New Starcraft Islander?and I have general boat questions!

[Pusher]

Watermann: Cool, good to know and good advice. I'll give it a go with fluid and see what's what. Although, I am now realizing that I have no idea how to drain the fuel—should there be a drain, or will I need to siphon or something?

Pusher: You're probably right. I kind of figured that there were standard switches, but I guess things change over the years! Ha. Who knows what they do now. I'll figure it out thanks!

Sounds like you're where I was a couple years ago... Just jumping into boating and wanting a cheap (neglected) project to learn on. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't know much about electricity but I found boats are pretty easy. There's no real standard setup. Both manufacturers and forum members use whatever looks good really. You can do toggles, levers, or push buttons. I went with a flashy approach since everything else on my boat screams broke gen Y with college debt

https://www.google.com/search?q=led...QldDRAhWjjVQKHYzmC_UQ_AUICCgC&biw=360&bih=559

Just google Led push button.
With these you have to solder the wires on since the chinese market hasn't started shipping the terminals over yet. There are two types of push buttons, the intermitttent and constant, where clicking once means it stays on (running lights) whereas clicking once on the other means it stays on until you let go (think horn). The other draw back besides soldering, is that these are slightly wider than typical toggle switches so you might have to modify your dash.

You have toggle switches on your boat which are easy to use but stick out. Labeling them could be as easy as this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/262741270958

Which you should be able to see at post #17 on my build
http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...-17-bell-boy-runabout?p=10264489#post10264489

We can tell you what most of these switches do if you tell us what they're hooked up to.

If it's to your speedometer it's probably a backlight.
If it's to your compass, a backlight
You should have a horn switch and a running light switch.
There might be a blower switch for the motor.
There's likely an accessory switch which powers miscellaneous items.
There may be a main switch before you can fire the motor up.

My approach when redoing my wiring (what wiring was left) was to figure out how I wanted it routed, then I rewired each of the gauges/accessories one at a time.

I can snap a shot under my dash if you'd like to see what I did for keeping the wiring organized.

If I went overkill on you feel free to say so!

 

[oceanfrank]

Pusher, that was overkill and not appreciated.

Just kidding! All that info is very appreciated. I think I mentioned in a post long ago that probably got buried... I wouldn't call myself new to boating, but I'm definitely new to this whole "I/o boat and everything is wired and there's a whole new vocabulary and things to remember"

Which is my way of saying that this is my first boat that's not outboard powered. So for all intents and purposes, treat me like a total dummy!

Especially when I ask questions like this one: when I jump it... right now the outdrive is up. Not only do I not know which switch lowers the outdrive, I won't have power to lower it until I jump it. How should I handle this? Is t okay to put the boat in the water and start it with the outdrive up? And then just lower it once I have power?

I have closed cooling I'm told, but some water is taken in. Will this water be taken in and cycled with the outdrive up, or will I have limited time to work if i don't lower the outdrive first?

Thanks!

 

[ezmobee]

Running any I/O with the outdrive up is bad news for your U-joints. So I think figuring out how to lower that should be a priority.

 

[Watermann]

Running any I/O with the outdrive up is bad news for your U-joints. So I think figuring out how to lower that should be a priority.

Yeap so my advice is to pull the outdrive off, it has to come off anyway so why worry about water pumps and u joints just pull it.

 

[Pusher]

You probably have more drive than me, but I tend to leave things half finished if I know I'm not using it. I say this because I never buy things that are already dissassembled off CL.

I'd try to do what ez said. (Sorry, I just know they lower when you hit the button. Not sure how to "hot wire" it)

 

[oceanfrank]

So, I used my van battery and jumped it. Stupid me?OF COURSE if I have jumper cables hooked up to a battery, I can just use that battery to power the outdrive! ha. I have no idea what I was thinking, saying I'd have to jump it first.

anyways.

got the outdrive down, the up and down worked great. But when I tried to jump the actual engine, it seemed like it was turning over reeeaaallly slowly. Like the battery wasn't strong enough to get it going properly. I can't explain it: I put a video up on youtube because I don't know how to upload it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbmAximtFMI&feature=em-share_video_user


So, I'm hoping someone says, "obviously, your battery was too weak" but I'm fully expecting someone to say "well, I've seen that before. Your conflangler drive is shot, and it probably screwed up your gloofus valve. That whole engine is definitely toast"

What being said, the P.O. had it turning over pretty well when I bought it?I think. I only vaguely remember, because I didn't want him to keep trying in case it burned out a cooling intake system or something and I was worried about that rather than how fast the engine was turning over. In my head, I went, "well, it's turning over, so it's not frozen. I can work with this".

Happy to hear thoughts.... Didn't want to push it further in case I screwed something up!

thanks!!

 

[Patfromny]

Did you have a battery in the boat that you were jumping? I don't think jumper cables hooked to a car battery on one side and then just the cables on the boat side will do it. Either try a jumper box or better yet, take the batt. Out of your car and connect it to your boat. That will work for sure.

 

[Watermann]

Could be a problem with amperage loss. Do you have the jumper cable clamped to the end of the boats power cable? I think Pat has the right idea. If that doesn't work pull the drive off so the starter isn't having to turn the driveshaft too. That squeaking noise sounds like something wanting to seize up, pull the drive belt off is another thing to try.

 

[oceanfrank]

Patfromney: I went back and tried both your suggestions. Maybe you hit on the problem. I first tried with a jumper box (500 amp/1000 peak) and got the same result: the slow turning. So I took my battery and put it in the boat. When I tried to take out the old, dead battery, the cables on the positive side were on fairly tight, but still loose enough that I was able to wiggle it off. The negative side was well connected, but rusted and old and weak. When I tried to undo the nut to loosen the terminal, the entire terminal snapped off the cable (yep. terminal just broke off under normal ratchet stress).
Cut away some of the negative wire housing, and shoved the loose wires into the broken off terminal and shoved that onto my battery. Thought the connection was pretty decent; ran the outdrive with no issues at all but when I turned the key it just clicked, Never got it to actually turn over. Must just have terrible, terrible wiring in there.

