FX-1 tear down/rebuild

[DannyF]

Little bit of progress today. I decided to make a little more work for myself. I got a hand me down aluminum 144 pump shoe from a blaster, to replace the baby 122 mm one. Figured I would do it while I have one and have the tray open.

I may paint the bottom while its flipped as well but not 100% decided.



Getting there. Glass work tomorrow , hopefully.

 

[DannyF]

The pump shoe process took way longer and took a lot more grinding than I thought, mostly to the pump shoe itself. But after many hours I got it aligned and bolted in.


Also laid some chopped mat around where I went through the fiberglass with the grinder, it will be reinforced tomorrow.

 

[DannyF]

Getting there slowly but surely. brass inserts which will serve as drain plugs are epoxied in

I also opened up the pump tunnel slightly and epoxied the gap between the pump shoe and hull.

 

[DannyF]

more progress. I decided to just go ahead and paint the bottom. Gave it a decent sanding and sprayed some primer yesterday.

 

[DannyF]

Plumbing done! time to get this foam done so I can ride. Hopefully she'll be done in 2 weeks ... we'll see

 

[DannyF]

Shes foamed and tray pieced together! Stuffed in as much pink foam as I could and used some cheap spray foam to fill whatever gaps it had. Next is grinding and putting in some heavy reinforcement.

 

[DannyF]

Went a little crazy today. I decided to reshape the footholds and chop up the tray a bit. Still have a bit to grind before I reinforce but I'm pretty happy with how it feels so far.

 

[DannyF]

Not too much to report. Started laying up some chop mat before I reinforce with 17oz. Got as much on as I could before the epoxy started to gel on me.

 

[DannyF]

Tray got some beef today.

 

[DannyF]

Got the engine bay sprayed with some rattle can laquer last night. And got one side of the tray turfed. Wood grain turf leftover from my bros ski. Use what you got right ?

 

[DannyF]

It's starting to look like something! Cut and bent a 750 sx spring to work with the xmetal pole. As you can see there's a lot of tension on it. ..

Got most of the turf done as well, just have to lay down the bottom.

 

[DannyF]

Fast forward to 99% done. Probably my best turf job to date and everything came together pretty smoothly.

Still have to turf the Chinpad and make some sponsons because I regret cutting the back corners of the ski and hopefully it'll improve handling.

Also for anyone trying to put a spring on an xmetal pole, a kawi 750 spring works pretty well. Just needs to be modified a little.

 

[samsmith87]

What Gas tank are you running?

 

[DannyF]

What Gas tank are you running?

Kawi 550 tank with the battery tray turned sideways.

 

[DannyF]

2 steps back. I thought I was gonna be on the water today but ran into 2 issues.
The first was the vibration.. I started the ski and the motor sounds as healthy as ever, but the ski was vibrating to the point where I could feel it in the handlepole. I thought maybe it was an alignment problem but I swore that everything was perfect.
Then, while trying to figure out the vibration issue my starter cable broke at the tip. The only way to change it was to take out the b-pipe.
While turning over the motor Without the b-pipe on and the plugs out the ski still shook.. Took out the pump. Still shaking. Pushed the motor forward so that it was seperated from the midshaft, still shook.

Maybe it's the new rhass mounts? While it was on it didn't shake as much when I revved the motor up.

On the bright side I made some fins for the back of the ski that I hope will improve handling. Since I cut the stock rails so much the ski slides out a lot while turning.
Also got the Chinpad turfed.

 

[DannyF]

Took her to the water today. Broke a brand new SBT Superjet steering cable within the first 15 min.. That and the ski lost a lot of hookup with that aluminum 144 pump shoe. I was sliding all over the place. I think the "arms" that extend out on the pump shoe are to long and actually made the opening of the pump tunnel smaller.

Tomorrow I grind aluminum and luckily I have another old cable to try out.

 

[DannyF]

Little update to this build. She's been running great every weekend but I wanted to change the stock length the plate. And I also had some riser bars lying around.. So I made this contraption from a stock turn plate and the bars I had. Also the front foothold was way to small so I chopped it up added some padding. Looking like a surf ski. Just missing the surf..

 

[samsmith87]

What was the source of the vibration?

 

[DannyF]

What was the source of the vibration?

B-pipe rubbing up against the hull, due to the added reinforcement. Its gets a little better every time I ride it so maybe it was a combination of that and the motor mounts breaking themselves in.