Put the ski in the water today, with the siphon down in it's regular position....to no conclusive results though.
It didn't poor water in like i was expecting to see. (however, it can still add up- because of all the factors of running the engine and creating suction, ect.)
That joint is almost right at the water level line..(just under it though) when you have the engine, gas, guts, ect. weight in there, it would be about an inch under the water line--i think.
You can see in the pictures water coming from the pin hole in the joint.
The test was pretty poor though...I stood inside the hull trying to add the weight but, you can see from the pictures that the joint is above the waterline in this test by about an inch... However, water was slowly coming into it after about 3 minutes.
The silly thing is though, i had already taken off the housing and bears around the drive shaft.. So, they're getting replaced/resealed regardless if that was the issue.
So, both potential leak areas are going to be fixed (and i won't be able to pin point what the source of the problem was --granted these changes fix it).
SO, when i get the rest of this ski back together, i'll be able to properly test things and get it solved the right way. I don't know if i'll get it done by Christmas though... We'll see, i'll keep posting updates and pictures as best i can.