05 342 Survey Results

JPC

This is my first post on the forum as I try to join the Rinker family.  I've sold my previous boat and have a purchase agreement in place on an 05 342 with 350 mags, Bravo 2s and 350 hours.  Today I was able to participate as the Surveyor did his work.  This boat has sat out of the water for a year but is in very good condition for the most part with all vinal and interior in great condition.  The camper canvas is all new from tailormaid and drive service was just performed with new gimbal bearing, bellows, shift cables, drive hoses and trim senders just completed.

My main items of concern seem to be a leaking swivel pin on the port drive and a fiberglass separation above the port motor at the 90 degree angle where the shelf is. (Picture attached). The rest of the items all seam more easily serviceable, including the engine and a/c but these 2 could be expensive later on.  What are people's thoughts on this list?

. Port 350 mag loosing power when throttling up.  Also feels like a cylinder may be misfiring. potential fuel issues? 

. Fresh water pump not shutting off due to a large fresh water leak in the engine room above the water heater

. A/C not working.  Panel comes on but no reaction to commands at the compressed unit. Blower does not come on manual or automatic.  Called for heat and no compressor response or startup

. Leaking swivel pin on port drive

. Fiberglass separation on inner transom in engine bay above port drive at 90 degree corner

. Leaking exhaust joint on starboard motor.  Lower section where it connects to the Y

. Port windshield wiper does not work

. Horn does not work

. Cracked port light on starboard side

. Water/oil on back transom platform by trim pumps

. Starboard spreader light not working

. No cockpit lights working

. Antenna plate cracked on radar arch

. Water overflow from A/C pan - potential clogged drain hose

. No reception on stereo for am/fm/xm

Handymans342

Is that separation or Gel coat peeling. You have a huge list. Budget 10G a year

reneechris14

X2 what handy said,I bought the same boat in Sept last year and with my slip I'm at 10 boat units.swivel pin is repairable but not easy.

rmfriday

If the price is right I wouldn't be scared of the list you were given. If you take the asking price and then subtract a A/C unit ($1400-2000) bravo transom assembly ($1400) 350 reman long block ($6500) and about 2k labor you might end up ahead. 
You could fix or replace the A/C yourself. You could sure the JR marine system to fix the swivel pin, and hopefully fix the engine in the boat. The rest of the stuff should be relatively easy to fix with the exception of the gel/glass, maybe some will chime in about the glass.
With a little work you might be able to get into a nice boat at a low cost.
either way good luck with your choice.

craigswardmtb

Is that fiberglass delam at the transom?  I would be worried the transom is wet and swelled up. Did he do moisture readings?  Other option is to pull some screws at the transom supports and trim tabs and see if water comes out. 

craigswardmtb

This boat would have to be a serious steal for me to move on it imo. 

JPC

Thank you for the comments.  I do not know if it is delamination or just gel coat pealing.  The surveyor used his moisture meter and the only place he had a question was the stringers.  Both were higher than he wanted but he thought it may be due to treated wood used in the. Stringers.  He also used the plastic mallet and all sounded good.

What at do you think would be a price on a fresh water boat with these concerns? 

Liberty44140

my biggest concern here would be the engine bogging. The rest of the list can be fixed at a cost. If the engines ran well I would probably peg this as being worth somewhere in the low or mid $50's considering a new ac unit and the other items you mentioned. I'd budget at lest $5k for the ac and the drive work although you should be able to get it done for less. All that said with an engine mystery I would not buy it. Maybe do compression and leak down tests at the sellers expense and go from there?

Stodge

It's low on the list, but on the windshield wiper, I found out the hard way the wiper switch had 2 positions.  1 was starboard only, the other worked both.  In my case the wiper switch is like the Nav/Anchor switch: center off, top=1, bottom=both.

Surveyor should give you their estimated value.  I'd work with that.  Banks seem to favor a survey over blue book.

Willhound

Insurance company too. Mine used the survey value even though it was $2g over the actual sale price.

CaptianDan

Personally I would avoid it even at a great price.  You don't know what problems the survey hasn't picked up and in addition some of the items on the list could have multiple large issues.  Unless you plan to have the boat out of the water for at least a year to strip it down and do properly or check serious money at it you will always have issues that need attention each season.  Plenty of other boats at good prices IMHO. Good luck.

Liberty44140

@Stodge thanks for posting on the wiper. My port wiper motor is on the list to replace as it does not come on while the Stbd does. Maybe my switch is a multi like yours! Cant wait to check it out. What was the hard way? Did you replace everything and then figure out it was the switch?

Stodge

I leaned against the helm and it came on.....LOL

Dream_Inn

Good one Stodge!  It took me a little to figure mine out when I first got the boat as well.

JPC

Thank you all for the comments and suggestions.  My mechanic is looking at the engine issue at the current owners expense so we will see what he finds in the next couple days. As for the other items my purchase agreement does say all systems operational and working properly.  I'm waiting on the broker to call and discuss the list.  

Stodge, Thank you for the tip. 

Stodge

The one that had be buffaloed was the panel dimmer.  All the labels were missing from the switches so I had to use trial and error to figure them out.

Liberty44140

Funny on the labels - I'm still trying to figure one switch out. I think it was the panel lights switch, they come on with the nav so I dont see the point.

