Faulty pitots??? |
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smac76
Groupie Joined: August-03-2016 Location: Maine Status: Offline Points: 54 |
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Posted: August-21-2016 at 9:03pm |
It took me a month of going through my basic shopping list of things that needed to be addressed before I was able to get my boat in the water to actually give her a test run, but today I took her out and stretched her legs a little bit, and she ran awesome! New muffler tubes, plugs, wires, belts, cap/rotor, seawater pump, battery and connections, a new bilge pump and fresh oil change were the big ticket items that really needed to be done before I put the boat in the water for whats left of the season.
A couple things I noticed on our maiden voyage were the minor and can be worked on anytime, but I have some questions about how to fix/replace some parts. My port speedo didn't work, and the starboard one only went up to 23 mph and stopped. And even as we were driving around at lower speeds, it seemed inaccurate. My question is are the pitots bad? I don't know anything about how they work, but the parts look simple enough. I'm going to do a visual unspection of the tubing to see if they might be pinched somewhere, but in the end, I really don't know what I'm looking at or how they work. Any help is appreciated. |
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It's 5 o'clock somewhere...
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bb12
Senior Member Joined: March-24-2009 Location: Kansas, USA Status: Offline Points: 355 |
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Check to see if the actual pitots are clogged.
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1989 Ski Nautique 2001
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flyweed
Gold Member Joined: July-11-2016 Location: WI Status: Offline Points: 544 |
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yep, those little plastic holes on the Pitot's themselves clog pretty easily, and if the boats sat over time, anything could be dried and stuck inside. clean em out good and try it again. You can test your Speedo's by removing the tube from the PITOT and blowing into it...your speedometer gauge should go up to about 8-10mph with you blowing into those tubes. It's an easy test to see if the tubes are clogged.
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'93 Ski Nautique NWZ, Air Boom Tower
Drink Tonight..for tomorrow We Ride! |
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smac76
Groupie Joined: August-03-2016 Location: Maine Status: Offline Points: 54 |
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Thanks guys, that shed some light on my dilemma. I'm gonna try to see if they're clogged tonight.
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It's 5 o'clock somewhere...
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mark c
Gold Member Joined: May-09-2012 Location: Massachusetts Status: Offline Points: 534 |
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Do not use compressed air, only blow in with your lungs. To much air pressure will slit the bellows in the speedometer and then your in for a costly repair, or replacement. Also be carefull pilling the line off the pickup, if the plastic is old and brittle the barbed tube the speedometer hose is attached to will pull the tube off if too much pressure is exerted. I lost one last year trying to get my hose off, snapped the barbs right off at the body of the pickup..
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8122pbrainard
Grand Poobah Joined: September-14-2006 Location: Three Lakes Wi. Status: Offline Points: 41045 |
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Scott,
Compressed air is a fantastic way to test the speedo's. The speedo's are nothing more than pressure gauges calibrated for MPH. Simply use a pressure regulator. The bellows mentioned above are in the gauges and transform the pressure to a rotary motion turning the gauge needle. They are stainless steel and do break from simple fatigue and age but not air pressure. The plastic pitot tubing blows way before that. Several members have made repairs by a simple silver solder. |
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smac76
Groupie Joined: August-03-2016 Location: Maine Status: Offline Points: 54 |
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got a chance to blow out the tubes yesterday. Port tube definitely seemed to be blocked, but was able to finally blow some air through it and the speedo seems to work with the air. same with the starboard speedo. Will just have to wait until the next ride to see if they work right.
Thanks for the info guys! |
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It's 5 o'clock somewhere...
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flyweed
Gold Member Joined: July-11-2016 Location: WI Status: Offline Points: 544 |
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easiest way to clear the tubes it to open your dash and disconnect the tubes from your speedometers, and then blow compressed air back through to the rear end, while they are disconnected from the pickup tubes too. It'll clear anything out inside the long run of tubing. Then when you put them back on, take a small zip tie and zip tie the tubes around each connection to create a nice tight seal. Works all the time I've done it.
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'93 Ski Nautique NWZ, Air Boom Tower
Drink Tonight..for tomorrow We Ride! |
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