure it floats and moves around on
its own, then start "adjusting".
There's a bog in the engine with sudden changes to throttle angle off
idle. It's a significant bog if I snap the throttle open off idle.
Then a second later, it revs right up like normal. Open the throttle
up more slowly and no such hesitation. It's as if the engine runs lean
for just a split second, then takes off. May be time to shove the
wideband up the tail pipe and confirm.
Sorry if this is simple stuff. I'm new to 2-stroke engines and I'm new
to jet skis. Speaking of which, any pointers to a good "jet skis for
dummies" type book or at least some light reading while I await the
user's manual to bring me up to speed on the do's and don'ts? I don't
even fully understand this whole water getting sucked into the engine
thing yet. Water can get into the cylinders!? Yikes! I need to do
some reading to figure out how this thing is laid out and operates.
Any tips and pointers would be greatly appreciated. I've searched 'til
I'm blue in the face. Just can't find any good collection of the
basics.
Thomas Dorris

[twdorris]

Post by simpleton
Mr. Dorris, check and see if that Kawi has an accelerator pump and that it
is working properly.

Will do. I'm reading up about that now. Thanks. I never knew carbs
were so complicated. Whatever happened to the good old computer
controlled days? ;)

For the archives, I also found this thread to be interesting reading.

http://server1.sbtontheweb.com/forum/showthread.php?p=99719

It's a '96 ZXi, but sounds like the same problem. Quick throttle off
idle and the thing dies. Accelerator pump was suggested, but the guy
apparently resolved most of his issue with an adjustment to the pilot
screw. I will open this thing up a little tomorrow and poke around.

Post by simpleton
DSMLink rules...

LOL. You guys are everywhere! Who is this and where are you located?
Help me get this ski up and running so I can get back to the real work
I'm supposed to be doing! :)

Thomas Dorris

[twdorris]

Post by twdorris
I will open this thing up a little tomorrow and poke around.

Cancel that. Whoever was in there before me completely chewed up a
couple stainless steel bolts that attach the flame arrestor case to the
carburetor assembly. I can't get them out short of drilling them and
I'm not prepared to do that today. Will have to revist later I guess.
Grrrr.

Thomas Dorris

[simpleton]

Left hand drill bits rock .

Post by twdorris

Post by twdorris
I will open this thing up a little tomorrow and poke around.

Cancel that. Whoever was in there before me completely chewed up a
couple stainless steel bolts that attach the flame arrestor case to the
carburetor assembly. I can't get them out short of drilling them and
I'm not prepared to do that today. Will have to revist later I guess.
Grrrr.
Thomas Dorris

[twdorris]

Post by simpleton
Left hand drill bits rock .

Yes, that's on the list of things to try. First, I have slotted the
head in the hopes of getting a big fat screw driver to twist it out.
But, unfortunately, it appears the head was screwed up because the
person cross threaded the bolt and just try to crank it in anyway. So
I may have to drill it out manually. Or someone else will. :)

I dropped the ski in the water yesterday just to see if this miss and
bog would start to clear up with more extended run time. It does
improve, but by no means is it acceptable. And top speed on pretty
darn smooth water is only about 35mph as shown on the gauge. The butt
meter agrees. It's very slow.

Thomas Dorris

[twdorris]

So I may have to drill it out manually.

Ummmm...nevermind. I just realized today in my 5 free minutes to look
at this thing again that those screws are a good 5-6 inches long! I
*ass*umed they were just attaching a case to the carbs, but apparently
they're attaching the entire carb assembly, including the case, to the
intake pipe. Wow. This gets better and better. Perhaps I'll just
leave that for a while longer.

Thomas Dorris

[twdorris]

As an update to this...the #1 piston had a hole in. NOW I understand
why it wasn't responding well to throttle. It would rev up OK on the
trailer, once that initial throttle bog was overcome. So I just
*ass*umed again that the problem was just some adjustment somewhere.
I've learned a LOT since then.

Two weeks have passed and I have rebuilt the engine, the trim control
motor, and the jet pump. I repaired the fuel level sensor and a stupid
wiring issue. I have also installed '96-'97 CDK II carbs and a new
(aftermarket) impeller. Needless to say, the thing runs a good bit
better now.

