08' RXTX carbon seal inspection.. issue?

[yems]

Hey all, abit of history. Have owned my 08 rxtx for about 6 months. It had done 32 hours when i bought it, and have only done about 10 hours on it. Have had an issue with taking on water for sum time, not a huge amount, but enough to be a concern. After inspecting all the hose clamps and finding no positive source iv removed the shaft to inspect the carbon seal. Took abit of too-ing and fro-ing to get it out. The shaft had corroded and siezed the support ring o'rings to the shaft.
So i got it out, and as mentioned the shaft is quite corroded (not pitted by any means, but alot of surface corrosion). The Carbon seal appears to be in a reasonable state (not damaged or worn or anything, i can really fault it, however the support ring face is quite pitted/burnt.

Firstly, the damage to the support ring, is this the sort of thing that would happen after flushing out of water for too long? or is it likely its damaged due to age/not being stored correctly by previous owner.. can supply pics if needed. Also when i removed the shaft, the support bearing from the pto came with it (was slightly siezed on) will i need to replace the seal etc or will it be to just slide it back in?

Secondly, i just checked my S/C while iv got everything off. theres abit of oil residue coming through from the breather so im gunna fit a catch can while im there and flush the cooler. how should the S/C feel? quite tight to turn? has no end float etc.

Lastly, while iv got it apart im going to do oil/filter/plugs, make up a stainless wear ring and install it, remove the prop and give it a good tidy up (plenty of battle scars on it) and more importantly install an auto bilge pump. Iv also ordered the exhaust straight pipe that discards the last resonator/silencer. Can i expect any gain from this? (not sure how long its gunna take to get all the way down here )

Thanx in advance, Jens

[yems]

[monaroman76]

Was the ski cavitating at all? That's a pretty good sign that the carbon seal is no good. Change all the parts seeing as though youve come this far. The accordion boot loses tension over time, so it is also worthwhile changing. I'm pretty sure my top hat looked similar to yours, the actual mating surface doesn't look too bad. It's very common for the shafts to rust when ridden in salt water, it shouldn't cause any dramas. The pto seal can just be pushed back in no problems.

With the supercharger removed, the shaft should turn freely, but if it is still on the engine, you should not be able to turn the impeller. Check the slip moment to see where it is at.

You probably won't see any performance gains from the resonator bypass pipe, you will just be left with a crappy sounding ski My advice is to just cut the resonator into pieces to remove it, otherwise you have to remove the VTS, and it is a bit more of a pain!

[Sigmarxt]

Was the ski cavitating at all? That's a pretty good sign that the carbon seal is no good.

Don't want to hack the thread but just a quick question monaroman. I was going to change the wear ring cause my ski cavitates. Didn't know a thing about the carbon seal playing a role in that issue.. Could you explain a little more?

[Sigmarxt]

Don't want to hack the thread but just a quick question monaroman. I was going to change the wear ring cause my ski cavitates. Didn't know a thing about the carbon seal playing a role in that issue.. Could you explain a little more?

Just found the answer while searching for parts: Heavily modified skis are more prone to cavitation or prop spin because your impeller produces more suction in the pump tunnel causing your carbon seal to open / un-seal under acceleration thus sucking in air creating prop spin / cavitation