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Check yer soft exhaust hoses.......


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I was poking around under the back of the 'Bu the other day and noticed that the rudder arm was abrading against the port-side soft exhaust hose (example pic attached from Martin....).

Basically, the rudder arm is a bit long for this placement, and it's difficult for it not to end up rubbing against the soft exhaust hose. After looking at a few related posts I saw that some guys have shortened the rudder arm by cutting a bit off at the prior hole for the cable attachment, then re-drilling a new hole. As the existing hole was more oval shaped due to wear and poor attachment of the cable, I did the same. This obviously decreases the steering ratio but I think that's OK as it seemed a bit high anyway.

After getting the rudder arm sorted out I then looked at the abraded exhaust hose and removed it for replacement. Upon inspection it was immediately apparent that this thing had the water-tightness of a sieve. There was a major kink in the thing, lessening the ID down to probably 1.5 inches instead of 3 inches and at both the point of the kink, and the abrasion there was little-to-no hose left! I'm really surprised this was holding water at all. This is a pretty big deal because this hose is below the waterline and any hole in it is like having a hole in the bottom of your boat. Had it let go the bilge would quickly fill and it would be very difficult to see where the leak's coming from to stop it. A bad situation.

I replaced both port-side and starboard-side hoses with the proper 3" marine grade soft exhaust hose. Good to have this done.

If you have an older 'Bu Skier, definitely check these hoses for wear and tear.

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Edited by CliffB
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Along this same line, I just pulled off my soft exhaust hoses to prevent interference while installing a new shaft.

What I found, and some others had posted before and that's why I looked, is the "soft" marine grade hose has an inner layer that had separated from the outer layer (so you can't see this unless you look down the hose), and such separation had decreased flow area by about 75%. New hose time.

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Cool. Glad you got it replaced. I bet you gained some ponies back too by opening the exhaust back up. I haven't noticed any issues whatsoever with my shortened rudder tiller arm since I went to 4" exhaust hose.

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Cool. Glad you got it replaced. I bet you gained some ponies back too by opening the exhaust back up. I haven't noticed any issues whatsoever with my shortened rudder tiller arm since I went to 4" exhaust hose.

Thanks Martin, good to hear. Did you notice the steering was more responsive? Take more effort to get the rudder over?

Did you notice any change going to four inch exhaust? Louder? More ponies?

Thanks.

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