Splashwell Problem, Need Solution

[Frank Acampora]

Re: Splashwell Problem, Need Solution

You didn't mention boat size and engine size, but if the engine is any decent sized horspower, forget the ohmmeter and get a tachometer. To me, a nice package is: Speedo, tach, volt, fuel, and temp. But, of course, everyone has a different opinion as to what is necessary. I think you will find though that everyone agrees that a tach is essential.

Although pitot tube speedos are inaccurate, they do look nice and do give a rough idea, in combination with the tach, of how well the engine is performing.

Oops--you did say it was a 90 hp but you also said it was manual tilt while in the photo, both the tilt and trim cylinders, and the pump are visible. Is it broken?

That boat should have a 20 inch transom AND both my Glastrons (15 and 16) like the engine mounted with the cav plate about an inch above the bottom of the v--so run it before you change the height setting.

Now, I'm going to make a guess here--if 90 is the max hp on the capacity plate, and looking at the contour of the transom, is your boat a 15 foot aqualift II bowrider? If so, you will have fun with it but she is going to give you a rough ride at speed going over wakes.

 

[Sprockett]

Re: Splashwell Problem, Need Solution

You didn't mention boat size and engine size, but if the engine is any decent sized horspower, forget the ohmmeter and get a tachometer. To me, a nice package is: Speedo, tach, volt, fuel, and temp. But, of course, everyone has a different opinion as to what is necessary. I think you will find though that everyone agrees that a tach is essential.

Although pitot tube speedos are inaccurate, they do look nice and do give a rough idea, in combination with the tach, of how well the engine is performing.

Oops--you did say it was a 90 hp but you also said it was manual tilt while in the photo, both the tilt and trim cylinders, and the pump are visible. Is it broken?

That boat should have a 20 inch transom AND both my Glastrons (15 and 16) like the engine mounted with the cav plate about an inch above the bottom of the v--so run it before you change the height setting.

Now, I'm going to make a guess here--if 90 is the max hp on the capacity plate, and looking at the contour of the transom, is your boat a 15 foot aqualift II bowrider? If so, you will have fun with it but she is going to give you a rough ride at speed going over wakes.

The motor is a Evinrude 90 V4, the tilt works fine I'm just stating what the ID Plate states . It was a bit odd to me as well, regardless the the cav plate is about 2 inches above the bottom of the V. The boat is a 15' Glastron 74 Sportster, for it's age it's in pretty good shape (from what I can tell).

I was not aware that you could put a tach or temp on an outboard, more stuff to convince the wife I HAVE to buy . So based on your advice, I'll have:

Speedo
Voltage
Tachometer
Fuel Guage
Engine Temp

ReelFishin, I have seen no other holes in the transom for the motor mounting, so I think they just used the original ones. There is no metal plate back there at this point. I was going to lower the motor one hole set but now I'm going to hold off based on Frank's advice. I'm going to take the boat down to the local shop and have him look at it before I do anything to the motor and mount, I'm a little reticent to monkey with the mounts at this point.

After a lot of looking at this problem, I'm going to drill a hole in the bottom of the splashwell and put in a 1/2" end piece (epoxied in) and then about 1.5" lower off the port side of the transom I'll put a drain and hook those together with tubing. I don't want to drill through the side of the transom in the splashwell area because it will never fully drain. By doing this I'l keeping the drain hole well above the water line and still allowing a gravity feed.

-Paul-

 

[jtexas]

Re: Splashwell Problem, Need Solution

this is the switchplate I fabricated from an old stereo component cabinet, customized the finish with a dremel & grinding stone, and some plexiglass - gauges on the other side, haven't done 'em yet. My gauge set consists of a tachometer.

 

[Sprockett]

Re: Splashwell Problem, Need Solution

Love it jtexas!!

I just cleared out the bilge area and was digging around, it's a huge nest of wires back there!! I'm not looking forward to cleaning that up at all. But I can't make heads or tails of anything so it has to get fixed and done right, I have a fuse block and I was planning on running the instruments, lights and other accessories off of that and place it up in the starboard side of the boat (right under the instrument panel, where I can easily get to it).

I have all the wire and connectors, I just have to order the new guages before I put this all together.

