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

[Timr71]

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.

Yeah, when I decided not to go the tower route, I wanted that very Bimini top that is shown in both of those pics. It's made by barefoot international and if you look closely, you can see that it doesn't have any frame structure on the sides. But unfortunately, it's been long discontinued. There was a group of inboard enthusiasts across all brands that banded together to see if BI would do a one off production of that Bimini top, but it didn't work out. So, I went the traditional route. Took a bit longer, but I'll have it all together soon. My goal is to build a board with supplement racks attached so I can store two slalom skis up there too. We'll see. I have yet to tackle that task, but I've been mentally designing it for a while now.

 

[ACon977]

Yeah, when I decided not to go the tower route, I wanted that very Bimini top that is shown in both of those pics. It's made by barefoot international and if you look closely, you can see that it doesn't have any frame structure on the sides. But unfortunately, it's been long discontinued. There was a group of inboard enthusiasts across all brands that banded together to see if BI would do a one off production of that Bimini top, but it didn't work out. So, I went the traditional route. Took a bit longer, but I'll have it all together soon. My goal is to build a board with supplement racks attached so I can store two slalom skis up there too. We'll see. I have yet to tackle that task, but I've been mentally designing it for a while now.

well that all makes sense! Barefoot international makes some good stuff, my first barefoot suit was from them... back when I was like 12?

Mental design is super key... although my scatterbrain has mentally designed a bunch of stuff that I probably dont need to be considering.

 

[ACon977]

Also. I have some extra components that either I replaced even though they looked fine. Or weren't for my version of the Holley. If anyone needs some spare parts? Or if someone collects them.. I'll probably hang onto them for a few weeks before pitching them

 

[K1433]

Hello does anyone know where I might be able to get any information on AshCraft or Pryors boats ?

 

[Omar88Centurion]

Hers the link AC if you want to follow my form and see the progress I do on the boat

https://forums.iboats.com/forum/boa...-1988-ski-centurion-tru-trac-ii-light-restore

 

[ACon977]

Hello does anyone know where I might be able to get any information on AshCraft or Pryors boats ?

Honestly. No idea. Maybe browse the rebuild archive. You may be able to search the site in general for those keywords

 

[ACon977]

Hey all, got out into the boat and tried my luck at getting spark. Afterd checking the wiring I cranked it over. So far so good. Took the cap off the distributor and the HEI is spinning CCW. Good. Then got out my spark tester and got spark on all 3 wires I tested. Nice. Looked up recommended plug gap for a 351w And found 0.044. so gapped all my new ones to that. Put them into the boat and ran all the cables from the distributor. Went to turn the boat and it wouldn't crank. WTF

So dumb me thought it was the ignition switch, bought a new one and no avail. Whoops, there goes $20. Although likely the cheap one from China I bought was garbage anyway, so let's call it an upgrade.

Then did what I should have done first. Which is check voltage at the batt terminal. Turns out I had 0. only logical next step is to dive under the dash. Which looks horrible. Turns out most of the wires were for the stereo that doesn't work. Snip snip, out with the wires.

Now I can actually trace what I needed and found a 10a fuse hooked up to the batt circuit that had blown. So I replaced it and got a few more cranks and then blew again.

So after consulting with zroe89 I pulled all the dash fuses from the gages that could be shorting out the circuit. Now I'm running from the main pink\red cable to my ignition switch batt terminal. Got 12v. Cranked it over a few times and was feeling optimistic. Put some starting fluid in the carb to try and get a little sputter. And all of a sudden the starter solenoid is just clicking. Aka low voltage. Checked voltage at the battery 12.5. checked it at the batt terminal, 12.5. checked at the sol terminal during cranking, and 9. Ok not too bad.. checked at the starter, around 5. The only thing between the ignition and the starter is the transmission neutral switch. Could that be drawing that much voltage?

Anyone have any other thoughts?

 

[Omar88Centurion]

Hey all, got out into the boat and tried my luck at getting spark. Afterd checking the wiring I cranked it over. So far so good. Took the cap off the distributor and the HEI is spinning CCW. Good. Then got out my spark tester and got spark on all 3 wires I tested. Nice. Looked up recommended plug gap for a 351w And found 0.044. so gapped all my new ones to that. Put them into the boat and ran all the cables from the distributor. Went to turn the boat and it wouldn't crank. WTF

So dumb me thought it was the ignition switch, bought a new one and no avail. Whoops, there goes $20. Although likely the cheap one from China I bought was garbage anyway, so let's call it an upgrade.

Then did what I should have done first. Which is check voltage at the batt terminal. Turns out I had 0. only logical next step is to dive under the dash. Which looks horrible. Turns out most of the wires were for the stereo that doesn't work. Snip snip, out with the wires.

Now I can actually trace what I needed and found a 10a fuse hooked up to the batt circuit that had blown. So I replaced it and got a few more cranks and then blew again.

So after consulting with zroe89 I pulled all the dash fuses from the gages that could be shorting out the circuit. Now I'm running from the main pink\red cable to my ignition switch batt terminal. Got 12v. Cranked it over a few times and was feeling optimistic. Put some starting fluid in the carb to try and get a little sputter. And all of a sudden the starter solenoid is just clicking. Aka low voltage. Checked voltage at the battery 12.5. checked it at the batt terminal, 12.5. checked at the sol terminal during cranking, and 9. Ok not too bad.. checked at the starter, around 5. The only thing between the ignition and the starter is the transmission neutral switch. Could that be drawing that much voltage?

