Advice for upcoming repair/replacement - rinker 2006 390

scousine

Good morning everyone, so this is a project for next fall/winter.

I am pretty confident the water i see in my engine room comes from the transom but i was planning to get this fix this fall as  I need a good job of sanding and painting on my sterndrive outdrive and transom . What part should I ensure I replace to prevent water to come in?

also i plan to replace my rode, can i buy juste the rode or do i have to buy both the road and anchor chain as well? Any advice where i can get this. ?

thanks in advance everyone!

Sandra & Stephane

LaRea

You have Merc and Bravo 3?  The leak is probably from the steering pin.  Above the engine at the top of the transom assembly, look into the cavity where the steering arm comes through the transom.  If you see water and/or corrosion in there, replace the transom assembly.  

For the anchor rode, I'd recommend buying a pre-made rode with 180' of rope and 30' of chain.  Then add your existing chain to the end, so you have 60' of chain.  You have to make sure the new chain is the same as the old chain -- probably 5/16" BBB.  It should be stamped on the side of each chain link.  The BBB refers to the size and shape of the link.  

I got my rode from defender.com.  You can use one of these to attach the chains together:

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/seafit--connecting-links--P005_154_002_004?recordNum=11

YYZRC

Before haul out, you should try to identify where water is coming in. Could be the steering pin as @LaRea mentioned, but as you are in fresh water they tend to last longer than in salt so that may not be an issue for you. 

Do you know when the bellows were last replaced? That’s another source of water if they are cracked or worn. I think the lifespan of bellows is around 5 years. When the drives are removed for pressure testing the bellows can be inspected. 

There may also be a leak around the transom assembly itself, in which case you may have a wet transom - @Grahamu did a great write up on this a few months ago. 

scousine

Thanks, i dont know when the bellows were replaced (that is if ever they were replace) so will ask that they be inspected. When I look where the water is coming from, its definitely from the behind of the engine on the wall where the transoms are…so I am hopeful that with a good inspection and fix of transom this could solve the problem. Thanks again for all the advices.

Grahamu

Here is the link to my write up on this subject.
Removing drives, engines and transom assemblies. — Rinker Boat Company (vanillacommunities.com)

scousine

Thanks @Grahamu, quite impressive and scary what you had to do on your boat. Sure looks good now, i just hope our situation won t be too bad when they start to look into this fall.

scousine

These are the results I had when i got the survey done on the boat.  Should I be concerned with this , especially the area at 70%?

Grahamu

Are you single or twin drives?

Liberty44140

390 is definitely twin drives.

Rinkers are known for moisture meters not working on their transom. They are solid wood, not plywood, balsa or foam, and whatever they do in the layup or paint gives incorrect readings. Look at Gramus, it was dry as a bone once he opened it. While I am surprised that your surveyor didn’t go over such high readings with you so that you knew what the meter said, they do not mean that you really have that high of readings. Only way to be sure is to drill some holes and see how the core feels. 

Don’t get all stressed about this. You probably do have a transom assembly or steering pin leak but so far no one who has had those leaks on this site has had a wet transom as a result. Al has said that with the solid wood transom this is really not a concern. I can’t think of anyone here who has had transom issues on a modern Rinker. 

Any decent mechanic can get in your boat and see if water is coming in from the steering pin or the transom assembly and discuss with you costs and options to fix it next winter. 

scousine

Thanks , much appreciated.

Grahamu

@Liberty44140, I have to disagree with you in that my transom was as dry as a bone. After removing the inner skin the readings were high and gradually reduced over a period of months. All wood will rot overtime if the source of moisture is not dealt with. @scousine does not mention the soundings that the surveyor would have done. If they're good identify possible leakage areas and investigate. Customers of my shop have spent a lot of money over 30 years repairing transoms that were neglected.

Liberty44140

@Grahamu my mistake. My recollection from reading your posts this spring was that around your outdrive openings the wood was dry and no rot or wood damage was seen. I recall seeing pretty nice, clean wood. My mistake. 

Grahamu

@Liberty44140 not a problem, you probably recall the the finished pics. Here is the transom assembly cut out condition prior to drying out

Grahamu

After looking at the above pic again it would appear the transom is actually of laminate construction, not solid wood

Liberty44140

That is different to what has been said here before, about solid wood. My cruisers is definitely 3/4" or 1" ply. 

scousine

Will definitely be on the to do list for this fall wheni bring back the boat. Thanks.