You will need a good quality clear silicone, not ultra silicone or silicone based caulking.
If you are using a 3oz. tube from your local auto parts store, plan on using the whole tube.
I prefer to use 11oz. cartridge and gun.
You will also need WD-40, a black sharpie, a roll of paper towels, nitrile gloves. I preferred
to roll a ski upside down and work from the top, but since it is a TS, find something comfortable
that you can lay on and won't mind getting some silicone stuck to it.
NOTE: Make sure the drive shaft is engaged with the engine. Sometimes the drive shaft
will come disconnected from the rubber coupler. It may be more difficult to install at
the last minute.
1) Remove all the old silicone from the hull and pump.
2) Temporarily mount the pump with 1 or 2 bolts and draw a line with the black sharpie
along the outline of the pump. Remove the pump.
3) Apply a 1/2" bead of silicone ~3/8" before the black line.
4) Apply a 1/2" bead of silicone over the top 180 deg of the pump, close to the edge.
5) Install the pump, pull the pump downwards as you slide it forward, and try to overlap
some of the silicone as you are installing it.
6) Add a dab of silicone to the side of each of the pump mounting bolts, and then tighten
down the pump.
7) (a messy step if you are upside down). Take the WD-40 and spray it over the silicone,
the impeller, driveshaft, pump gullet (hull). The goal here is to not allow the silicone you
are about to remove to adhere itself to anything new, as you remove the excess.
The silicone is already attached to all the surfaces it needs to seal the pump.
8) Remove the excess silicone. I like using my fore finger bent 90 deg to remove the
excess. But a credit card would also work. Create a smooth fillet between the pump
and hull. Do Not remove the extra silicone between the pump and hull with the tip
of your finger.
During this step, you will use a lot of paper towels. I would usually blend a few inches,
pull my hand out, and wipe it off, and continue.
NOTE: The reason why I use so much silicone is that silicone shrinks when it dries. Some
silicone's are worse than others. But it used to be common place for silicone to dry
and pull away from the pump.
9) Let the pump dry for 24 hours before you put it in the water.
10) Do not silicone the ride plate to the hull.
Note: Some Skat Trak impellers still have a thick o-ring at the top of the impeller. If
it is still there, I recommend that you leave it off. The o-ring will make it very difficult to
install the pump.
So will too much grease on the splines, if you use too much grease the driveshaft will
"hydro lock" and prevent the pump from lining up with the pump mounting bolts.
SOMETHING EXTRA:
The TS does not steer straight when the handle bars are pointed straight ahead. This can
be fixed by using a 5mm bottoming tap on the brass ends of the steering cable. (Remove
the ride plate) But getting to the top steering cable may be difficult. Screw the top brass
cable end in till it bottoms and tighten the jam nut. Have someone hold the handle bar
straight, and make any final adjustments on the steering nozzle.
(It may be easier to just retap the pump end of the steering cable first, and evaluate).
Bill M.
Once I ported it, added dual 38's, Westcoast Pipe, It ripped all the way to the rev limiter.......
Maybe on Earth X.
Unlike Yamaha's, Kawasaki rev limiters hit at 8,000rpm, and the 1986 X2 had no rev limiter.
