Interested in a 1992 Sunsport. Need opinions.

[trayson]

We went out and water tested it today. I brought a funnel and a pump to be able to add/subtract fluid. What ended up happening is that when I pulled some fluid out to correct the over-fill, I was able to see a little water in there. So, I am thinking that there was some residual fluid in the lines to/from the tranny cooler that didn't empty when we disconnected it. Yeah, we didn't think about that until everything was all hooked up and re-filled. So, we sucked out all the fluid we could, refilled it with new fluid and then let it circulate a little, then sucked out all the fluild we could again, and replaced it with clean fluid. An on the water flush of sorts.

I'll probably attempt a better flush over the next couple days here at home. Any insight on the best methods to flush a transmission?

In other news, Looks like we got a good location to mount our in hull transducer though. I was able to get reads off it that seemed very logical with what we know of our river. So, we'll probably work on getting it permanently mounted soon as well. And it did seem like our prop alignment paid off.

We were kinda hoping that tonight would be a fun play night, but it ended up being a shakedown cruise. There was no way I was going to put any load on the engine when I found even a little residual water in the system.

[trayson]

last week I drained the tranny really good with the topsider pump. I disconnected the cooler lines and blew out the cooler. Then refilled with new fluild. Took it out on Sat and Sun and we're in good shape.

Had a blast playing on the water both days.

Been with maintenance and upgrades. The vinyl got a little messy from all our wrenching we were doing. Normal vinyl cleaner didn't get it clean enough so we took some dollar store "totally awesome" cleaner to it and it got off some stains I couldn't before.

I decided to pull my head unit and got a new Wetsounds WS420SQ equalizer/zone control. I installed it and filled the gap with a little pocket. it isn't perfect asthetically, but I can live with it. (yeah, that's tape filling up the width on the pocket)

so I'll just use my phone or ipod as the music source. I have some tower speakers on the way and am excited to be able to have those arrive.

I had bought one of these ropes from Airhead. Um, it's now the backup after my 235 pound buddy snapped it getting pulled up on a wakeboard.

So, I got some good spectra line and a new handle (courtesy of the wife's pocketbook).

I also bought a new amp for my system that will go to the sub, and that will free up the amp that's been powering the sub to handle the new tower speakers when they arrive. I'm stoked that all 3 amps fit perfectly in the storage compartment below the observer seat and I still have room for the dual batteries, a gallon of tranny fluid, and misc odds and ends.

The issue with the engine dying seems to have gone away. Maybe it was just resetting the carbs? Maybe it was switching to ethanol free gas? not sure.

The new flywheel and reconditioned starter make the boat start up like a champ with no issues. New battery is holding up GREAT and no more dead battery woes.

I bought a $7 vinyl repair kit and patched up any tears/rips. Seems pretty legit and for the price and ease, you can't beat it.


We ran the wire for the depth gauge some time ago, and I finally got the base for the in-hull transducer epoxied into the bilge. As soon as I get the o-ring that was supposed to be in my kit, then I'll have that installed and operational. It'll be nice to not be flying blind anymore. (it'll probably be scarier too knowing the depth instead of being blissfully ignorant).

[TitanTn]

Great updates.

I'm interested in that vinyl repair. Where did you get that, and have you used it yet?

[trayson]

Great updates.

I'm interested in that vinyl repair. Where did you get that, and have you used it yet?

Well, basically, it's like a clear tape. I put it on a couple days ago and it fully cures and really adheres in the vinyl in like 24 hours. It was $7 for a box that had around 7" x 4" of the tape. I cut it into pieces and stuck it on (after cleaning the spot--they give you alcohol pads). So it's super easy and cheap. We'll see how effective and lasting it is...

I bought it at my local grocery/department store (Fred Meyer, aka Kroger). But I'm sure it's available anywhere.

[villain]

They work great. They also have tearaid for your tubes. They work great also.

