2012 VXS-its time to change my bad pump bearings

[dannyual777]

I started this thread almost a year and a half ago and "Myself" diagnosed my problem: https://www.greenhulk.net/forum/pers...stroke/279277-

Even though I've owned skis continuously since I bought my first one in 1994, I've never had to replace pump bearings in any ski. This 2012 VXS has squealing bearings and I want to replace them soon so that I can ride the ski again. I'm not running this thing until I have new bearings and seals in the jet pump.

I've done hours and hours of research on changing pump bearings. I thought that there would be plenty of good YouTube videos showing how to do this but I was wrong. There are videos but none are good. Some are downright bad. Others skip many steps rendering those videos almost useless.

I've downloaded the Yamaha service manual for this ski so I can always refer to that. Those of you who have looked at those Yamaha manuals know that Yamaha writes them kind of funny. They like to use numbers that they change in every figure. It's kind of confusing to me but maybe they work well for others. I've also spent a lot of time on this forum looking at the Stickies and using the search function.

1. It appears that I either need to press the bearings off and then press the new ones on or I'll have to use the freezer method to "shrink" the shaft and heat the bearings to expand them.

2. There are questions of which way the seals are supposed to face.

3. What kind of grease do I use? EPNOC? https://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-Marine...878351&sr=8-26

4. How much grease?

I'm starting this thread to see if anyone has a link to a good video or that can give me some wisdom on this repair before I do the work. I'm going to need to order the parts so the actual work won't happen for another week or so.

[dannyual777]

Two bearings and two oil seals are on the way to me. All of them are genuine Yamaha.

[Green Hulk]

Follow the procedure in your Yamaha shop manual and you can't go wrong.
The lip on seals always face towards the bearing.
Use this grease https://www.4-tecperformance.com/ind...oducts_id=5939
You can find all pump parts and factory replacement parts for your ski on this page of the forums store

https://partsfinder.onlinemicrofiche.com/4tec/showmodel/13/yamahapwc/205

[dannyual777]

Ok. I'll be sure the read and follow the shop manual.

Lips on the seals always face the bearing and I clicked on the link to the marine grease. Thank you, Jerry!

[WaveJumpingBama]

The shop manual I have for my 2014 VXR does not have near the level of detail that is in my shop manual for my Can Am Maverick. I agree the way Yamaha writes things up is kind of confusing. I actually just got the bearings and seals and planned to change it all out when I do an impeller swap. Please keep us updated as you continue to work on this!

[dannyual777]

WaveJumping, yes, the shop manual is confusing to say the least.

I'll definitely keep everyone updated.

[dannyual777]

The VXS is on my lift at the dock and I decided to do the work with it on the lift. I have a floating lift for my 1997 GP1200. I slid the GP off the lift into the water and tied it off. With the help of my oldest son, I maneuvered the floating lift under my VXS and tied it into place.

While my son guarded for alligators (with a gun) I got on the lift and began the disassembly of the jet pump. There were some moments where I thought bolts weren't coming loose or would snap off but eventually I was successful in removing the jet pump.

Now I'll have to prepare for the fight of getting that impeller off the shaft so I can proceed with pump disassembly.

[dannyual777]

This 2012 VXS has always leaked a lot of water since I purchased it used about 5 years ago. It gets a lot of water in the hull. Since I've got the pump removed, I don't think it'll take too much additional work to remove the transom plate to reseal it.

[dannyual777]

About a week ago, I was able to break the impeller loose. I should clarify that it was my son that broke it loose. We used his car to hold a long breaker bar and a 29mm socket. We then used two large US made Craftsman open end/box end wrenches on the impeller hex. My son is 250lbs+ and he was able to break the impeller loose and none of my tools were broken in the process.

[dannyual777]

I'm confused about the grease and how to use it when I put the new bearings in this jet pump. Do I pack the two jet pump bearings with grease like I would do when repacking trailer wheel bearings?


Here is an image taken out of the Yamaha service manual showing the exploded jet pump. It shows grease A for the two bearings. Grease A is the grease that Jerry linked in post Blogs of this thread. However, it shows grease EP to go between the bearings inside spacer CSS Examples This is EPNOC Jet Pump Grease and the manual says to put 20 grams or .7oz of it there. I can easily purchase this EPNOC grease if need be. Yamaha says to use two different greases so I'd just as soon do it unless someone can definitively tell me why I don't need to do that.

[SPR21]

thx for the pics

[dannyual777]

thx for the pics

I plan on taking pictures and posting them to this thread as the work progresses. I'm certain that the pictures will help someone else do their own pump rebuild in the future.

[dannyual777]

This thread isn't getting much traction and so it's not helping me much but I'm going to continue to post because I know it'll help someone else in the future. Last week I pressed the shaft off of the impeller duct.


The Yamaha shop manual says to not press directly on the shaft threads. You can see from the following picture that the shaft has a large bevel at the end. One would really, really have to bugger up this end to impact the threads.









The shaft pressed out without too much force.

[dannyual777]

Once I had the shaft out, I was able to look inside and try to find the information that I asked about earlier in this thread. No one answered me about packing the bearings with grease. Maybe because it's obvious that I need to pack them with the Yamaha marine grease.

In addition, I finally got to see those two grease seals. In post #3, Jerry said, "The lip on seals always face towards the bearing." However, here is a picture of the factory installed grease seals right after I pressed the shaft out:


It looks to me like the lips of the seals face away from the bearings. After I went back to the drawing in the Yamaha shop manual, it does look like the lips face outward confirming the picture above.

Maybe I just misunderstood what Jerry was saying because I know that he knows his stuff!

[Mr. GP1800]

I think you misunderstood. The lips of the seals are facing inward towards the bearings. If the seals have springs on them those would face towards the bearings.