Loose swimdeck bolts....

[wotan2525]

Some of my swimdeck bolts seem to be loose or coming loose. I tighten them up as much as possible but it's clear they're not working the way they probably should. I dont want to tear apart the back of the boat or cut out the "new" floor to get to these suckers (not sure why I didn't address this when the floor was out!)

Anyone know of a product or anchor that can hold these bolts securely and prevent too-much of a leak?

[Salty87]

i hear you wotan, not a great design. i copied this off wakemikey's post in another thread, wish i had seen it before i put mine back together. this makes getting at everything soooo much easier. maybe you could open the holes and then put plastic access hatches back in place.

http://photos.wakeboarder.com/data/3490/skilocker.JPG

i tried a few different anchors before the rebuild and nothing worked. just kept making the holes bigger. i added 3/16" aluminum backing plates this time.

[wotan2525]

Man... I don't know if it would be easier to drain and pull the gas tank. That sounds like a huge headache. I wonder though.... I might JUST be able to read a box wrench behind the gas tank and get to it. Not sure how else I would do it. Grrr!

Someone should really design some kind of anchors/plugs that will hold these.

Rob

[rickr]

My TS6M has lag bolts on the bottom and threaded bolts that go to a threaded small aluminum block on the top.

If the wood is rotten I would fix it so you do not crack the fiberglass on the transom.

[wotan2525]

Was there ever a floor over this/under the gas tank? I pulled my gas tank forward and it's at least 6-8" forward and all I see is floor.... very odd!

[wotan2525]

i hear you wotan, not a great design. i copied this off wakemikey's post in another thread, wish i had seen it before i put mine back together. this makes getting at everything soooo much easier. maybe you could open the holes and then put plastic access hatches back in place.

http://photos.wakeboarder.com/data/3490/skilocker.JPG

i tried a few different anchors before the rebuild and nothing worked. just kept making the holes bigger. i added 3/16" aluminum backing plates this time.

The more I look at this the more I'm stumped.... my boat doesn't look anything like this. Is that white tube heading next to the rudder for the blowers? Are those mufflers inline with your exhaust? Mine is so much different!

[87SunSportMikeyD]

White tubing and grey tubing are the exhaust going straight out the back of the boat. Think of where your blower exhaust exits are. They are high on the transom in the back of boat and high on the gunwale in front of boat.

What I wonder about is the bilge valley. You can see the stringers here surrounding the exhaust pipes. If you were in your boat looking in the prop shaft access panel, you would see straight back to the rudder as you see it here. That would be the bilge valley, I believe. I want to know what happens to water that might get in back there but not fall between the inner two stringers (in the bilge valley).

Oh and that picture is not mine, I also found it in someone's post (sorry can't remember who to credit anymore).

[Salty87]

sorry wotan, didn't mean to confuse you. that's how sunsports are, my saltare has floor going all the way to the transom. when i rebuilt it, i would have left it open like that but i hadn't ever seen it done that way. getting at the back of the brackets bolts, muffler, and all is alot better than covering it all up with floor that no one will ever step on with the gas tank covering it.

[wotan2525]

sorry wotan, didn't mean to confuse you. that's how sunsports are, my saltare has floor going all the way to the transom. when i rebuilt it, i would have left it open like that but i hadn't ever seen it done that way. getting at the back of the brackets bolts, muffler, and all is alot better than covering it all up with floor that no one will ever step on with the gas tank covering it.

Awww crap! That's how I remembered it being done, too. I also replaced the floor all the way back... never even thought about it.

And Mikey -- that was the problem in almost all of these boats. Water leaked in the supertrap exhausts, above the bilge valley and there was no way for it to drain into the bilge. Water just sat in there, saturated the foam, rotted the floor from the bottom side and over time slowly crept into the stringers. If I had been smart I would have done a better job creating some drainage holes from these outside chambers back into the bilge valley, but it ultimately became too much work and I figured it lasted almost 20 years the first time.... Another 15+ years would be a gift.

[wotan2525]

Since we're talking about this area, I have another question.... when I bought my boat it had no blowers in it and all of the ducting hose was rotted. The front area is fairly self explanatory, but in the back I installed 2 blowers and made some y-pipes out of PVC. I thought it worked great until I started digging in back here and realized that some of the ducting had collected water. Does anyone have any photos of a "stock" setup?

[Salty87]

this is about as stock as you can get...the black hose that's sitting there goes to one of the rear vents and so does the white hose which was connected to the only blower mine has.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a10/salty87/IMG_0218.jpg