This thing is turning into a labor of love

-Paul-

 

[jtexas]

Re: Splashwell Problem, Need Solution

thought you might like to see what this guy on my local fishing board did with his panel, pretty impressive:
http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/2108148#Post2108148

I pulled miles of wire not connected to anything out of my boat - previous owners (my dad, and couple of his friends before that) would just run new wire ever time they replace a pump or whatever. And the connections....some pigtails with wire nuts, some with electrical tape, some bare. Some soldering, some of that left bare. Interesting what can collect in a boat over 25 years. I found it easier (and more fun, really) to rip it all out & start from scratch.

 

[ml8163]

Re: Splashwell Problem, Need Solution

Hey Sprockett,

Sounds like a nice little project boat you've got there... I'm curious to see what it looks like. Can you post some pics?

 

[Sprockett]

Re: Splashwell Problem, Need Solution

That's very cool, I thought about doing a good burl wood and still may, I have some really nice stuff I use for guitars and I have enough for a dash for sure. I have decided that I'm going to cut out the current dash and leave just enough to connect a flat dash to it. That way I can I wire up the whole dash in the shop, test everything and then just install it in one piece.

I hooked up the fuel sender to the new tank yesterday and tested that and the gauge, worked like a champ.

I'm looking for a Tach and temp right now, and then I'll start laying it all out.

Cheers

-Paul-

thought you might like to see what this guy on my local fishing board did with his panel, pretty impressive:
http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/2108148#Post2108148

I pulled miles of wire not connected to anything out of my boat - previous owners (my dad, and couple of his friends before that) would just run new wire ever time they replace a pump or whatever. And the connections....some pigtails with wire nuts, some with electrical tape, some bare. Some soldering, some of that left bare. Interesting what can collect in a boat over 25 years. I found it easier (and more fun, really) to rip it all out & start from scratch.

 

[Sprockett]

Re: Splashwell Problem, Need Solution

As soon as I get a chance I'll post some shots of the boat...

-Paul-

Hey Sprockett,

Sounds like a nice little project boat you've got there... I'm curious to see what it looks like. Can you post some pics?

 

[guy74]

Re: Splashwell Problem, Need Solution

On my sportster, the motor is mounted 2 holes lower than yours. The motor doesn't block the drain on mine. I like the motor mounted lower, I'm after holeshot and being able to turn very tight without ventilating. Those thing are more important to me than top speed since the main thing we do is ski behind it. Goodluck with however you go about fixing it, I really like my little Glastron. Hope you have alot of fun with yours.
Goodday,
Brian

 

[Mike Robinson]

Re: Splashwell Problem, Need Solution

DO NOT REMOVE THE FOAM AND WOOD! The foam is for upright floatation and the plywood box that helps form it is actually a structural member. See--on those Glastrons, the wood part of the transom does not go across the whole stern of the boat. That plywood actually helps transfer some of the transom load to the hull floor...

I'm not suggesting you go ahead and remove the foam, but don't expect that this foam would keep the boat from capsizing if it flooded with copious amounts of water. It will help keep the boat floating, just not upright.

Cheers.

 

[Sprockett]

Re: Splashwell Problem, Need Solution

Well I finally found what I think is some rot in the transom, someone had drilled a hole low in the transom to run a wire for the depth finder, the damn hole was friggin 1/2" diameter. I drilled out all the other holes and soaked them with Rot Fix and then soaked a dowel in rot fix and pushed that in so they would have something solid for the marine tex to grab onto. But when I got to that hole the drill shavings where very very fine, I couldn't dig it very easily but it was darker than the other spots which leads me to beleive that the silicone failed at some point and rot had started. So I drilled out all the silicone until I got wood from the hole, I then again filled it as best I could with Rot Fix and then pushed another dowel in there.

I'm not sure what else I can actually do?, I started with just 4 holes to fill and after digging came up with 8!!, some where smaller where they had bolted stuff onto the back and then at some point filled them with silicone. All those got the same treatment, so at this point I'm think of pulling the motor all together and seeing what's underneath it as well (kind of scared to try and unmount that beast).

But my think is that if it I luck out and can remount the motor, I'll do a quick fill and sand on the transom and then paint it so when I'm ready to paint at the end of the boating season I'll at least have below the motor done.

I got frustrated because for the trailer tie downs they drilled a bunch of holes in one area, if you have a boat, THINK before you start just dilling holes in the damn things hull!!!, and they just filled them all with Silicone instead of plugging them...

Sorry... just frustrates me how people just don't think sometimes... I don't want a boat with holes in, kind of defeats the purpose of the boat

-Paul-