NO POWER ON TAKE OFF

I am new to this site, recently purchased my 1982 Ski Nautique 2001. Have done all the basic maintanace, fluids, impeller etc. Took her out to the lake today and attempted to pull a skier and she had very little power on take off, once the boat planed it seemed like a "powerband" kick in. I have no idea how to trouble shoot this any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I would check to see you're getting a squirt from your accelerator pump when you open up the throttle. If that's not working, it will fall flat hard on its face when you gun it.

When I bought our 96' last year, it had been sitting for 3 years. Carb had a lot of corrosion, and fuel only shot out of the primary jets and not the secondary when under a load. Idled fine and picked up power ok when gradually increasing speed. Long story short, ran like crap under load (stalling, sputtering), rebuilt carb, didnt work (secondary kept sticking, couldnt even turn by hand, replaced carb with new one, now runs like a bat out of hell!! By the way, I'm no mechanic and dont know the correct terminology or mechanics of a carb This is what worked for me.

Brian, I'm pretty sure he meant the engines "sweet spot", and no power valve like you must be thinking. He did use quotes around the word "power band". For the most part sport bikes don't have power valves. Those are on 2 strokes, and aside from the early 80's, and a few non street legal race bikes, there are no 2 stroke sport bikes.

A zx900RR is a mish mash of kawasaki vehicle terms and not real production bike name. Take the R's off the end, and yeah, that works, or leave the 900 off and the ZX RR is the moto GP bike kawasaki had for several years. Typically ninja 900's are called zx9's or zx9R's.

Back to the real issue though, I'm certain your carb has either a power valve or accelerator pump issue by your description of it not having power under load. It needs extra gas to haul a person out of the water. It does not sound like it is getting that extra fuel.

if i have no one on the boat she takes off but not as strong as expected. my brother has a 88 and his freaken pulls and growls. that is the comparison i am using.

example, when pulling a skier and i have 4 people on board the boat seems to have no power initially. like is is being bogged down, then what i was discribing as a powerband effect, the power just comes back on the top end . totally just seems to have no power in the initial take off.

Naw, you used the term power band correctly.:)

To do a real quick check, have the motor off, and preferably on the trailer, disconnect the throttle cable from the carb linkage, and take off the flame arrestor( air filter) from the carb. If gas does not shoot from the 2 squirters on the primary barrels ( the front 2 barrels of the carb) as soon as you engage the throttle from the idle stop on carb, then that's a good indication that it may simply be not adjusted right, or that you need to rebuild the carb.

Rebuilding a carb is easy fro anyone that is mechanically minded.

Go to holleys website, and watch the carb tuning videos. Those are priceless. While some things on a marine carb are different from an automotive one, the basics are the same. On boat, with all that water resistance, having the accelerator pump and powervalve operating properly are keys to a good running boat.

edit, I see skyway posted at the same time;)

you can do it yourself by taking the connector off the carb linkage, but you may simply need a new accelerator pump diaphragm, or an adjustment. You can just buy the AP diaphragm and put that on without rebuilding the whole carb. More than likely you would need a new gasket for the bowl as you simply take the front bowl off, and then the AP diaphragm is on the bottom of the front bowl. If there is a good squirt, from the AP, but it is late, that would indicate that it needs to be adjusted, but judging from your description, it's not a hesitation then it goes well, but rather it never kicks in, with more load on the boat. Not until it gets above that point where probably the secondaries kick in, or the carb is on a different circuit.

skyway2k wrote: If you don't get two streams of gas squirting out of the accellerator pump nozzle for a moment when you advance the throttle, the best bet is the diaphragm is torn and needs replaced. Take off the flame arrestor and watch the top of the carb when someone advances the throttle. You should do this without the engine running just to check. You should see two streams of fuel going in to the front two barrels of the carb. If you don't two streams of gas, you have a problem you need to troubleshoot. This would be the first thing I would check.

Jinxx!!

LOL, we are all on the same page:)

We'll help you out as much as possible Santiago!

yessir! It is a good Friday;)

I did however have to use a personal day on that Blizzard Wednesday this winter when most of Wi and IL had a blizzard. Krones didn't call off that day, so I had to use a personal day. I don't know of any other business that isn't like a snow plow company that didn't pay their employees with no sick day required. Of the over 400 employees, only about 20 made it in to work that day, and all of those live basically across the street. So, in my mind this makes up for it.

did the boat ever run any better than this?

zx900rr wrote: Yes it did. When I first purchase the boat she had alot of initial take off power. I did replace throttle cable, basic tune up wires plugs etc.

what would "basic" tune up be? Did it evern ran good after this?

Also, unless the accelerator pump diaphragm or powervalve has been changed recently, either of these could have eroded, and cause issues. But yes, adjust the accelerator pump as that is free.

Holley's website is awesome and has vids. I recommend those to anyone that wants to either DIY or simply learn more about them.

Have you checked your timing yet?

that is a great question i didnt check that, if they are not any advice on how to adjust them?

Zx looks like we have the same boat. I have almost rebuilt my engine. With a ton of help from here and friends. Pm me if you have any questions.