Perfect Pass / Paddle Wheel

I purchased a used '05 24SSV on Friday and absolutely love the boat, but am having a problem with my speed/perfect pass. My speed is varying on both my actual speedometer and my perfect pass. I don’t know if the two are related in determining the actual speed but neither are accurate. My perfect pass will say 7 to 20 mph when at a stand still and will sometimes show 3 to 5 mph when in tow. It isn’t taking control of the speed either, though it beeps and highlights the name on the screen. It’ll beep several times during a pull as the perfect pass continues to misread the speed and bump it down and back up to where it thinks cruising speed is. I checked the paddle wheel yesterday and none of the tabs are damaged, but the wheel can slide side to side about a 1/4 of an inch either way. I don't know if this wheel is supposed to be stationary or if it is typical for them to move side to side at all? Is it related to the paddle wheel? I was under the impression the PP was correlated to a servo taking commands from the throttle linkage, but I could be wrong. Any advice, help, or direction you can give me would be highly appreciated.

The paddle wheel has to be working correctly in order for the PP to engage.The PP keeps the boat at the speed you set by how fast the paddle wheel tells it's going.When the PP sees the paddle wheel stray from set speed it tells the servo to adjust the throttle to get back to the set speed.I would check your paddle wheel system before messing with the PP.

Jay,

I checked the paddle wheel yesterday and none of the tabs are damaged, but the wheel can slide side to side about a 1/4 of an inch either way. I don't know if this wheel is supposed to be stationary or if it is typical for them to move side to side at all?

Thanks for the reply

Mine slides a little side to side,but I don't think it's a 1/4" each side maybe 1/4" total.Is your speed jumping up and down on the speedo when the PP is not engaged and you are holding a steady speed manually?If it is you can try disconnecting the paddle wheel from the PP and see if the boat speedo still jumps around.If it does it is your paddle wheel/sending unit that is bad.

Try running in rpm mode. If the PP gives a constant pull using this mode you can conclude you have a paddle wheel problem.

The speed on the actual speedometer registers around 30mph when we're certainly around 22-23 mph, I don't know why it would be so much higher? The Perfect Pass has its own variation, but not that significant. The speedo is constant, not varying, but it's too high.

There is a knob under the dash to adjust the analoge (sp?) speedo. Use a hand held gps, or time the boat through a slalom course to get your actual speed and adjust the knob accordingly. The knob will change the speed like 8 mph. I second running the perfect pass in RPM mode to see if it is the paddle wheel.

the paddle wheel is on a little pin. If that pin is bent, then the wheel won't turn the way it's supposed to. I used to have a VLX that went through a couple pins a summer because I'd hit my lift pulling in, and the tabs wouldn't be damaged, but the pin was bent. The side to side sliding is normal. You should be able to take the whole unit out from inside the boat if you can reach it. Unscrew it and check to see if there something causing it to not spin right, or most likely- bent pin.

go through the servo test in the installation docs from the PP website.

I agree with muffintop. I also have bent pins which have caused the same problems

I have a tech coming to change my boats oil today, he's going to take a look at the PP/Paddle wheel, hope to find out what it is. I'll check out the pin myself when I get home! Thanks everyone

The tech that checked out my boat today said he thinks the servo motor has gone out. He tried to turn it and it was completely seized. I don't know if this is what would cause the varying speed but let us hope! Getting the new servo Friday.