1987 Ski Centurion Tru Trac II - First Time Rebuild - Floor, Engine, Dash, etc.

[ACon977]

Alright! So got out to the garage for an hour last night during the snow storm and got the Butterfly valve discs installed with the new screws. Turns out, the screws were perfect for one of the side (maybe even a little long), and on the other they were a few threads short. But.. Im assuming they will be fine. I tightened them down, but didnt torque them since they are brass and Im concerned I could rip the threads.

A note to people like me who havent done full carb rebuilds before.. When putting the valves back in, you have to orient to have the side of the disc with the numbers on it UP when you are reinstalling to the shaft. As you can kind of see in the image below (this was before disassembly), the discs dont seat flush when they are closed, therefore they cant spin 360 in the cylinder.
I was pretty dam frustrated when I tried installing the other way and couldn't figure out why they wouldn't close correctly lol.


In addition to the screws, it was recommended to me to put in a power valve check ball. This is to prevent backfires from ruining your carb.. I think. Either way, drilled out the hole, put in a little spring and ball, then hammered the retainer ring on top until it was flush, Kind of a pain, but hopefully it helps in the long run.
You can also see the screw lengths I was talking about in the pics below

 

[ACon977]

Also, regarding the choke assembly....

Does anyone know if this arm is supposed to interact with the pin on the piston arm? I would assume not but its pretty damn close at the moment and the profile of the arm fits perfectly with the pin.

If the choke is upside down the pin does actually interact with the arm so I figured I would ask.

 

[mr300z87]

Looking good. You might consider putting some lock tight on those butter fly screws as you do not want them coming loose and falling into a running engine as that could make for a very bad day. I have nover touched a holly carb so I am of no help on your other question. Be safe.

Its a scary time when you get excited about getting large packs of toilet paper and paper towels like I did today from Sam's club.

 

[ACon977]

Looking good. You might consider putting some lock tight on those butter fly screws as you do not want them coming loose and falling into a running engine as that could make for a very bad day. I have nover touched a holly carb so I am of no help on your other question. Be safe.

Its a scary time when you get excited about getting large packs of toilet paper and paper towels like I did today from Sam's club.

Loctite is a great idea, dont know what that didnt seem obvious to me. Thanks for the suggestion!

As far as stocking up, not sure why everyone is buying so much TP.. theres no real correlation, but the shortage in the stores is becoming a real issue lol

 

[Omar88Centurion]

Loctite is a great idea, dont know what that didnt seem obvious to me. Thanks for the suggestion!

As far as stocking up, not sure why everyone is buying so much TP.. theres no real correlation, but the shortage in the stores is becoming a real issue lol

Hey how’s it going guys. I just purchased me a 1988 Centurion Tru Trac II on Friday. My first boat so new to this boat world. I got the boat I think cheap for $2300, boat is all there and runs a little rough but doing a little tune up on engine and carb, and a good detail. I’ve been reading this form the past 3 days and it has helped a lot from those cleats, redoing the floor, seat and storage, and buffing compound. Really cool restore your doing AC taking some time but hey that’s the beauty of it “built not bought”. I have so many questions to ask I forgot most of them lol. First I’ve been deciding if I should go with a tower or just the pole extension (striper pole) I really like the look of the tower but don’t even know where to look for a good tower with out breaking the bank especially now with this quarantine going on and not really working. Any upgrades/maintenance I should do to the boat and or engine? It’s been sitting for about 4 years so said the previous owner.

So far the things I’ve done is plugs, valve cover gaskets, exhaust manifold gasket (it didn’t have any not sure if it needs any or not put managed to put it in there wasn’t the easiest doing alone (so far I have one side done still need the other side) got rained out this weekend. I have distributor cap and rotor also. Ordered the impeller also should be here this week. Doing oil change also I heard to use VR1 oil. Any suggestions and advice I’ll really appreciate it

 

[Omar88Centurion]

Here’s some pictures I’ll get some more tomorrow morning.

 

[ACon977]

Here’s some pictures I’ll get some more tomorrow morning.

Hey Omar! Welcome aboard! Thats quite a pretty looking boat, it was certainly taken better care of than mine. Thats good to hear.

Ill admit I've never seen another Tru-Trac II in person but fun to see that one exists, and in the same color to boot!

Regarding upgrades, Im more concerned with the whole damn thing coming together rather than some small pieces, but hahving a pole (sky high is another term ive heard) will put a lot of strain on your stringers. If its an older boat I would probably opt for avoiding any unnecessary strain. However when the previous owner put the Tower on mine they just mounted straight to fiberglass, which I feel would eventually start to crack. So if you go the tower route just be sure to reinforce under the cap with some wood. You could probably just use some PL glue rather than going the extra steps of glassing them.

Curious to hear how your work goes on yours. Is the floor soft at all? Hope not, thats a dead giveaway that everything below deck is wet and rotted.

 

[ACon977]

Hope everyone had a good weekend! Mine was filled primarily with yard work as it was 70 and sunny all weekend. the perfect time to till up the entire yard to plant some seed, clear up some brush, built some kayak racks, and the admiral worked on building a little perimeter garden.

I also found some time to get the carb put back together and, in my amateur opinion, is looking and moving great.


The trickiest thing for putting it back together was the transfer tube from the primary bowl to the secondary, I put new seals in and the ID was too small for the tube to go back in. So just an FYI for anyone else doing it, put the seals on the tube, then press the tube into the bowls.



And of course, it wouldnt be an Austin post without at least one off topic picture.. so heres a kitchen island that Ive been putting together for the past week. Finished it up on Saturday. The admiral wanted somewhere to hide the trash bins so the big drawers on the bottom pull out with hinges on the bottom and the trash sits insisde. space for spices on the side and tupperware in the back.

