Interested in a 1992 Sunsport. Need opinions.

[kvand347]

Well, a little over a week ago, we went out on Saturday evening and we were gonna turn around and go right back out Sunday morning. So I didn't even unhitch Saturday night--I just pulled everything across our driveway and left it. Needless to say, I didn't plug in the float chargers.

I guess one of the batteries had been on its way out. So, we go out on Sunday with 2 other couples on board. I had been talking about the starter issue and I had been thinking it was tied to low voltage. So, after floating for a bit with the music on, I went to move us a little (spin, spin, spin). Then I switched it over to battery #2 and it started right up and I moved us. Then I just left it (didn't want to make the passengers get up to put the battery switch back). More floating and music. Then the wife mentions we're getting closer to the shore so I go to start the boat and NOTHING. Not even a click. On either battery. The good news is that we'd drifted to a perfect sandy beach. so we chilled for a bit and some people had their much needed bathroom breaks behind the bushes. After ignoring a few yaghts, I flagged down a pleasure boat. We both had dual batteries, so I had him lend me his battery to get started, put the dual battery switch over keeping the boat running, then gave him his battery back and we were on our way.

To this day, I call that "dead battery beach" when we pass it.

That night I went to Costco and bought a new marine deep cycle.

So, two days later we're back out on the river. We end up at pretty much the same spot so I can beach it and let one of the girls have a bathroom break. We motor out and do some floating... Then we're heading towards a row of old pylon logs... I go to start the boat and NOTHING. WTF?!?!? I charged it. I bought a new battery. There's no way this s/b happening. I didn't handle this one so gracefully. Definitely more swearing at my boat this time! I just didn't get it. So, we finally flag down a Mastercraft and they have a brand new Optima marine that they lend me. And NOTHING. I was so confused. then the wife *finally* asks me, "Does the boat need to be in neutral to start?"

*facepalm* My batteries were fine. Both of them. That was an embarassing lessen to learn. So embarassing that I forbid anyone on the boat to post that story on facebook! But I'm among fellow boaters here, so I guess I can take my lumps. At least that one didn't cost us a cent and just cost us a little rowing to get us away from the pylons.

Hahaha! Thanks for sharing that story. Makes me a feel a little better!

[sybrmike]

Thanks for conjuring up old memories - glad it was a no-cost situation. Lockout switches can be embarrassing for sure. Way back in the early 80's my high school buddy had to hike to the nearest farmhouse (no cell phones back then) to call his dad when the car mysteriously wouldn't start - in the middle of the night - way out in the woods - alone with his girl. Apparently in the throes of passion, the center console shifter got nudged. Made for a looooong quiet ride home....

[Jetlink]

Right, "high school buddy" Mike...lol

[mabbore]

I have done the same thing a fair amount of times, lol

[trayson]

Welp, it was a little too much off and on rain to go play on the water today, so I bit the bullet and trailered the boat to our local boat dealer. Last time I was out, the Tranny started slipping again. Pretty sure it's leaking tranny fluid (although it's hard to tell as the bilge is a slimy mess with fluid residue everywhere). Cleaned it out as best I could before taking it into the shop.

I'm out of town next week in NYC so I'm hoping that they get it figured out (without spending a zillion dollars in labor) by the time I get back...

*sigh* The uncertainty of $$$ at $100/hr makes me anxious.

So it's been a week and a half and the boat hasn't been touched for a diagnosis, much less a fix. The good is that I've been on vacation in NYC all this week. The bad is that my son goes back to his mom on Friday afternoon, so I've only got a few days next week and then he's not back until July.

Man, I hope it's just a leak.

[trayson]

Okay, here's the update:

Issue
- Tranny was slipping with hard cornering and under load out of the hole.
- Found I was low on Tranny Fluid, so I topped it off (probably a quart low on a 2 quart capacity).
- Slipping went away
- Started slipping again, tranny fluid in the bilge. It's undoubtedly leaking.
- No burnt smell from fluid
- Dropped boat at dealer on 6/18/13
- It took them 11 days until Saturday 6/22 for them to even look at it.
- Supposedly they can't find the source of the leak and it didn't slip when testing it out of the water unloaded.

I'm about at the point where I just have them replace all the damn seals on the transmission and get me my boat back...

Thoughts on what I should do? How many labor hours would be involved in something like replacing the seals? I found the kit for $183 on skidim.
http://www.skidim.com/prodinfo.asp?number=RK173058

[mabbore]

Okay, here's the update:

Issue
- Tranny was slipping with hard cornering and under load out of the hole.
- Found I was low on Tranny Fluid, so I topped it off (probably a quart low on a 2 quart capacity).
- Slipping went away
- Started slipping again, tranny fluid in the bilge. It's undoubtedly leaking.
- No burnt smell from fluid
- Dropped boat at dealer on 6/18/13
- It took them 11 days until Saturday 6/22 for them to even look at it.
- Supposedly they can't find the source of the leak and it didn't slip when testing it out of the water unloaded.

I'm about at the point where I just have them replace all the damn seals on the transmission and get me my boat back...