JPC - good plan. The owner should take care of the engine before listing. Selling a boat with no AC or no arch light is ok but selling a boat with a mystery engine problem is not. It could be simple. My 350's have TWO fuel filters per engine so these probably do too. The PO's mechanic only ever changed the main filter and not the pre filter and eventually he had bogging issues like you do. Prefilter was black and should be white. Replaced and all was well. Your problem could be simple, but it should be the owners problem and not yours.

Good luck! 

Stodge

Liberty44140 said:

Funny on the labels - I'm still trying to figure one switch out. I think it was the panel lights switch, they come on with the nav so I dont see the point.

JPC - good plan. The owner should take care of the engine before listing. Selling a boat with no AC or no arch light is ok but selling a boat with a mystery engine problem is not. It could be simple. My 350's have TWO fuel filters per engine so these probably do too. The PO's mechanic only ever changed the main filter and not the pre filter and eventually he had bogging issues like you do. Prefilter was black and should be white. Replaced and all was well. Your problem could be simple, but it should be the owners problem and not yours.

Good luck! 

It may be a panel dimmer like mine.  In my case it's a momentary switch that you hold down or up to change the panel light intensity.

Handymans342

Alswagg said:

Ha so the surveyor has no idea about the moisture in the stringers does he.    Most don't.   They give a number but have no idea what it means.   Most surveyors are full of **** 

++++++++++++ to that

Liberty44140

@stodge you were right. My wiper switch does go both ways. Port still doesn't come on but that's ok, at least now I know how it works. Panel light switch is a dimmer as you said. Thanks!

Stodge

Good deal @Liberty44140

I ended up getting a thermal label maker and some white on clear tape to mark the switches once I figured them out.  I'm thinking of moving the labels to the switches themselves with black on clear tape.

Still think it's kinda funny that there is a switch for the cabin "mood" lights on the helm, and another (unmarked) on the power panel. 

Liberty44140

Ha - I agree that of all the dual switches those mood lights happen to be what was chosen. 

JPC

Shoot, I typed a lengthy update on the issue and most of it was lost.  

Here is the short version.  

Port engine issue resolved.  Contaminated fuel, rotor cap and plugs were the issue.  The owner told the mechanic "the boat hasn't  run this good in years" after a test ride.  He is now having the port tank drained, cleaned and refilled.  

Here is the reply I received from Rinker in response to a question on the crack above the transom plate.  “There is nothing to worry about. Back in the day we did not wrap the fiberglass down  over the corner due to Merc wanted a 100 flat surface & that is  what we did.  Over the years the glass has slightly pulled away from the wood. There is nothing structural y wrong with this.”

The mechanic said the swivel pin has a small weep and is not an issue now.  Will have to budget for this in a few years. 

Now just waiting on the completed survey to present the remaining issues to the current owner. 

While the purchase process is taking more time than I want it seems to be working with the owner correcting issues found with the boat.  

Liberty44140

That is good news! Budget $4k to do both drives swivel pin seals along with the bellows, shift cable and gimbal bearing at the same time. I have another thread going on this right now. 

Cableguy Greg

@JPC, that is great news. You will be cruising around on her before you know it. Keep us all posted on how it goes.

JPC

Today's update - Took the boat out for the second sea trial last night and the engines ran well.  Current owner is having the bad fuel tank Pumped this morning.  We also took a look at a few other items on the list.   The water leak was found to be in the wet bar faucet underneath the counter and he showed me how the A/C worked. He will also be looking at the horn, exhaust leak and why the stereo has no reception.  I'm still waiting on the survey to see if any other items need attention and will take care of the lights that do not work as I am planning to change the color anyway.  Still more to do but we are getting closer.  

Liberty44140

Faucet leak is easy, a few screws to pull fridge and a $5 flair it fitting from the hardware store. Probably cracked, mine did last spring. Horn could be easy. Mine didn't work, 5 screws to open and lube it up with wd40 and back together. Works great. 

rasbury

I had to quit reading - unless your strapped and just have to get into a boat cheap, why in the would anyone want to take this boat on? Obviously the owner did nothing to take care of it and what you seeing may only be the tip of the iceberg. I would at the least check out some other boats for comparison and then make a decision.

LaRea

JPC said:

The owner told the mechanic "the boat hasn't  run this good in years" 

To me, that's not good news at all.  It confirms that the boat has suffered from years of neglect by an owner who wouldn't or couldn't maintain it.  Use the info to negotiate a major price break, and be prepared to walk away.

Cableguy Greg

I wouldn't say that the owner wouldn't or couldn't maintain the boat. Someone that I knew had a 2008 280EC with the 496 Mag and it didn't run right for years. The took it to multiple mechanics who changed this part or that part and it still didn't run right. After being on this forum, with the awesome advice from all of you, I told them to have the engine scanned. They took it to a mechanic who actually scanned the computer and they found a fault in the cool fuel system. They had it fixed and the boat ran great. They tried, but got the run around. Maybe the 342 owner was taking it to someone who kept feeding him a line of BS. Now that the boat is for sale, a different mechanic looked at it and found the issue.

rasbury

there just seems to be a long list of issues on this one.....gonna miss this year boating season trying to get everything fixed! And how much $$$ vs buying something that is ready to go?