Viper and Water...

akrievins

akrievins

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Joined
Jan 19, 2006
Messages
588
Age
43
Location
Mississauga
Hey all,
Two weekends ago I was at the cottage and we had lots of rain. My brother and our buddy really wanted to ride, so after the rain stoped we were making our way across the lake. There were several areas where water had pooled up on the lake. Maybe 2 inches or so deep. What we didn't know is that the wind had blown all the rain water into one large bay. I saw some splashing and didn't want to get wet before our ride, so I slowed down... next thing I know I'm in almost 2 feet of water. Now I can't go anywhere as my belt is wet. I shut the engine down when it was still running.
I sat there for 1.5 hours as my bro and our buddy tried tossing a rope to me. I was too far. My bro ended up getting hip waders to walk a rope out to me. They then pulled me to shore. The Viper started right up and ran fine... I ran it for almost an hour straight to make sure all the water would evaportate... steam was coming out of the exhaust for quite some time.
10 minutes later we were skipping the flooded parts!
I greased everything up and used a can of WD 40 on the engine.
Anything else I should look out for?

waterlake.jpg

waterclose.jpg

waterskip1.jpg

waterskip2.jpg
 
I did that in about 16-18 inches of water on the lake near Dubre' (Ontario). Only I had no intention of slowing down or stopping, but my belt got wet at high speed and down I went. That is a really strange feeling as you know there is ice under you but until it stops sinking you are not 100% sure. My 14 year old boy went flying on by to the other side which I was glad to see. I dried my belt and clutches several times before I got across. I need to silicone the belly pan up again as I had it completely torn down this past summer. Thanks for the reminder.
 
haha... I was going to take the "plunge" if the hip wader thing didn't work out... No point in getting soaked and cold if my bro and my buddy were there. Luckily this happened on my lake, so it was a 5 min ride back to the cottage. They were too busy laughing and taking pics...
Half the engine was under water... Looks like most of the electrical stayed dry, and the air box wasn't under! I wasn't sure if everything was going to be okay... but she fired right up and I've since put on 150kms.

It was the worst feeling having the bottom just drop out and come to a stop in that water... makes me think twice about deep crossings now. I might try sealing the belly pan up as well, but what about the vents on the hood?

I think it's very rare to have conditions like this, so we took advantage of it... hours of water skipping... several hundred foot long pools of water close to a foot deep!
Made for some great pics!

doublewaterskip.jpg

runningafterwater.jpg
 
2 things i sunk my srx last year in about that much water it was in there for about 2 hours. first of all i'd say you're seat turned into a giant sponge, second check you're chain case oil for water.
 
maxdlx said:
Check your chaincase fluid
Click to expand...


Second this, check the seal on the drive shaft on the chain case side. I have also seen prolonged water skipping force the oil out of the clutch side drive shaft bearing and sieze it up. I would check that out also.
 
akrievins said:
Is that something I can grease myself? How would I go about doing that?
Click to expand...

Ski-doo has a grease zerk on theirs. Yamaha uses a sealed bearing, so it can't be greased. How many miles on your sled?

Loosen the track, pull the chain case cover and bottom gear. Pull secondary. Pull cover off the speedo pick-up. Loosen set-screws on the drive shaft. Work the drive shaft toward the clutch side so you can get something behind the bearing to work it off. Doing all that work, might as well change it out instead of inspecting it unless the sled has super low miles, then I would leave it and keep an eye on it.
 
Here's how I'd start.

Just pull the speedo cover off the bearing. pop off the seal on the bearing and if it is not rusty, just drill and tap the cover for a grease zert (theres a thread on this recently I think by 2strokinit) and push it full of fresh grease. You can remove the bearing by just loosening the track and the set screws on the bearing (inside the tunnel) then prying it off if it's not seized to the shaft. As far as water in the chain case. if it sits overnight (above freezing) the water will go to the bottom and will be the first to come out when you pull the drain plug. I've been doing that for years on the lower unit of my outboard. I'm just offering these ideas if you don't have the time to tear the whole thing apart now. Good Luck ;)!
 
I think I've heard that Daman uses a needdle greaser to make things easier.
Do you have to take anything apaprt then?
 
there is no speedo cover to remove or tap on a viper. but you can remove the gear, speed sensor.and bearing retainer. then remove the bearing seal, clean bearing out and repack with fresh grease. put it all back together and you should be good.
 
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