When it rains it pours (Transom Assembly leak)

rasbury

Yes, would be curious...

PickleRick

@aero3113 every boat shower and ac should have one of these.  You could make your own out of tupperware/storage tote. 

A dry bilge is as important as dry socks. 


An 8 hr boat trip in the keys sounds epic right now.  Sadly, i gotta wait until June.   

J3ff

ha ha, the 8 hour trip was NYC to Cape cod...with some big waves between block island and vinyard sound (made it a 3 day trip) 

PickleRick

Oh...you can have that trip.  Other than local lakes i try not to go boating in locations where you cant find naturally growing palm trees

aero3113

@rasbury , you could even mount a separate shower sump in the engine compartment and have just the ac hooked up to it. Might be easier for you to do.

rasbury

might be easier for anyone to do it that way! I would like to keep that water out of the bilge...

J3ff

Finally a beautiful day on this boat! Can't check the bilge because the hatch wont come up 

rasbury

Awesome! Where's the babes single guy with a nice boat?

aero3113

That’s the boats way to tell you not to worry, keep driving!!

PickleRick

I miss that water.  Im hoping there's no state to state domestic travel quarantine enforced that could cause my family to miss out.

rasbury

In a couple months this will all be in the rear view mirror...

reneechris14

The water is lighter then the sky. Nice to see you enjoying your ride. 

J3ff

rasbury said:

Awesome! Where's the babes single guy with a nice boat?

Had 2 others with me... just not going to post them on here :P

J3ff

It's been a couple weeks now.. I can't believe it, the boat doesn't have one drop of water in the bilge... yes I'm getting down in there and looking ALL the way under the motor each time. 

Every boat I've ever owned has always had water in it.. this makes me wonder if all boats just leak a little, unless a mechanic goes to great lengths to do what my guy did for me.. 

Took it for a 45 min trip one way, hung out for 4 or 5 hours and then ran it 45 mins back. Not one drop of water down there. Can't believe it. 

One thing about the hatch not coming up... so after a full day of boating if the hatch up switch is pushed it WILL NOT COME UP. 

However, if you take a jump start battery box and hook it directly to the posts in the battery switch area it will come up FAST AND STRONG.  What is up with that??? I was going to replace the lift motor, but it seems to be just fine if you use those posts... ??

aero3113

Nice! That’s how all boats should be!
Sounds like you might have a bad battery not allowing your lift to work as it should.

PickleRick

Ive 12v seen deck lift motors only work when a jumper box is attached or when running.  The motors are usually on their way out if all connection are good.  An inline dc shunt would allow amp draw readings but youd need factory specs to compare with actual readings.


That being said, check all connections and associated relays/switches/fuses before slapping new components on.

J3ff

aero3113 said:

Nice! That’s how all boats should be!
Sounds like you might have a bad battery not allowing your lift to work as it should.

3 new batteries as 2 weeks ago.. Lift works when things are cool, but when when the engine bay is hot the dash board switch pushed results in a couple inches up and it quits. Hook up the jump box to the posts seconds after that and it rockets up, faster than when the dash switch is pushed even when the engine bay is cool

J3ff

PickleRick said:

Ive 12v seen deck lift motors only work when a jumper box is attached or when running.  The motors are usually on their way out if all connection are good.  An inline dc shunt would allow amp draw readings but youd need factory specs to compare with actual readings.


That being said, check all connections and associated relays/switches/fuses before slapping new components on.

I have a new on here, might just swap it and see what happens. Seems like it is just getting more power from the posts... not sure. 

reneechris14

I think the motor should of had a solenoid between the switch and motor. The gauge of the wire to the dash is not the same as the motor and the distance. When you put the jump box on the post the run is very short and no restriction.

PickleRick

Electric components can start to show signs if failure when they get warm. 

J3ff

PickleRick said:

Electric components can start to show signs if failure when they get warm. 

Sure, totally get that, but what is showing wear if the dash switch doesn't work when the engine room is hot, but the posts near the battery switch work 200 % better than the dash switch does even when it's cool?

PickleRick

Could there be corrosion in the wires/connections from dash back to the engine room?  Or a failing switch?

J3ff

Probably both, who knows. 

Bigger problem came up today. You should probably sit down for this one. 

<<Ding ding ding>> Round 3 with me VS the boat starts now. (Ref yells FIGHT)

Today, noticed a VERY familiar sound coming from the stern. The same chugging sound that started this whole mess way back when!

There's a slight difference, it only makes the noise when everything is WARM and in Neutral. 

Either way, gimbal bearing noise is back. Guess this is why I bought a trailer. Here we go again! 

It does make sense though. The first gimbal bearing was obviously exposed to water, it went bad, the first mechanic replaced just that, rebuilt the ujoints and put everything back together. He nor I stopped and thought "What caused the bearing to go bad" which was obviously the leak that no one knew about at this point. 

Bearing replaced, ujoints were rebuilt. I do not remember the exact timeline but between the boat being put back in Mid/Late sept and it coming out and put in a dry rack late October it sat there leaking... for the very first week I still had no clue there was even any leak! For at least 4 weeks the bilge had salt water in it... so I suppose it makes sense that some water got back in there and must have ruined the bearing AGAIN.

Now this one is on me I guess... I should have asked the mechanic to change the bearing again... even though it looked fine... oh well.. Looks like it's time to pull it out and spend some time learning how to swap a Gimbal bearing! (or just pay someone to do it for me)...  

Not even mad about it this time.  

PickleRick

Do you have a buddy to help you lift the drive on and off?

J3ff

PickleRick said:

Do you have a buddy to help you lift the drive on and off?

A buddy? Have you heard of this pandemic?? - I'll figure something out... maybe after the 15 min rapid tests come out. 

Willhound

They did all that transom work and nobody thought to change the gimbal? Ah, man. That sucks.

reneechris14

Yup makes sense you have run it just enough after the leak was fixed now it want to make noise. I'm putting my bets on you because you won the 1st two rounds(this might be like round 5?)

J3ff

Yeah, such an obvious mistake to make (not replacing the bearing..) but that's okay. 

On the way back in today it made no noise and hardly any at the dock.. so it doesn't seem too bad just now, was just that on the trip out I made a 30 min extra run... if I can limp it along and just go to the closest spot (10 mins out) it may have to stay like that till June, which is when it's coming out for a month anyway.. will see what happens. Not like there's going to be any huge parties on it with CV19

PickleRick

You can remove and install the outdrive a few ways.  Here are the 3 id suggest

Be able to easily lift some 150 to 200 lbs

An engine hoist

Build a cradle out of a cheap piano dolly

Things you also need

You need a cheap eBay alignment bar

Rig up a slide hammer and some washers to pull the old gimball bearing

A block or bearing driver to re install gimball bearing.  Putting bearing in the freezer for a couple hours before install can help. 

Have a new mounting gasket set on hand(2 in case you rip the 1st one)  


It's only a couple hour repair.   There are tons of YouTube videos on this to watch.

GMSLITHO

rick is right the hardest part is the weight to remove it