A Williams Jet Rib Guide

Surely your Williams dealer will resolve this is courier the part to you. They are well aware that there products are used away from a marina.

How did you diagnose the issue without a scanner ?

In answer to your questions my personal knowledge is the textron engines. This is Rotax. Bear in mind that they are also used in jet ski so find a jet ski dealer and they will help.

On the textron the engine does not need a reset post a fault. I doubt the rotax does.

The lamda sensor is there only for emissions control. You can run it but the ecu will I assume limit power. If not then ignore it and enjoy your trip.
 
Hello Lozzer - nice to hear from you and hope all is well.

Agree with Jrudge on both points - if you fit the new part it is very unlikely to need a reset - it should just then work. And meantime you are doing no harm by running the engine with this sensor busted. You might be forced into limp mode but you won't be harming the engine.

Let us know if you get stuck. The part is widely available online in UK and courier-ing to you would be easy.
 
The 850 Textron engine had two lamda sensors - one before and one after the catalytic converter. The one after was disabled in software - my guess and it really is a guess is they have had issued with salt water splash back? Clearly there was some issue or they would not turn it off.

The converter also gets gummed up over time - so much so the engine will only idle. This does not happen in a car which also suggest to me some issue with water splash back in the very short exhaust.

As JFM says lamda sensors are widely available - I have the details of the Textron one but if you remove the part then you have in my view decent odds of finding something good enough to work in a car spares place - if indeed it not working does anything other than turn on the engine warning light which you can ignore forever - the boat will never have an emissions test.
 
Hi all,just searched and couldn't find the help I need, sorry if it has been covered, I have a 285 and second time I took it out this season (been rubbish weather) it had a flat battery afterwards and had to boost to flush it out, now charged but only getting 12.6v when running on flush, this sounds low, but cant rev it till I pop it back in the water, anyone any experience with these regarding alternator etc?
 
Hi, new owner of a 2013 285 with 750 turbo here.
I really like the small RIB but… The engine runs great until you turn it off and let it rest for a while - after this it appears to be overheating whenever reaching 4K RPMs. I am guessing residual heat spreads to somewhere that doesn’t like it… Have tried replacing coils and exhaust sensor but still a “runs great once per day” kind of boat (doing 42 knots => mechanically it seems ok).

1) Would anyone happen to have the pinout for the ECU serial port? Not sure I will be able to interpret the output but I would like to give it a go… it would actually be fun to be able to list values via Bluetooth or similar onto my iPhone. But I need a pin out to be able to try…

2) how is the cooling actually done in exhaust - from what I can see the cooling water is led into exhaust manifold and also into the exhaust pipe (before rubber). First I thought water was sprayed into exhaust manifold and pipe but I see under pipe there is an outflow hose so it seems the exhaust pipe is double walled with water flowing in the double pipe rather than having water inside the actual exhaust flow?

My exhaust pipe is typically warm but not hot…

I like the rib but it would have been good to have found this thread before buying the used RIB…

Thanks!
 
No idea on ecu pin out.

The exhaust manifold and the exit tube behind it are double walled sea water cooled.

If it won't rev beyond 4000 rpm this is likely the turbo.

If you remove the air filter the turbo should spin freely.

If you remove the exhaust tube then with your phone camera you can see the hot section of the turbo.

If this is white crusted it is salt. This means there is salt water flowing into the exhaust which is a manifold failure. You can't get ( or could not a while ago ) a new manifold as the engine is discontinued.

You can scrape to salt off with a long screw driver and also using very small amounts of water wash it away ( don't get it in the cylinder ) as a temp fix but it will return.

Where did you buy it ?
 
It was bought used in Sweden

It revs to 7k+ RPM fine when it is cold - but not when it has been run and then left turned off for 30mins or so.
The exhaust temp light flickers when it happens - sometimes you can be careful with throttle and make it rev past the 4k range and onto a plane but most of the time not.