Anyone have any other thoughts?

Hey AC you check your timing yet? I had a mustang 5.0 when I was in High School and switch the distributor to a msd didn’t know it would start if the timing isn’t set. Should be around 10. Might want to give that a try it’s a easy check.

 

[mickyryan]

here is my only thought to that carb and you probably wont want to hear it, but there is no way to stop the corrosion process once it has started on most of the parts, and being on the water , I'd be willing to bet it will corrode up on you the first year, i had a carb once that was corroded rebuilt it and within 6 months with ethanol fuel it was clogged, i took it apart thinking i had to have screwed up and where the water had corroded it before it was corroding again, i had soaked it and then made a alkaline solution and soaked it to neutralise it (arm n hammer mixed with water) I guess if you could epoxy coat the outside or get it anodised it might help , but me i learned lesson if a carb is badly corroded from having water sit in or around it it gets replaced

 

[ACon977]

Hey AC you check your timing yet? I had a mustang 5.0 when I was in High School and switch the distributor to a msd didn’t know it would start if the timing isn’t set. Should be around 10. Might want to give that a try it’s a easy check.

I havent checked timing because I dont have a timing light. Is there another way to do it?

 

[ACon977]

here is my only thought to that carb and you probably wont want to hear it, but there is no way to stop the corrosion process once it has started on most of the parts, and being on the water , I'd be willing to bet it will corrode up on you the first year, i had a carb once that was corroded rebuilt it and within 6 months with ethanol fuel it was clogged, i took it apart thinking i had to have screwed up and where the water had corroded it before it was corroding again, i had soaked it and then made a alkaline solution and soaked it to neutralise it (arm n hammer mixed with water) I guess if you could epoxy coat the outside or get it anodised it might help , but me i learned lesson if a carb is badly corroded from having water sit in or around it it gets replaced

Ha, you're right, thats not quite what I wanted to hear. But could be a part for next year. Since i have this carb now and its been rebuilt, ill take the 6-8 months that I can get out of her, and then if need be, can get a new one in the fall.

Good note though, will have to look into it at the end of this summer to see if anything is binding up or whatnot.

 

[ACon977]

any thoughts on the wiring anyone? I know that I could just bypass the safety neutral switch for the sake of debug for now. but was curious if anyone had ideas as to where my voltage was going. or why it was such a significant drop

Note, it was relatively sparratic where it would turn over 3-4 times in a row, then go back to clicking.

 

[mickyryan]

Weak connection on the solenoid or bad , had that already with mine , was just weak solenoid

 

[ACon977]

Weak connection on the solenoid or bad , had that already with mine , was just weak solenoid

Hmm yeah I just replaced the solenoid and starter so hopefully that's not the case. Again it was randomly cranking great, sometimes low voltage. I know those are the hardest things to troubleshoot

 

[Omar88Centurion]

I havent checked timing because I dont have a timing light. Is there another way to do it?

I’m not so sure how else to check the timing. I would YouTube it and see what you find. You have any luck? I tried to start mine up today and it wouldn’t crank checked the battery it was good. Connected it to a jump start battery pack and no crank or anything. Switched the battery from my truck still no luck and then I tried to put the safety neutral switch in and it was stuck out. Taped it on with a hammer lightly and it started cranking but no start. Put a few sprays of staring fluid and boom started right up. Has problems ideling so that’s next. Tear up the carb and clean/ rebuild it see how it goes. Try checking your distributor cap open it up and see how it looks inside I know mine looks not so good was thinking of replacing the whole distributor. Let me know how it goes. Still haven’t checked the floor I’ll check later today.

 

[mickyryan]

not really a way to do it without a timing light, most auto parts stores will rent you a timing light ...

 

[ACon977]

Ok sounds good guys, thanks. Ill admit Ive done a lot of car work, but not a lot of engine work. So I appreciate you dealing with my questions that may seem very basic to some.

 

[ACon977]

So I hopped in the boat after work today and bypassed the NSS. Tried to turn the engine over and nada. Just the solenoid engaging but no crank. I'm hoping it's just low battery... (It was reading 12.3v) so I threw it on the charger for a few hours while I installed the rub rail.

The rub rail turned out to be a real fricking pain. I basically pressed it into the rail one screwdriver head width at a time. Which had to be careful not to scratch the rail, and also not put a depression in the visible part of the rail.

I also used a heat gun to help soften the rubber insert. Basically the following steps.
1. Line up lower lip of insert into the rail.
2. Heat 6-8 inches of rail with the gun

3. Use screw driver to press the top lip of the inset into the rail.

4. Press the section of insert into the rail.
5. Repeat 999999x times






It was a huge pain. And I now have a blister on my palm from pressing on the screwdriver, but it's done. And looking more and more finished every day.

Plus I ended up with like 5 ft of insert leftover. Anyone have any ideas that you can use it for?

 

[Timr71]

Nice work! I bet you're glad that's done. I know that's a pain. You're getting closer though.

 

[archbuilder]

I'd store it, that way you will never damage the rubrail insert :bounce: They can shrink also, so if that happens you can add a filler piece. If you throw it away you will damage the rubber the first time you go out lol!