Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

[sheboyganjohn]

Just start the preliminary work on the new project. I don't have any current pics so I attached the ones from last year that the PO sent me.

I was selling a small lot and was open to trades. I was offered this boat and an ATV. The PO bought it a couple of years ago and never used it. He spent months trying to get it ready for a water test. Finally went on one and had all sorts of issues, mainly with shifting. Could not get the boat cranked all the way up on the trailer afterwards due to no crank handle and a steap ramp We ended up pulling it out to try and get it on in the parking lot which was level, but instead the trailer come off the hitch and hitting the back of my Excursion putting a crack in both doors due to the wrong size ball on the hitch. I the only thing that kept me remotely interested was the fact the engines fired so easily and ran smooth. I was ready to end the deal when he threw in $2500 cash. The cash and the ATV covered the price on the lot so the boat was basically free.

So here I am ready to start the project. The interior needs to be gutted and redone. The white fur headliner inside does not do it for me and the berth coverings are way past thier time. The deck needs to be pulled up. It has slight soft spot and I found a tin cover over one spot under the falling apart carpeting. The seat bases with the drawers are made of partical board and are starting to come apart. I plan on pulling both engines and have at it.

So far today I pulled both drives. The U-joints look great. The only issue, other then some nicks and dings on the exterior and being in need of a repaint, was the port drive had RTV put on the top of shift connection on the drive. Could not figure out the purpose other then to give me a whole lot of fun getting the drive off.

A few quick questions. Can I just leave the gimbal bearing area open or should I cover it with something. Also, under each drive there is a rectangular access panel, what is that for?

The only fun repair I have found so far is somewhere in the past on owner decided that platic pop rivets are great for plugging old holes. There has to be 20 of them all over the exterior of the hull. I will have to remove all of them and plug the holes correctly.

It will also need a new name in the end, the wife is not too crazy about the current name.

I will post updates as I go along.

 

[zool]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Ill roll along on this one, I had a Sea ray 260sl with twin 260 mercruisers....Fast boat.

Its probably best to just tape plastic over it, to keep debris off, in case your transom, mount bases, and stringers are ok, and you dont have to pull the engines. I have volvos and are exposed, but im pulling it all out anyway.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

The engines are coming out either way. The bilge area is jet black and I don't like the way the wiring is running behind the motors. If I pull the engines I can get everything cleaned up real well. I also want to take apart the gimbal assemblies and get everything as close to new as I can. Besides, those platic pop rivets I was talking about, there are 7 or 8 in the lower transom below the water line. Looks like they used them to plug up old transducer locations. I have a feeling a transom replacement is going to be part of the project.

 

[nateshindig18]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Ahhh this is almost a twin of the Sea Ray my dad had, except for his had the venturi style wind shield. I LOVED that boat! The best of luck to you on your rebuild and I look forward to seeing updates!

 

[mrdjflores]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

i've been in the middle of a SeayRay SRV220OV restoration for awhile now...very similar boat construction

 

[Oldrod 47]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Looks interesting, had an SRV 220 way back when. Bought it new, long gone now.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Picked up the parts to make a pressure tester for the outdrive, based on the one Jay has on his Youtube video. Will try and get them tested tomorrow. Think I will make a run out to the storage unit and put a plastic bag in each drive shaft opening to protect the gimbal bearing from dust. Will make covers for them tomorrow. Pulled a 12 last night and only had 2 hrs of sleep this morning. Not a good time to work with power tools.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Will have to put up some picks tomorrow. Had to do a tile job in the back hall and some painting on the house this week, but finally had some time yesterday and today.

Started by making the pressure tester. Ended up being a little longer then it should have been due to leaks at the outdrive fitting. Just did not like having a hose clamp on it with 1/4" hose, had to use some 3/16 jamed on to get the leaking to stop.

Next I made two drive stands. One nice and wide so can get the unit on it with the prop still on, a good work surface on the bottom and wheels on it. Looks all nice and special since I had left over baltic birch plywood from the dory build. The other is a complete hack job of left over 2X material and bits and pieces of plywood. Made it just big enough to hold the other drive to store it in the corner.

Hopefully will have time tomorrow to pressure test the first unit.