But it runs fine again next day…

If it is double walled - where is the risk of flushing water without engine running or towing without tow valve closed coming from? Is there another ingress point?

Thank you,
Christian
 
The 4k limitation is highly likely to be the turbo.

So you need to see if it spins freely next time it does it. I would look up the exhaust anyway as it is not difficult to do and if there is salt crust you have your answer.

The waste gate could be stuck or the turbo partially seized.

Oil changes are critical with the right oil and regularly as the oil also lubricates the turbo.

It could be something else but 4k is a good indication of turbo issues.

You can put some hydrochloric acid / barnacle buster through it if you suspect cooling. This is possible but to my knowledge limp mode is about 1500 rpm not 4000 but I could be wrong. It also runs on one cylinder in limp mode

If you do flush with acid then dilute it and be quick then flush. This engine has aluminium parts and acid eats aluminium. It will however clear any blockages.

You need the engine running to flush. If not there is the risk of water entering the cylinders and hydro locking it which you don't want. To put a bit if acid in that is fine but you can't put water under pressure in as you are just asking to trouble.

Check the turbo first.

Williams can put the computer on it which will also give you a better idea of what is wrong. They are highly competent but bear in mind their solution is usually to transport it back to the shop and take the engine out if it is not just a sensor. It does not seem like a sensor to me but the map / temp sensors are cheap on eBay so changing them does no harm.

Temp sensors do seem temperamental
 
On the 505 Dieseljet (and the 565 and I assume larger Williams too...), the gear selector uses a small potentiometer in the lever which activates an actuator. This has given us no end of problems (potentiometer giving up, actuator replaced twice) and of course tends to give out at the worst moments. We've often done half a season with the bucket manually opened (i.e. no neutral or reverse).

Has anyone ever switched it to a cable only system? I'm going to have a look today about doing so. The throttle control (dual lever) already has the fittings but I don't know if the amount of travel (when going from neutral - fwd etc) is enough to move a cable sufficient distance to open / close / partially close the bucket.
 
I suppose the question is if it was simple Williams would have done it like that as they do it in the other models

I wonder if the bigger boat needs a bigger force to hold the bucket ? I did not know they used actuators but given salt water etc what could possibly go wrong !
 
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Yes indeed, I also wondered this, I suppose the system needs to be able to go aster with significant forward motion. The 445 single lever was a joy to use and maintain.

Last year, it gave up completely. I took it apart and it's full of tiny plastic gears that round off on the tips. The potentiometer now sends the wrong signal and no longer recognises astern.

We've had this thing 6 years and it's constantly caused us problems. I've had enough and will be spending significant time on correcting this, it's simply not up to the job.

Ill post some pics if anything interesting occurs!
 
I suppose the question is if it was simple Williams would have done it like that as they do it in the other models

I wonder if the bigger boat needs a bigger force to hold the bucket ? I did not know they used actuators but given salt water etc what could possibly go wrong !
mind the bowden cable operating the bucket on my avon jetrib seized last season, not saying that actuator down there is a smart idea, but cables soaked in brine can be problematic as well. Hope your J. is not dipped in water like mine, but I somehow doubt it...
 
Afternoon all. The dreaded Manifold issue. I have repaired my old one. I 3d scanned in the sealing surface. Then over welded the corroded bits and then re machined. I also learnt that the back inspection plugs should not go all the way in. Using a micro meter they need to be proud by 5mm so not to reduce water flow. Especially the last one as this could block the water hole that sprays into cool the exhaust, And then finally in the Textron parts manual at the very end i noticed these;

105018 STOPSEL Cleansing Concentrate 1 liter 1


105021 STOPSEL Cleansing Concentrate 5 liter 1


105022 STOPSEL AUTOMIX 125ml

I cant believe Williams didn’t sell the rib in the first place with the auto mix and the fluid.

I have repaired two of these exhaust manifolds now…
 
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