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Hello from newbie with 93 Rinker Captiva BR 209
mcmars
Member Posts: 10 ✭
Hello everyone, I am in SW CO/SE Utah and excited about my recent purchase of a 93 Rinker Captiva 209 with a mericruiser 4.3 V6 with claimed 150 hours since a 2007 rebuild after block cracked from freezing. It has a 4 barrel Edelbrock with matching intake manifold which I am guessing was stock and a gas tank claiming 49 gal capacity according to a sticker on tank. It has an mericruiser alpha one IO that looks very good with a new this year 15 pitch aluminum prop. The boat was a lake ready turn key deal with 4 PFD's, skis, kneeboard, tube, ropes/lines, 2 anchors, nice small snap onto windshield bimin top that stows in back out of sight, etc. Hull is immaculate and still has some shine, bow strake is perfect. I grew up skiing and fishing from ages 11-16 with a family owned 16 ft glastron boat and had a 180 sea ray for a short time a decade ago that had rotten floor and got sold before I got to use it much. I have extensive history of guiding rafts on rivers and am very mechanically capable gal that has rebuilt several auto motors and still does most my auto work.
Boat had been in same family for last 17 years after being bought with the known cracked block issue. I have all original manuals and repair receipts for the repair of the motor and other maintenance, servicing and repairs done by professional marine mechanics. It needs some upholstery work (seats) but the rest has been professionally recovered by a pro (receipts of work). I am thinking I keep the passenger side fold out seat and replace the drivers side seat with a single white captains seat with a pedestal that goes up and down, swivels and forward back to open up more floor space and have more adjustable seat ergonomics for driver.
I got boat 2 weeks ago and just got off a 6 day lake powell trip camping and visiting with good friends that own a houseboat and 190 sea ray. Good news is the boat runs near flawlessly and my friend with sea ray/houseboat says I got a smoking deal on a great well maintained good running older boat. Bad news is the large list of small details I want to address for repairs and replacement. Only mechanical issue was one time on last day, boat failed to start after taking a short break for some snacks in an isolated canyon. It was obviously flooded (gas smell), so a short wait and full throttle while starting in neutral got her going. Probably a user error on my part? I am hoping I can get some advice and direction from other knowledgeable forum members on some of the things I need to get things ship shape. Here is my current list of things I am thinking I need to mess with, buy new, fix or replace.
(1) spare/new prop: Boat came with a 3 blade 15 prop. I need a 2nd prop and wrench for back up and guessing a 17 3 blade might be good choice. The current 15 seems great for the big camping load I had and we had 5 people in boat that we transported for 30 miles from ramp to houseboat, with ton of weight from food, beer, water, full gas tank and another 50 gal of gas in containers strapped to rear swim deck. Boat still got up to plane after a short struggle, haha. Any advice on how to prop the boat and where to shop is appreciated. Empty, the boat takes a couple seconds to plane out and got to 40 mph and rising and was approaching 5000 rpm when I pulled back throttle to keep from exceeding RPM range. With moderate load, boat seems to cruise at nice sweet spot around 22-25 MPH is speedometer is accurate and around 3000 to 3500 RPM.
(2) Tachometer inconsistent: Halfway through trip, the tach started acting up and would randomly peg out and now is mostly reading way to high. Not sure how to troubleshoot problem, but I think first step it to get tiny wrench on rear of tach as I did see the large wire going into center of rear of tach from under dash is loose enough to move with fingers. I will see if that can be easy fix today as I am back home and have small wrenched.
(3) intermittent depth gauge: I have a depth gauge that was working fine when we test drove the boat with prior owner, but now is working about 20% of time. It is the 2 inch diameter style gauge with the digital readout. I am hoping it might be a simple issue with transducer or wires or something, but maybe it is old enough to just replace with newer higher tech and more reliable depth gauge? Maybe I get a fishfinder style depth gauge that shows the bottom contours? I know I need a good one as I will be on lake powell and lake McPhee in dolores CO, both these lakes have rock spires and sand bars and are famous for trashing props and drives.
(4) Temp gauge not working: Temp gauge on dash needs new gauge as old one is clouded over from water damage and not working. My friend who is electrical whiz helped to determine that there are 2 senders on the block that merge together onto same wire. He says the port sender is not working, starboard one is responding ok on his volt meter. Not sure why 2 senders, guessing some redundancy for protection? We used a cheap hand held digital gauge on the trip for occasional temp checks and motor block was reading around 200 F after cruising, so thinking that is normal (?). I will need to locate a matching teleflex temp gauge and one sender and hopefully that will fix temp gauge. All the wiring under dash looks OEM and neat, so at least things have not been messed with a rewired wrong.