Found one nice thing about having twin motors, you can learn what you are doing on one motor, and then do it all over again on the other one.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Well got to work on the first outdrive today. Drained the oil, a bit of water came out with it. Put the pressure tester on and took it up to 9 psi, when it hit 8.5 I started to hear air, the pressure dropped to 6 and stopped. Took it up again, same result, this time I was able to see where it was coming from, it is leaking from the vertical drive shaft seal in the top of the upper inside the exhaust housing. Time to dig through the manual and figure out how to change that out.

Attached are some pics of the drive stands.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Have the seal kit ordered to fix the one outdrive. Put 11 psi on the other one this morning. Been 12 hrs and still holding, looks like I only need to do a seal job on one, guess I should have checked before I bought two seal kits. At least they were on sale, never hurts to have extra seals sitting around.

I need to get some more work done on the dory over the next weeks, so I will be doing minimal to the sea ray. Need to get one boat to proper running condition before I tear completely into another one.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Just about have one drive done on the reseal. Found out why it had a bunch of RTV on the top of the shift shaft, it was missing the washer in the base, so the shaft was falling down too far. So instead of pulling the drive and fixing it, they used the RTV to glue the shaft in place.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Just a quick update, finished the first drive and decided to reseal the upper on the 2nd drive since I had the kit. Glad I did. Had some very slight surface rust on the gears and one of the cover bolts was all buggered up. Chased the threads with a tap and die on both the bolt and the hole. Gears I took a stainless brush to them, not much of anything came off. I am not even sure it is rust, might just be a lube stain. Anyhow that drive is back together now and sitting with 12 psi on it. Bought all the wood for the frame to pull the drive. Those cull carts at the big boxes can supply a lot of good stuff to use at a cheap price.

Still have a few side projects to work on, but they are all boat related. Waiting for the power distribution panel to come back for the motor on the dory, need to put the new tach in and work on building a back bench, need to finish up the seats for the cedar strip row boat, they are glued up and just need a layer of glass and cut to size.

Maybe some time soon I will have at least one usable boat.

 

[NoSkillz]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Do you mind taking pictures of the reseal on the second outdrive?

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

I am sorry I have it together already. If you have any questions post them up and I will respond the best I can. It is fairly straight forward so I can talk you through it if needed.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Finally got the boat home and started working on it. Had tires on the way to replace the car tires that are on it, just does not track well with the amount of weight.

Build the engine pulling hoist (see link in my sig).

Started taking the first engine apart to pull it. Bad news, found a crack in the exhaust riser, guess I will be replacing it.



Here is a pick of the engine bay, at least there is a ton of room to work for having twins in it.



Overhead to can see how much room I have to work with to pull them, should not be bad at all.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Now some fun stuff on the hull. Here is a bad pick of the pop rivet party one of the PO had on the boat.



Here you can see a few more, and a caulk gun worth of caulk.



Will hopefully get the engines pulled tomorrow, then I can work on removing the transom assemblies and start washing all the gunk out of the engine bay,

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Got busy with it today. Pulled, both motors, removed the transom assemblies, and started the degreasing process. Everyone else was at work today so it was me myself and I working on this.


First motor on its way out.









Both out and in the yard. I think I am going to need a bigger yard soon.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Starting to get some room now. While degreasing found out the bilge was actually not black. Also found out that even after degreasing, it is slippery, and is really a literal pain in the butt if you leave the front motor mount bolts sticking up. Going to have a nice bolt size bruise tomorrow.

Engines out and starting the cleaning.





One inner transom plate off.



One of the bolts had a slight issue, the other side both bolts had the same issue.



The PO was not shy with the grease.



Will get pic's of the empty engine bay tomorrow.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

Well I started looking over the engines with the neighbor when he stopped over to talk boats and I have found that I have two different engines in the boat, and of course, found one block cracked. I am stumped as to what I have for blocks. I have attached some pic's to see if someone can help me out. If I get nothing on this thread I will post over on the mercruiser section, but I would like to keep the whole project on one thread. Anyhow here they are, the block pic is followed by the ID marks I have found on that block so far:

The bottom block is cracked, what looks like a crack on the top one is where the cracked manifold leaked on the side of the block.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

I did a bunch of searching on the internet by block casting numbers and it appears the good block (first one) is an original marine engine. The second block (the cracked one) is from a Chevy Monza. Guess I will be looking for a different marine block and the 140 (aka early 3.0) blocks are not that easy to come by at a reasonable price from what I am seeing.