So, I think it should be pretty cheap to replace those wires, right? In terms of bare necessities to get the engine to turn over, I need a positive lead going to the starter motor, and a negative lead going to a ground, and that's pretty much it, right?

watermann: I had the jumper cable clamped to the end of the boat's power cable, which was over the terminals of an old, dead battery. I'm thinking Pat (and you) is on the right track with the amperage loss... I think I'm going to replace the positive and negative cables first and then see what's what!

Thanks!!

 

[Pusher]

The click click is your solenoid trying to plung and make connection but it can't get enough "Juice".

Just remove the terminal altogether and touch the bare wires to the battery terminals. You could probably use vise grips if they're handy. That corroded terminal is #1 corroded and blocking the flow of electricity, and then #2 the cable is not fully secured to the terminal so again you're losing the flow of juice ending with just enough oomph to plunge the solenoid for the clicking sound.

 

[Pusher]

Out of curiosity, how old is your battery and what's the cranking amps on it?

Could be it's about to take a dive on your car.

 

[Patfromny]

I agree with pusher. Cut off the terminal end and vise grip or hose clamp the wires to the terminals. You could buy new wires if they are cheap enough of course. I don't know your budget. You could also look for new terminal ends at the auto parts store. They sell just the ends if you have enough length in the cable to cut and put new ones on. That should be a pretty cheap solution.

 

[oceanfrank]

Pusher:
Thanks, I will try that. I figured it was something like that, like a car... but just wanted to make sure it wasn't something about the engine and I could ruin something by trying to start it!

I actually don't know about my battery.... it's pretty big and can crank over a v8 van, so I figured it'd be strong enough for this. And the jump pack I was using is 500amps (1000 peak)... not 100% sure what that translates to, but both are pretty big. It was the biggest jump box I could find a few months ago. I'm guessing it's just a problem with the wires! thanks!

Patfromney: Thanks. Yeah, I'll look into wires and terminals and see what the price difference is. If they're close, I'll probably just go with all new wires because if the terminals are bad on this end, they're probably bad on the other end, too. ha!

thanks all! I will try again ASAP


EDIT: Looking at battery leads now. How thick should I be looking? I see a lot of 4GA, is that fine or should I go up to 2GA? thanks

 

[bobkat1864]

Battery Cable Amperage Capacity Chart
Recommended Length and Amperage for Battery Cable while maintaining a 2% or less voltage drop at 12 volts
Battery Cable Size 50 Amps 100 Amps
6 Gauge (AWG) 11.8 ft 5.9 ft
4 Gauge (AWG) 18.8 ft 9.4 ft
2 Gauge (AWG) 29.8 ft 14.9 ft

 

[bobkat1864]

Had a hard time pasting that chart into the thread, but finally got it (sorta) lol. Bigger is better when it comes to battery cables. I bought mine off the shelf at the auto parts store...been in the boat for years and no problems. Marine rated cables are what you want...I'm right on Lake Erie so the auto parts stores carry em, but it would be easy for you to order them right here at iBoats.

 

[oceanfrank]

bobkat: thanks for the info!! I will get some giant, marine-rated cables

 

[bobkat1864]

You're welcome Frank...thanks for sharing your project with us. One of the nicest things you can do for your boat is to replace old wiring with nice new marine rated stuff...not to costly either, and what a difference it makes.

 

[oceanfrank]

Ordered some marine wire... should be in by this weekend! In the meantime, I'm going to start taking the floor off and see what's what underneath. Going to take out any old foam that's there, and then lay down new foam.

Two questions: one about the foam, one unrelated. About the foam: I'm going to do a search to figure out what kind of foam I'll be needing (so far, looks like polyurethane?). Can I just get foam at Home Depot? What about products like Great Stuff for filling in gaps, is this a suitable floatation foam? I'm seeing forums where people used it, but want to double check. I also see people using insulation foam, but I was under the impression that insulation foam (the sheets, at least) were polystyrene. Am I wrong about this?

And question #2: This is a dumb one. My islander has a small cuddy cabin area, with a hatch that opens up to the bow. can I stand/walk on the bow? There is a small railing, so it kind of looks like maybe they anticipate some weight, but not for long. So can I walk up there? What about on the next level/step up?right around the front windshield?

thanks!!

 

[Watermann]

Just about all the SC rebuilds are going back together with rigid foam board either pink or blue, the color doesn't matter.Some cut it to act as a deck support by laying it in on edge cut just right. I didn't get a good pic of my current SS foam job when it was complete, I added a whole bunch more but the pic of my SN shows what you can do. Don't worry about filling every little void up, it's not even enough to matter.

The forward deck support beams are plenty strong and if you put weight on the bow cover in between the supports the AL will flex but it won't cause damage. I don't know about how safe it is walking about on top of the cabin, never tried it on my Chief.

 

[oceanfrank]

watermann: Thanks! So, like, this stuff? (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Foamular...uare-Edge-Insulating-Sheathing-20WE/207179253)
Is it okay that this stuff is polystyrene? I looked at a few websites that a said not to use polystyrene, I thought.

Also, so just to be clear, you are saying it's okay to walk around the area if I go up and through the hatch, but I shouldn't go beyond that hatch area, which is basically the bow cover. What about walking along the little teeny tiny gunwhales that can get me from the hatch/bow cover area to the rest of the boat? thanks!!