[trayson]

Got some cool video of the boat. Finally getting comfortable enough surfing to get some footage!

http://contour.com/stories/supra-sun...oing-surf-duty

[trayson]

So, after I got that boat footage, my starter took a dump. We'd been hearing some odd noises, which I'm not thinking were the bendix gear getting stuck out. at the VERY end of the night, after picking up the last surfer, we turned the boat off and started to pump out our ballast. The starter just spun with every key turn. I tired 30+ times. I swtiched batteries, etc and it wasn't voltage related. Ultimately we had to get towed in by a 12 foot aluminum fishing boat.

I popped the guy $20 and a big thanks and we took it home. had the starter off with a quickness and the bendix gear is all rattly on the shaft. Definitely the starter. We cancelled our trip to Central Oregon (we were going to Lake Billy Chinook). It would just be too much stress and uncertainty to come off another repair and me that far from home. So we'll boat locally again this weekend and make the best of it.

I had just had the starter cleaned up and tested a couple weeks ago and this was the 4th trip on the starter since that. So it's going back and I've pressed them and they're gonna give me a 24 hour turnaround on the repair. I'm not as concerned about the money as the downtime.

Thankfully we live in a spot with tons of options for boating. Damn this 20 year old boat!

[beat taco]

Damn, I'd fix it and roll to LBC bro!

Last weekend!

[trayson]

Damn, I'd fix it and roll to LBC bro!

Last weekend!

Ugh, you're killing me. Decision was already made. *sigh*

[trayson]

So, I'm back at work after a week off. We did a "stay-cation" because my wife couldn't get the week off work. It's a good thing that we didn't go to Lake Billy. I was able to get the starter guy to rebuild my starter and picked it up on Friday after work. I threw it in that night and we hit the water on Saturday morning. Again we hear the starter spin a few times during the morning and ultimately the starter gets stuck engaged. ARGH! The relay was working as designed per my test light. So we idled back to the dock (so I didn't hash on my flywheel's new ring gear.

That night, I went to the auto parts store and bought a automotive starter for a Ford 351 and a new starter relay. (the starter guy said that the automotive ones were sealed up the same as the marine ones, just a big price hike on the marine). I also cleaned all my terminals on the battery cables. No problems with the new setup.

In the meantime I ordered up new battery cables to go from the batteries to the perko switch, and the neg that joins the two batteries, and the neg from the batteries to the block and a new cable from the starter to the relay. The main power cable looked okay. I upsized and had custom cables made with 0-gauge welding cable.

So, looks like my starter issues are behind me. I've also battled another round of water in the fuel and I think I'm past that as well. (relocated the gas breather to my non-surf side for a quick fix).

Also did a lot of work with wiring to get my tower speakers and lights up and running. After this, I wish I would have drilled slightly bigger holes to run the wire through. Yikes. What a PITA fishing wire. The kite string and shop vac worked decent though to at least get the first runs through the pipe. It's still "in progress" but I was able to through up the tower speakers so I could at least get some satisfaction... I went with Bazooka Marine Tubbies with the Compression Horn drivers. It was a lot more affordable than the big name stuff and I'm pretty satisfied so far. I'm one amp short because a phoenix gold amp I bought off CL ended up being a dud and the kid I bought it from is 17 with no job and already spent the money. Stupid me for having too much trust. Oh well, new amp ordered so hopefully it'll get here soon. In the meantime, I'm running boat speakers off one amp and the tower speakers off another and no sub amp right now.

Also got the surf wave more dialed in by putting both big bags stacked on the side of the engine. No bow weight and keeping the depth over 10 feet seems to be a great combo. Added the little bag in the rear center when we were low on people.

With the new setup, I end up running water at the rub rail all the way up to the cleat when moving. But it works good and we haven't got any water in the boat or had any driveability issues yet. (well aside from the fact that starting the boat when it's listing isn't as easy. Damn carbs)

When I was routing my tower speakers I did a "fix" to the plastic trays that hold the tubes for my air intake. The tabs obviously break off pretty easy so this was a solution for me. Just used a stubby screw and a speed clip leftover from various stereo installs...