Thoughts on what I should do? How many labor hours would be involved in something like replacing the seals? I found the kit for $183 on skidim.
http://www.skidim.com/prodinfo.asp?number=RK173058

At the end of last summer I blew both of my reverse clutch plates. At the time i did not know what was wrong, just that my tranny would not engage when in reverse. I have done a handful of Automotive automatic and Manual transmissions over the last 10 years, but I was a little too skidish to tackle this one. I rarely shy away from a project, but rebuilding a couple of automotive transmissions taught me that I did not really have the experience for a solid rebuild on this niche tranny. I was able to find a local guy that had rebuilt dozens of these and did mine for 500. But I pulled the tranny myself.

[Salty87]

flip through this: https://forum.supraboats.com/showthr...ission+rebuild

[trayson]

In case you didn't see it in my other thread:

Okay, here's the update.

I had cleaned out the bilge. I warmed up the tranny on the water and checked the fluid per what I found on a Natique website regarding the PCM 40i 1:1

How to check the fluid level on the PCM transmission

WARNING!
In order to prevent personal injury to you or others on board, whenever the engine is running, the machinery space must be closed. Never operate the engine with the engine machinery space open or while someone is in the machinery space, either open or closed. Never open the machinery space unless the engine is shut off and engine's rotating parts are stationary and remain in a stationary position. Rotating machinery can cause injury and even death if an accident should occur. Whenever a problem exists that requires the operation of the engine with the machinery space open, extreem care must be exercised. IT IS RECCOMENDED THAT UNCOVERED ENGINE OPERATION BE ATTEMPTED ONLY BY TRAINED AND QUALIFIED SERVICE PERSONNEL.

The boat must be at rest in the water with the engine running at idle speed and the proppeller shaft not turning. SEE PRECEDING WARNING.
Pull the dipstick straight up and out of the transmission case to remove dipstick.
Wipe the fluid off the dipstick with a clean cloth.
Push dipstick fully into the installed position in the transmission fill hole.
Remove dipstick and note level indicated. Add fluid, if required, to bring level up to the top mark.

NOTE: Add oil in small amounts to prevent overfilling. If the transmission is over filled the excess will have to be removed to prevent leakage or damage to the transmission.

If it is necessary to add oil repeat steps 1 through 5. Reinstall dipstick.

So I topped off the fluid. Then I took it out and did a bunch of s-turns and Zipped around. No apparent slipping.

So, then I did a few out of the hole pulls. Again, no slipping that I was able to notice.

So, I filled up my ballast sacks. I was probably around 1200 to 1400 pounds of ballast, and didn't feel any slipping pulling my 280 pound friend up on the surf board or when surfing with him. Likewise when he was back corner in the boat with me surfing (the other people were probably 215 more pounds) I didn't notice the tranny slipping.

So, we each had a pretty decent length surf session. He took 3 or 4 pulls. I took just the one long one...

After we were done, the water in the bilge did have a little milky-ness to it. And I probably had to add under 1/4 of a quart to get it back to where it was.

So, the fluid is getting out somehow. Yet I can't seem to find anything obvious. I looked around the pressure relief valve (at the top of the tranny on a spring about the size of a pencil eraser) and it still seemed clean.

I did notice this verbiage in the Factory Service manual that looked interesting:

Problem: Loss of oil with no trace of missing oil.
Cause: Oil leakage from cooler into the cooling fluid
Remedy: Replace cooler.

I'm wondering if this could be it???


On another side note, it seems I have water getting in from somewhere. The bilge pump was running a decent amount when the boat was weighted for surfing. It's always something, right?



Another update. I called up and talked to one of the techs at SkiDIM. (man, they know their sh**.)

The next steps to check are to pull the starter and check for tranny fluid in that area. I guess there's a seal by the flywheel and if that's going bad I'll see it there. Also, he told me to check my engine/transmission/prop alignment. I guess if there's an alignment issue, that transmission has the tendency to walk out seals.

He said that since I'm finding fluid in the bilge, that it's unlikely that it's the transmission cooler. Makes sense.

[trayson]

Well, I fast forwarded my timeline to deal with the leak.

Put the boat in w/o the plug for a minute yesterday. Whoops. No biggie I thought, pulled it out, put the plug in, and let the bilge do its job.

Realized that my tranny could leak water IN just as easily as it leaked fluid out. After a couple wakeboard jumps it let us know it wasn't happy and I had the "strawberry milkshake" on the dipstick.

trolled it back to the dock and spent 3 hours that afternoon doing this:


Today I took my boat cover to a laundromat and found the biggest machines they had.


I put in $8 in quarters (extra rinse and heavy cycle) and came back 45 minutes later. Seems like it really did a good job getting out all the dirt and dust that had embedded itself in the sunbrella fabric. all I did was take off the ratcheting metal hook from the rope. I did put in a few ounces of some BMW Soft Top cleaner into the liquid detergent spot on the washer.

I came home and put it on the boat in the sunshine to dry it out the rest of the way. After it's dry I'll be able to put the 303 protectant on it to make it waterproof again.