wotan2525
08-07-2005, 09:04 PM
Well guys -- the saltares rebirth was brief. If you remember I rebuilt the engine and was back on the water about a week - week and a half ago. Well since then I've put close to 15 hours on the rebuild and had a killer time.
Yesterday however -- was a bad day.
I drove the boat about 20 miles to take a lady-friend out for breakfast. The engine was running great and no incidents occurred. We docked, and returned to the boat about an hour later. Engine fired right up, we putted through the no-wake zone, hit the throttle and the thing bogged down. I stopped and water came crashing over the back -- NOT GOOD! I lifted the engine compartment to find waaaaay too much water up around the engine. The engine died and the bilge pumps drained the battery before the engine could be restarted. We drifted in to about 16" of water and the boat rested on the bottom -- or as I say, it sank (tears!).
We were able to get a tow off, and make it to the gas dock -- they were kind enough to lend me an outlet for my battery charger so that I could run the pumps and clear out the bilge. I of course, checked all of the plugs and everything else I could think of that could be leaking -- no dice. Charged the batteries up, found that the wires to the fuel pump had become disconnected, rewired them, made a few other adjustments and fired the engine back up. Made the 20 minute return trip with the pumps on full blast.
When I got back to the home-base I again reinspected everything and discovered a leak from my boot covering the prop-shaft. I then found that a hose-clamp had broken on there -- it is a PSS Shaft boot seal thing. Simple enough ... cruised up to the hardware store and purchased a hoseclamp, returned and installed the hose-clamp and it still leaked.
Pulled the boat out of the water, brought it home and disassambled the prop seal. It looked fine, but I found that the tube that the shaft goes through to exit the hull was worn all the way through on one side -- further more it became obvious that the prop shaft was nowhere near the center of the tube and had probably been rubbing on the shaft-tube to the point of failure I didn't really change the engine alignment, and my shaft-seal always leaked more then it had, so I'm not taking full credit for this f-up (though I probably contributed to it by not checking engine alignment when I reinstalled the engine).
Now I'm in quite a conundrum -- the shaft tube is bonded with the hull of the boat and can not be removed or replaced as far as I can tell. Can anyone tell me who I should be looking for to repair this and how much I can expect it to cost?
I want to make sure I get this fixed up real nice so I don't embarass myself in front of any other girls. ;)
MORE TEARS!
Rob
Yesterday however -- was a bad day.
I drove the boat about 20 miles to take a lady-friend out for breakfast. The engine was running great and no incidents occurred. We docked, and returned to the boat about an hour later. Engine fired right up, we putted through the no-wake zone, hit the throttle and the thing bogged down. I stopped and water came crashing over the back -- NOT GOOD! I lifted the engine compartment to find waaaaay too much water up around the engine. The engine died and the bilge pumps drained the battery before the engine could be restarted. We drifted in to about 16" of water and the boat rested on the bottom -- or as I say, it sank (tears!).
We were able to get a tow off, and make it to the gas dock -- they were kind enough to lend me an outlet for my battery charger so that I could run the pumps and clear out the bilge. I of course, checked all of the plugs and everything else I could think of that could be leaking -- no dice. Charged the batteries up, found that the wires to the fuel pump had become disconnected, rewired them, made a few other adjustments and fired the engine back up. Made the 20 minute return trip with the pumps on full blast.
When I got back to the home-base I again reinspected everything and discovered a leak from my boot covering the prop-shaft. I then found that a hose-clamp had broken on there -- it is a PSS Shaft boot seal thing. Simple enough ... cruised up to the hardware store and purchased a hoseclamp, returned and installed the hose-clamp and it still leaked.
Pulled the boat out of the water, brought it home and disassambled the prop seal. It looked fine, but I found that the tube that the shaft goes through to exit the hull was worn all the way through on one side -- further more it became obvious that the prop shaft was nowhere near the center of the tube and had probably been rubbing on the shaft-tube to the point of failure I didn't really change the engine alignment, and my shaft-seal always leaked more then it had, so I'm not taking full credit for this f-up (though I probably contributed to it by not checking engine alignment when I reinstalled the engine).
Now I'm in quite a conundrum -- the shaft tube is bonded with the hull of the boat and can not be removed or replaced as far as I can tell. Can anyone tell me who I should be looking for to repair this and how much I can expect it to cost?
I want to make sure I get this fixed up real nice so I don't embarass myself in front of any other girls. ;)
MORE TEARS!
Rob