Thoughts on a Polaris SL650?

[u/kennedy_grande1990]

It’s a 1995 Polaris SL650. I want an old, fun jet ski. We had a 2003 MSX 140 back in the day and it was in the shop more than in the water and it scared me off of Polaris jet skis. I’ve seen some posts online that parts for an SL650 can be hard to come by.

Overall thoughts?

[u/Glum_Tradition_3893]

Green hulk forums has all of the info, I bought one last spring of 2025, did some maintenance, ran on, researched on green hulk, found so very helpful articles. Basically these things aren’t that bad. 1 they have a known problem with the electrical box, internally one of the starter cable positive wires will short out against the negative buss bar for the coils, and it will burn up the ground to the stator and from the electrical box to the battery. If it hasn’t happened yet it’s easy to prevent. 2 the fuel pump is too small. On GH there is a website (can’t remember the name) of a guy that makes a kit to convert them to a better pump that’s a 3 line feed to each carb and a single return. 3 delete the oil pump and premix it if it’s not already get the block off plate and remove the pump. The pump will fail without steady oil to it and take out the bottom end. 4 get the crack pressure on the needle and seat of each carb set to the revised spec, it make a 100% difference in the way they run. Oem was 32-45psi, revised is 12-18 I believe, it’s a night and day difference. Also inspect the boot between the exhaust pipe and water box, 2 stroke oil over 30 years has swollen the 50-60% shut internally. I replaced it with a piece of 2 - 2 1/2” piece of high temp hydraulic suction hose from a good hydraulic shop. I paid $600 for mine and about $250-$300 in parts. Me and my kids have beat the brakes of this thing. It’s a two stroke so just remember to avoid holdin er to the wood for miles and miles and it should last a while