BUT, as you might expect, the carb adjustment actually is off this
time. The ski has so much more power even at 10-20% throttle than it
did at wide open before it's not even funny. But it wants to die when
I let up unless I manually operate the choke "just right" to keep it
running.

So I guess now I'm back to doing carb adjustments again. This seems
like a reasonable reference below.

http://www.groupk.com/tec-carbs97.htm

If anybody has better/easier ideas, let me know.

Thomas Dorris

[twdorris]

Post by twdorris
So I guess now I'm back to doing carb adjustments again.

I put the ski in the water again today after getting the low speed
settings close while in the garage. I found that I had to back out the
low speed screws a good 1/2 turn from where it was before. This puts it
at a total of 2 1/4 turns out. This produces a better idle than
before, but apparently I need to go back out even more. I think I'm at
the point where a new jet is the preferred solution.. :(

Don't have time for that (leaving tomorrow with ski in tow), so I'll
live with it as is for now. Once it gets past that low speed area, it
hauls *very* well. I beat on it for about 3 hours today and didn't
seem to have any problems. Man this thing is fun!

So I think we're back in business. For the archives, in case anyone
actually reads this and wants to know more details, here's some
reference data.

First, a few visual aids.

http://www.ecmtuning.com/ski/00zxi1100/rebuild/

And a few documents (torque specs, electrical schematic)

http://www.ecmtuning.com/ski/00zxi1100/

If you never messed with a carburetor before, as I had not, then this
document will be useful. In particular, the "Principles of
Carburetion" section towards the end.

http://www.mikuni.com/pdf/sbn_manual.pdf

This document was also particularly useful in getting an understanding
of some of the basics.

http://www.groupk.com/tec-carbs97.htm

I used the cylinder exchange program from SBT:

http://tinyurl.com/k2fqz

That worked out great. They shipped me a new remanned cylinder block
(that looked to be in excellent condition), new pistons, rings, wrist
pins, bearings and a complete gasket set for less than the dealer
wanted JUST for the block. Note that there is apparently a ring
compressor "belt" thing available from the dealer. Once I finally got
my shop manual in, it was listed in the tools section. I hope this
works better than my method of trying to compress the rings by hand as
I lowered the cylinder block on top. Man, that was a frustrating
couple of hours...

I also had to rebuild the trim control motor. This involved pulling
the control box apart, pulling the motor apart, cleaning all the
internals, regreasing and reassembling. Before doing that, the unit
would just click but not actually move.

I also replaced the fuel gauge sender and carbs (replaced with '96-'97
style CDK II carbs). Both of these came from M & M Marine.

http://www.mm-marine.com/

Mitchel is the man to speak to there. He was always on time as
requested, usually next day express stuff...

I also replaced the jet pump with one found off e-bay. And I installed
a Skat Trak 13/19 impeller purchased from Dennis Kirk.

http://www.denniskirk.com/

The Dennis Kirk site is nice and they seem to get stuff out on time as
well.

If you're in a pinch looking for parts diagrams or looking to order
factory parts, Bike Bandit seems like a good place to go. Although I
did not actually need to use them, they seem to have a good rep.

http://www.bikebandit.com/

Thomas Dorris

[twdorris]

A quick shot of the ski in action at Kentucky Lake this past weekend.
Dang that thing is fun, now that it's running...

Loading Image...

Next problem... a couple chunks of the freaking hull "coating" have
come off. I see bare fiberglass there now. Greeat. Another something
to learn how to fix.

Thomas Dorris

[simpleton]

You're better off with a DSM!

This is a tiny-assed market Thomas but what passes for engine control is
pretty sorry, hint-hint.....
The new boats are featuring direct injection and forced induction.

Post by twdorris
A quick shot of the ski in action at Kentucky Lake this past weekend.
Dang that thing is fun, now that it's running...
http://www.ecmtuning.com/ski/00zxi1100/rippin.jpg
Next problem... a couple chunks of the freaking hull "coating" have
come off. I see bare fiberglass there now. Greeat. Another something
to learn how to fix.
Thomas Dorris

[twdorris]

Post by simpleton
You're better off with a DSM!

I never would have believed it, but I think you're right...

Here's some shots of the damage, in case you're really bored.

Loading Image...
Loading Image...
Loading Image...

Post by simpleton
The new boats are featuring direct injection and forced induction.

So I've noticed. :)

Thomas Dorris