(5) I found nice looking seat on amazon, tempress 57010 high back seat with a Leader accessory adjustable locking pedestal. I got them ordered but can return them easy if they are not a good quality set for me. Existing driver seat is too low and uncomfortable for me and some kind of animal tore up the side. I used a throw cushion for the trip, it helped but I got back issues and like to see above the windshield. Not sure on best plan to mount it? Might have some issues with carpet after I take out the old seat. Not sure I really care about looks so much than function. I could just cut out a 3/4 plywood sub base to lab screw into floor and seal with 3m 5200 sealant in holes. I can do fiberglass OK, so easy to put some cloth and epoxy resin on the plywood to make it last a few years without needing to be refinished. Not sure I really like carpet in boat as it just soaks up and holds water. So it could become a bigger project where I remove the carpet, clean up and evaluate the decking, which seems bomber solid thankfully, and then install a non slip surface of some kind in place of carpet. I think carpet has already been replaced once as the carpet in ski locker is a thicker blue color and deck carpet is a grey thinner carpet. I am thinking a better replacement for the carpet is a stick on thin rubber like foam product like the ski deck has on it. soft and durable and non absorbent. Not sure what the foam stuff is called, but I know a custom aluminum raft frame and dory boat builder builder/welder in town as not putting it on all his boats and frames to cover on the decks and diamond plated surfaces, so I can check in with him to see about buying enough to do my entire deck and lower storage areas. I am wondering if anyone here has used this or another product to replace the carpet. I think today I will go spray all the carpet at local car wash and then shop vac it dry and let 90 degree Moab UT heat dry it out for the rest of week. When the carpet is wet, I can smell some mildew, carpet is just gross, I think it goes.
Okay getting out there, better stop now and see if I can get some response and help from friendly forum members who can help out a newbie with her new old boat. Looking forward to the forum and getting the boat up to snuff. Any help is appreciated in any form, internet links, good sources for parts, tips on common issues or hacks for my boat, etc. I have not had time yet to explore this site for links, but will do some looking. Thanks all
Boat had been in same family for last 17 years after being bought with the known cracked block issue. I have all original manuals and repair receipts for the repair of the motor and other maintenance, servicing and repairs done by professional marine mechanics. It needs some upholstery work (seats) but the rest has been professionally recovered by a pro (receipts of work). I am thinking I keep the passenger side fold out seat and replace the drivers side seat with a single white captains seat with a pedestal that goes up and down, swivels and forward back to open up more floor space and have more adjustable seat ergonomics for driver.
I got boat 2 weeks ago and just got off a 6 day lake powell trip camping and visiting with good friends that own a houseboat and 190 sea ray. Good news is the boat runs near flawlessly and my friend with sea ray/houseboat says I got a smoking deal on a great well maintained good running older boat. Bad news is the large list of small details I want to address for repairs and replacement. Only mechanical issue was one time on last day, boat failed to start after taking a short break for some snacks in an isolated canyon. It was obviously flooded (gas smell), so a short wait and full throttle while starting in neutral got her going. Probably a user error on my part? I am hoping I can get some advice and direction from other knowledgeable forum members on some of the things I need to get things ship shape. Here is my current list of things I am thinking I need to mess with, buy new, fix or replace.
(1) spare/new prop: Boat came with a 3 blade 15 prop. I need a 2nd prop and wrench for back up and guessing a 17 3 blade might be good choice. The current 15 seems great for the big camping load I had and we had 5 people in boat that we transported for 30 miles from ramp to houseboat, with ton of weight from food, beer, water, full gas tank and another 50 gal of gas in containers strapped to rear swim deck. Boat still got up to plane after a short struggle, haha. Any advice on how to prop the boat and where to shop is appreciated. Empty, the boat takes a couple seconds to plane out and got to 40 mph and rising and was approaching 5000 rpm when I pulled back throttle to keep from exceeding RPM range. With moderate load, boat seems to cruise at nice sweet spot around 22-25 MPH is speedometer is accurate and around 3000 to 3500 RPM.