 

[Timr71]

Welcome Omar!

Great looking boat. Looking forward to having another inboard / Centurion guy around here.

Also, check in over here on the Centurion board, there's a few more people with the older models who may be another resource to you.

Austin - I went to the marina and brought my boat home. So it's in the driveway and Quarantine projects can no commence. I'm not going the tower route since it costs more for marina storage. Plus, I like to keep my boat looking traditional. I do have a Fly-Hi. And I'll be fitting it here in the driveway since I just had the Bimini top modified to allow the pole to pass through. Part of the motivation for this project is that I have a wakeboard rack for it. and I need to get boards up and out of my floor. I'll update my thread with pics when I get this project going.

Omar, if you're going to do serious work on your boat, it'd be great for you to start your own 1988 Ski Centurion thread so we can all follow along. Thanks! And Welcome!

Also, my cousin and I (along with other family members) also restored a 1989 model. I'll attach some pics here.

 

[Timr71]

Here's some before pics from a 1989 Tru-Trac II / Falcon

 

[Timr71]

Here's a couple of examples of the Fly-Hi pole with wakeboard rack going through the bimini top.

 

[zroe89]

Nice job on the carb, any luck getting spark?

 

[Omar88Centurion]

Hey Omar! Welcome aboard! Thats quite a pretty looking boat, it was certainly taken better care of than mine. Thats good to hear.

Ill admit I've never seen another Tru-Trac II in person but fun to see that one exists, and in the same color to boot!

Regarding upgrades, Im more concerned with the whole damn thing coming together rather than some small pieces, but hahving a pole (sky high is another term ive heard) will put a lot of strain on your stringers. If its an older boat I would probably opt for avoiding any unnecessary strain. However when the previous owner put the Tower on mine they just mounted straight to fiberglass, which I feel would eventually start to crack. So if you go the tower route just be sure to reinforce under the cap with some wood. You could probably just use some PL glue rather than going the extra steps of glassing them.

Curious to hear how your work goes on yours. Is the floor soft at all? Hope not, thats a dead giveaway that everything below deck is wet and rotted.

Yea when I saw your thread and pictures of your boat I was like I’m fallow this thread and see where he gets all the parts to restore the boat. I found a tower recommended from centurion crew someone mentioned on here and they have a $300 off and comes out do be $600 for a brand new foldable tower seems legit to me. It has one soft spot under the passenger seat next to the capitán chair I haven’t got a chance to take a look at yet. I’ll see if the rains goes away a little today and take a look at it today. Thanks on the advice on the pole and tower AC.

 

[Omar88Centurion]

Welcome Omar!

Great looking boat. Looking forward to having another inboard / Centurion guy around here.

Also, check in over here on the Centurion board, there's a few more people with the older models who may be another resource to you.

Austin - I went to the marina and brought my boat home. So it's in the driveway and Quarantine projects can no commence. I'm not going the tower route since it costs more for marina storage. Plus, I like to keep my boat looking traditional. I do have a Fly-Hi. And I'll be fitting it here in the driveway since I just had the Bimini top modified to allow the pole to pass through. Part of the motivation for this project is that I have a wakeboard rack for it. and I need to get boards up and out of my floor. I'll update my thread with pics when I get this project going.

Omar, if you're going to do serious work on your boat, it'd be great for you to start your own 1988 Ski Centurion thread so we can all follow along. Thanks! And Welcome!

Also, my cousin and I (along with other family members) also restored a 1989 model. I'll attach some pics here.

Thanks Tim, I saw that boat you posted it earlier on the thread. I will start my own tread just new to this iboats so was having trouble knowing how to post or reply. But I think I got the hang of it. I’ll start my thread today see what I get out of it and show some progress on the boat. Thanks again

 

[Omar88Centurion]

Heres the link to the tower if anyone else is interested. They have a sale going on tight now and $300 off with free shipping.

https://monstertower.com/mt1-wakeboard-tower.html?options=cart

 

[Timr71]

Yeah, that should work just fine...Like Austin mentioned, be sure to re-enforce the areas under neat where the tower feet mount.

 

[Omar88Centurion]

Yeah, that should work just fine...Like Austin mentioned, be sure to re-enforce the areas under neat where the tower feet mount.

Thanks I’ll make sure I’ll re-enforce it if I do end up getting the tower

 

[ACon977]

Austin - I went to the marina and brought my boat home. So it's in the driveway and Quarantine projects can no commence. I'm not going the tower route since it costs more for marina storage. Plus, I like to keep my boat looking traditional. I do have a Fly-Hi. And I'll be fitting it here in the driveway since I just had the Bimini top modified to allow the pole to pass through. Part of the motivation for this project is that I have a wakeboard rack for it. and I need to get boards up and out of my floor. I'll update my thread with pics when I get this project going.

Wow the pic you posted of the Fly-Hi through the bimini with a wakeboard rack is nuts to look at. Will admit I have never seen that before. But I come from a skiing background where we hooked up to the pylon and slalomed, tricked, or whatnot.

 

[ACon977]

Nice job on the carb, any luck getting spark?

Heya stranger!

I just bolted it on yesterday, the Kitchen island took more time than I would like to admit, but happy with how it turned out. Will be checking spark this week.

 

[ACon977]

Thanks Tim, I saw that boat you posted it earlier on the thread. I will start my own tread just new to this iboats so was having trouble knowing how to post or reply. But I think I got the hang of it. I’ll start my thread today see what I get out of it and show some progress on the boat. Thanks again

For sure! This forum is great for throwing ideas out and for keeping a history of what you have done for your own sanity. Plus having people like Tim and Arch staying on me about keeping the progress moving has been great motivation!

Post a link to your thread, I would love to follow along and give what advice I can after just finished going through it.