Other Building a Textreme Hybrid Rickter XFR-LT... maybe, probably, likely, hopefully!

Honestly I think it turned out damn good! Lots of sticky fingers and paper towels. The tape helped a lot as well. I was able run some clean lines with tape on, pull tape, and touch up.







I may be an idiot, but it looks factory in my opinion. Speaking of factory, wouldn't it be nice if they installed these 1AM and too tired to clean, lights off and tomorrow's another day. Pooch was happy we could finally go to bed.

DAG said:

Loving all the detail, keep it coming
Just curious why the Worx 242 over the RRP intake?

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Thank you! Good question for which I have no good answer. I don't know a lot about Rickter specific stuff and simply told Thrust to send me whatever they recommend. Do you know much about either?

Ducky J. Trump said:

Sick build dude! Love it, great job!

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jeremy chambon said:

Looking good!!

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Thanks both!

Basically the same thing.......... Think I read the worx had more bite in the surf........

Looking good man, I love that Textreme look. I was a bit shocked at how much grinding and custom fitment everything was. A bit more time consuming than I expected and I have a lot of respect for build these day in and day out.

KMN said:

Looking good man, I love that Textreme look. I was a bit shocked at how much grinding and custom fitment everything was. A bit more time consuming than I expected and I have a lot of respect for build these day in and day out.

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Thanks man. I wish I would have paid more attention to your thread I could have avoided another issue or two.

2lick said:

Thanks man. I wish I would have paid more attention to your thread I could have avoided another issue or two.

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You've got the hard part done now. Smooth sailing after that.

Nice job aligning pump while setting shoe. Should make for a perfect seal. Subbd


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While at the office I decided to call the PA Fish and Boat Commission and inquire about make this ski legal. A helpful lady pointed me to a form, I took some notes on the process, and plan to send in paperwork tomorrow. I'll have to pay tax on the hull (my only net new purchase) but I don't mind to be legal. She said I could expect a turn around in two weeks as well!



Work was exhausting yesterday and I was dragging from the last few long nights. My motivation was low but after a beer, nap, and samich I found the garage and made some progress. I started by opening a McMaster box with some goodies I'm excited to try. More on them tomorrow!



Next was an easy task of cleaning up the prior days mess. Before I swept up the metal and fiberglass I figured it was good time to modify the ride plates to fit. Had I checked prior to gluing in the pump shoe I could have easy shaved the shoe down to make the ride plates fit. @KMN found this in his build as well but I forgot reading that.

Medium length surf plate first. This thing is built like a tank and weights 2.6 lbs.

Next was my Short plate, weight in at 1.4lbs. The difference in numbers isn't large, but when in hand the medium feels like a tank and this baby feels light! All work was done over my knee with a file.



The short plate would not line up with the holes. Both plates laid on a flat surface were flat, but on the ski rocked. I kept shaving the short plate to fit but wound up drilling the holes a tad bigger so the bolts would go in straight. Down side is they now don't recess perfect.




Finished. It takes perfect alignment to screw in and I decided the warp adds free "locktight" to those ride plate bolts. They defiantly need tightened down slowly in rotating pattern to bring the plate down solid.



A little touch up paint for both Also note to self, don't file fiberglass over your knee with your Sunday jeans on. I itched all night.

I was going to wait and let a friend help me but continuing with the "work on small easy tasks" for my tired brain, I built the HF $100 shop press.



Funny the first step said... but I managed.



I ignored the instructions to get it square and eyeballed it. We will see, maybe perfect it later.



Time to press in the midshaft. O-rings, grease, more grease, then slide in.





I put on my coupler hand tight so I could press the shaft. This is how far it went by hand.




After a quick press, I stopped with the shaft 19mm out. I'll wait to reinstall the pump and set the midshaft to the best engagement based on my exact ski and pump.



Last was a shorty 6mm bolt and some lock tight in place of the zerk fitting.

Why not put the zirc fitting in?

Big Kahuna said:

Why not put the zirc fitting in?

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Honestly, because I don't have one in stainless and didn't feel like ordering them up. I've never pumped grease into one in 15 years and think I'd have to pull the motor to anyhow. The bearing is closed and in my head all the grease is doing is filling space to keep water out between seals and a bit of lube.

Lol your press came with instructions!

Another night of slowly chipping away. Another box from McMaster. Ordered me up a 5mm drill bit and better 6x1mm tap to get as many threads into the pump shoe as I could.



Time to mark holes, hit with the punch, drill straight ( I cant for the life of me) and tap it!




Checking depth the primitive way, you know since grabbing the calipers in the tool box was too difficult



Depth was good and holes line up.




Two extra short bolts came wit the intake grate. I want add a flat and lock washer so I checked the depth by setting them in. I decided to go with come bolts a bit longer.

While I should have flipped it over to work on glue ups inside the bilge I decided to mount the pump and finish area complete. That stopped quickly when I realized the "pump bolts" I ordered aren't going to work. Doh! Silly me, need 1.25, turns out those are going to be hard to get.



So flip it over and work on the inside it was. Question, anyone know why the factory battery/waterbox tray has this hole?



While I hope others can share and learn from my success and mistakes in the build thread, its a lot of detail and pictures. I started a newb Rickter questions thread as well hoping to ask some questions and get opinions.
http://www.x-h2o.com/index.php?threads/rickter-tie-downs-exhaust-and-other-newb-questions

Some pics of the exhaust angle I have been worried about.

How in the hell are you suppose to get a hose on that, looks like it is sitting on the bottom.

Big Kahuna said:

How in the hell are you suppose to get a hose on that, looks like it is sitting on the bottom.

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Like I said... why the hell are they made like this. Hose fits, but damn. I'm sure there is a reasons why ;-) No one has educated me yet tho...

I did not realize what you were saying!!!!!!!

Knowing I have three separate glue ups to do (bottom, left, and right side of hull and I use gravity to my advantage) my goal for the evening was to begin spacing out the motor and components so I could glue in the required bottom mounts. I bolted in the midshaft, dropped in motor, tank, pipe, and water box. The spacing and marking for glue of the bilge pump was easy, tho when I pull the midshaft I plan to grind off the extra metal tab close to the pump. It server no purpose other then to eat bilge pumps. I was also able to pick out a good place to drill the bilge outlet, There is a lot of space and no concerns. That task will wait for now.

No began the task of specing out where to glue in a rear mounting point for my LS7 3.3 gallon tank. I plan to use the one factor mount plus my one glue in. Or I did. You can see here, with the motor in the forward most position, I can not mount the gas tank that far forward. The pipe will not reach the manifold. The new plan is to add a lot of pad under the tank and place it onto of the OEM mount.



With that decision made, I want to glue in the tank at a location that I can try all three motor mount locations. I began moving the motor around and learning where my limits were. I had not put on my matching crank coupler, so out the motor came allowing me to put on the right coupler and push the motor to its full back position. I found a gremlin when I took off the FW cover to lock it down. I've had no issues, but glad I found this now! Thankfully I have two good bendix on hand.




When screwing on the new thrust couppler, the threads felt very loose to me. I'm not sure about it, took a video not sure if the link will work.
https://photos.google.com/u/0/share...?key=XzB3SWd0Y2JfZ0NYQUc0N3E5aGJhaUc4YWtMVDV3


With the motor back in the hull, I now slide it to the rearward most position (no RP spacers on mid or crank). Obviously the tank will fit, but the question is by pulling the RRP chamber back, will it now hit the tank.



Speaking of tank and pipe, it was time to put something under them temporarily to hold them in place. Cut some off of this sheet I bought from McMaster last year.