I'm looking at purchasing a 2nd hand jet ski and would really love some advice.
I've never owned a jetski before as I've only ever used rental jetskis when I've been away. It's always been a blast, so I have been looking at purchasing a ski. A bloke at my Dad's workplace is selling his 1995 Yamaha Waveraider 1100CC 2-seater for $3500. It's done 150 hours and has NOT been rebuilt. Compression has been tested and it's got 120PSI (which the seller says is very good). It does have a new steering cable. Apparently it has seen very minimal salt water and is used mostly on a Dam near Brisbane.
Could somebody tell me whether this is a good price? I've really no idea so I'm hoping that someone with some more experience can help me out. The ski comes with a trailer.
I haven't done a test ride or anything as yet as I want to know whether this seems like a reasonable price. I've just uploaded the pictures I have of it to ImageShack. Here is a link to the album (ImageShack Album - 5 images)
So yes, if you could tell me whether this is a good price, and what sort of money I could expect to spend replacing/repairing things in the future. What's involved in a rebuild and how much will I have to spend? I'm a mechanical person and would be able to do the work myself, so it'd really only be a parts cost.
In their day they were an okay ski, but now quite old as skis go.
At a guess the wanting price is probably about right, but have in mind being old it could cost double the buying price over time to re-build and keep it going etc. All sorts of things can and do go wrong.
May I suggest say where you are, and the other site, you ask for information and perhaps a local with good knowledge may come in to have a proper look at it and take it for a ride for you.
There were a few of them around in the '90s and personally I can't recall them breaking down.....but of course they were young then.
I bought it as a known disaster, and re-built it from the ground up, and man, was it a ski.
Loved it, and I regret selling it. Was easy to maintain, and reliable as.
Age of the ski does not confirm it is reliable. I saw sooo many NEW ski's which were total "sheds" last year.
This one looks in good condition on the outside, and all the decals are there, which can be expensive to replace, if not impossible to get now.
Get a person to give it a looking over though, like a ski shop for instance, and/or someone who actually can tell you about one of them.
120psi is reasonable for the 150 hrs of use, and if balanced across all three cyls, is good.
The thing is that these engines are simple, and last a long time if looked after.
The only thing I noticed is that it would appear that it still uses the oil injection, which has been known to wreck the engine in an instant when it fails.
Convert it to Petroil( mixed before use), and "can" the little pump on the front of the engine. (40:1)
When re-built, the carbies need a good old service too, so remember this when costing the re-build.
The best thing to do is think it is not new, and has been out in use for quite a few years now. It looks pretty good from here.
Get a test ride, if it feels good, and idles good, then it is probably good. 2-strokes like these are a little smokey at the start-up temps remember.
Never buy a ski with the intent to use it, and then make profit. You probably will fail.
Buy one such as this, fuss about with it a bit, and then go and ride and enjoy.
Anything less than $3k will probably be a risky buy, wherever you buy it from.
I went to look at the ski today but couldn't take it out due to an exhaust leak somewhere. The owners are taking it to a jetski mechanic to check it out and give a report. They'll also have it working as it should before I get it. Plan is to take it for a run next weekend.
The bloke started it up and started really easily and ran and revved well. Blew a nice bit of smoke, but I guess that's the deal with a cold 2-stroke. Has 110-115psi in first cylinder and 115-120psi is the other two. They said that when they first bought the ski (they bought it new back in 1995), the Yamaha guy disconnected the oil injection system and recommend to just add oil to the fuel. Apparently it?s much better for power and low down grunt. So it's had this for its whole life.
Just wondering whether you could tell me whether the corrosion I?ve observed is likely to signal an upcoming problem? I took a few pics today and uploaded them (ImageShack Album - 10 images). As I said, it's all in pretty good shape I thought.
Any help/guidance you could offer me would be really, really appreciated.
Looking at the pics, it looks pretty good, and with the compression, it looks pretty well balanced too.
The corrosion is OK to me, and after the time it has been on the water, not too bad at all. You may, if you tear it down completely, have a few jammed bolts, but always easy to correct. I never had a bolt on a Yammi that would not come out. They chrome them, and I guess this really was forward thinking for years down the track. The worst ones usually I have come across are in the head of the 1300 specimen, where the thread corrodes inside the block, but I doubt you will have this problem here.
Good price for a good ski in reality.
My guess is the exh hose from one of the water-boxes to the other has flipped off. They do this, but a service every season will spot this, and correct it before it comes off.
I had the hose flip off on mine, and it was a pain to ride back to the ramp, but, it got there, and was corrected. And that was the only problem I ever had with the ski. Was quite a way off shore at the time.
Reliable as, and never let me down, always there ready to go.
As a intro to the Jetski thing, I recommend them. Good value ski.
Enjoy it.
BTW, don't use any fuel with ethanol in it, but it doesn't need 98 octane either, just normal UL is great.
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