I heard some water in the back section of one of my toons on 97 Sun Tracker Signature 25. Still haven't figured out how/where it's getting in, but I'm pretty sure it's a factory weld issue well above the water line. I've tried soapy water spray and forced some air in the vent but can't find any leaks. Will keep looking.
Posting this so others can learn/try what worked for me.
Removing water from toon
This was a trial and error process. Tried several different types of tubing including copper ice maker line, vinyl, plastic, rubber, etc. What worked was the 'less stiff' black vinyl. Since the hole inside the threaded inlet is pretty small, I used 1/4" ID vinyl tube. I repeatedly inserted a length into the hole while blowing air (yes, via mouth) into the hole. When I heard bubbles, I knew I was in water.
Yes, 1/4" ID hose isn't going to drain fast, but to me it beats drilling holes in toons. While I don't recommend it, you could suck syphon to get the out flow started. What I did is bought one of those drill driven pumps ($9) at Lowes and in the Landscape Irragation section of Lowes, I found a fitting that has a female garden hose fitting on one side, and a 1/4" ID tube fitting on the other (used for connecting landscape irrigation drip tubing). I poured some oil in the pump before first uses. Hooked the pump and fitting up to the tube inserted in the toon. Fired the drill up and water started flowing out! I then stopped the drill, unscrewed the fitting from the pump and the water continued to flow.
I positioned the outlet tube over a 5 gallon bucket so I could measure. After the flow stopped a couple of times I repositioned the hose in the tube inside the toon by repeating the "blow and bubble" method. In total, I got about 11 gallons out.
Broken plastic vent plugs.
The one I needed to get out came out without breaking. Should have stopped there. Out of curiosity, I decided to remove the vent plug from the front toon compartment. It snapped immediately. Of course access is very restricted, and after much research and tinkering, I decided to melt out the remaining plastic still in the threaded hole. Found a bolt that would fit inside the broken plug, got it hot enough to melt plastic (and not hot enough to melt aluminum) and then kept inserting into the broken plug/hole and then wiped out the melted plastic. After doing this a few times, I was able to get enough of the old plastic out that I could thread in a new brass plug. Took plug out, wrapped with teflon tape several times and reinserted.
Posting this so others can learn/try what worked for me.
Removing water from toon
This was a trial and error process. Tried several different types of tubing including copper ice maker line, vinyl, plastic, rubber, etc. What worked was the 'less stiff' black vinyl. Since the hole inside the threaded inlet is pretty small, I used 1/4" ID vinyl tube. I repeatedly inserted a length into the hole while blowing air (yes, via mouth) into the hole. When I heard bubbles, I knew I was in water.
Yes, 1/4" ID hose isn't going to drain fast, but to me it beats drilling holes in toons. While I don't recommend it, you could suck syphon to get the out flow started. What I did is bought one of those drill driven pumps ($9) at Lowes and in the Landscape Irragation section of Lowes, I found a fitting that has a female garden hose fitting on one side, and a 1/4" ID tube fitting on the other (used for connecting landscape irrigation drip tubing). I poured some oil in the pump before first uses. Hooked the pump and fitting up to the tube inserted in the toon. Fired the drill up and water started flowing out! I then stopped the drill, unscrewed the fitting from the pump and the water continued to flow.
I positioned the outlet tube over a 5 gallon bucket so I could measure. After the flow stopped a couple of times I repositioned the hose in the tube inside the toon by repeating the "blow and bubble" method. In total, I got about 11 gallons out.
Broken plastic vent plugs.
The one I needed to get out came out without breaking. Should have stopped there. Out of curiosity, I decided to remove the vent plug from the front toon compartment. It snapped immediately. Of course access is very restricted, and after much research and tinkering, I decided to melt out the remaining plastic still in the threaded hole. Found a bolt that would fit inside the broken plug, got it hot enough to melt plastic (and not hot enough to melt aluminum) and then kept inserting into the broken plug/hole and then wiped out the melted plastic. After doing this a few times, I was able to get enough of the old plastic out that I could thread in a new brass plug. Took plug out, wrapped with teflon tape several times and reinserted.