(2) Tachometer inconsistent: Halfway through trip, the tach started acting up and would randomly peg out and now is mostly reading way to high. Not sure how to troubleshoot problem, but I think first step it to get tiny wrench on rear of tach as I did see the large wire going into center of rear of tach from under dash is loose enough to move with fingers. I will see if that can be easy fix today as I am back home and have small wrenched.
(3) intermittent depth gauge: I have a depth gauge that was working fine when we test drove the boat with prior owner, but now is working about 20% of time. It is the 2 inch diameter style gauge with the digital readout. I am hoping it might be a simple issue with transducer or wires or something, but maybe it is old enough to just replace with newer higher tech and more reliable depth gauge? Maybe I get a fishfinder style depth gauge that shows the bottom contours? I know I need a good one as I will be on lake powell and lake McPhee in dolores CO, both these lakes have rock spires and sand bars and are famous for trashing props and drives.
(4) Temp gauge not working: Temp gauge on dash needs new gauge as old one is clouded over from water damage and not working. My friend who is electrical whiz helped to determine that there are 2 senders on the block that merge together onto same wire. He says the port sender is not working, starboard one is responding ok on his volt meter. Not sure why 2 senders, guessing some redundancy for protection? We used a cheap hand held digital gauge on the trip for occasional temp checks and motor block was reading around 200 F after cruising, so thinking that is normal (?). I will need to locate a matching teleflex temp gauge and one sender and hopefully that will fix temp gauge. All the wiring under dash looks OEM and neat, so at least things have not been messed with a rewired wrong.
(5) I found nice looking seat on amazon, tempress 57010 high back seat with a Leader accessory adjustable locking pedestal. I got them ordered but can return them easy if they are not a good quality set for me. Existing driver seat is too low and uncomfortable for me and some kind of animal tore up the side. I used a throw cushion for the trip, it helped but I got back issues and like to see above the windshield. Not sure on best plan to mount it? Might have some issues with carpet after I take out the old seat. Not sure I really care about looks so much than function. I could just cut out a 3/4 plywood sub base to lab screw into floor and seal with 3m 5200 sealant in holes. I can do fiberglass OK, so easy to put some cloth and epoxy resin on the plywood to make it last a few years without needing to be refinished. Not sure I really like carpet in boat as it just soaks up and holds water. So it could become a bigger project where I remove the carpet, clean up and evaluate the decking, which seems bomber solid thankfully, and then install a non slip surface of some kind in place of carpet. I think carpet has already been replaced once as the carpet in ski locker is a thicker blue color and deck carpet is a grey thinner carpet. I am thinking a better replacement for the carpet is a stick on thin rubber like foam product like the ski deck has on it. soft and durable and non absorbent. Not sure what the foam stuff is called, but I know a custom aluminum raft frame and dory boat builder builder/welder in town as not putting it on all his boats and frames to cover on the decks and diamond plated surfaces, so I can check in with him to see about buying enough to do my entire deck and lower storage areas. I am wondering if anyone here has used this or another product to replace the carpet. I think today I will go spray all the carpet at local car wash and then shop vac it dry and let 90 degree Moab UT heat dry it out for the rest of week. When the carpet is wet, I can smell some mildew, carpet is just gross, I think it goes.
Okay getting out there, better stop now and see if I can get some response and help from friendly forum members who can help out a newbie with her new old boat. Looking forward to the forum and getting the boat up to snuff. Any help is appreciated in any form, internet links, good sources for parts, tips on common issues or hacks for my boat, etc. I have not had time yet to explore this site for links, but will do some looking. Thanks all
Comments
Check all wiring connections and grounds behind the dash.
Trying to decide what to do if I can't get my depth sounder working. Do I spring for a fishfinder GPS style? Or just go with another depth sounder? Seems like it might be better to see the bottom for rock spires that can come up fast in Lake Powell with water dropping fast these days due to extended drought? Nearest lake is hour and half away, so be tough to know if my old depth sounder is working after I mess with connections. I will pull the electrical connections and buff with some Emory paper and apply some dielectric grease. The old hummingbird one I have looks very old.
I found a few options on new temp gauge on ebay, faria or teleflex that look like they will work and hopefully I can get temp gauge working. Trying to understand the sensors, not sure why there are 2 on the block and if they are the same or what?
Depth sounder: Is the sensor a thru-hull sensor, or bolted to the transom?