Lost drain plug, flooded bilge...

[HT32BSX115]

Re: Lost drain plug, flooded bilge...

And, for the record, the bilge pump that HT32BSX115 recommended is rated at 1500 gallons per hour. That's 25 gallons every minute, or just under one gallon every two seconds. That's a BIG bilge pump.

AND, from iBoats:

Bilge Pump, 1500 GPH - Seasense Sale Price: $45.13

+ shipping ........... That might be cheaper than the "fix" your doing right now.


Just saying............

 

[RV1700]

Re: Lost drain plug, flooded bilge...

Yeah thanks HT32. The new pump is definitely on my list of parts to replace.
Mike

 

[RV1700]

Re: Lost drain plug, flooded bilge...

Any advice on the outdrive? Should I just replace the bearing, bellows and u-joints? Anything else else I should do or check while I have it off? Thanks,
Mike

 

[NHGuy]

Re: Lost drain plug, flooded bilge...

Grease the gimbal bearing, grease the ujoints. Check them for tightness and smoothness. Don't do the bellows unless you suspect it is damaged. The bellows didn't leak.
Don't use those lever transom plugs any more, get the crank style and leave 2 extras in the boat. 1 for a stranger and 1 for you.
I had a lever plug fall out the 2nd day I had an I/O. Thankfully it was a hot day and we were stopped over sand, I hopped out and put in the crank plug.
2 years later my starter quit. I put in a cheap import starter then. But I saved the original one, dissassembled, cleaned and lubed it over the winter. It works fine after de-rusting & lubrication.
On the drive drain & check the oil for milkshake. Water in the bellows can get in the drive. The drive upper seal is really to keep drive lube in. It's not a water seal. So if there's water in the drive lube look in the adults only section to see how to put together a pressure tester for your drive, it could be just fine.

 

[greg82255]

Re: Lost drain plug, flooded bilge...

Sorry to hear about the plug. I had a similar problem 3 years ago - my old Checkmate sank at the dock, engine completely submerged all the way up to the carburetor. Luckily I got to it within a few hours with gallons of oil and filters. Pulled all the plugs, cranked it over for a while, changed the oil a few times, drained and cleaned the gas tank, new water separator, gimbal bearing, etc. It needed new ignition wires afterwards but it was a small price to pay for dodging a bullet.

 

[RV1700]

Re: Lost drain plug, flooded bilge...

Thanks guys. I'll check the drive oil. I have another starter from a spare engine thats currently torn down. I figured I'd go through that starter and clean it up and then just swap it with the one that's in there now. I'm just going to keep an eye on the alternator and replace it when it stops functioning. I just want to be thorough and make sure there's nothing I'm overlooking that's going to come back to haunt me. My biggest concern taking it out on the water last week was that everything was running mechanically sound. I never thought I'd be dealing with the back end of the boat being submerged in saltwater. Talk about a nightmare of a day.

Mike

 

[CaptainKickback]

Re: Lost drain plug, flooded bilge...

Uhmmm. I have a couple of questions.

How high did the water get to allow it to get into your oil? Must have been pretty high. Most people would have freaked out with that much water in the boat. Kudos on staying so calm. Wasn't it tough getting all that weight onto the trailer?

Now for the dumb question. All my boating here in South Florida has been with boats I kept on the water. So, the drain plug is never taken out (except maybe during service). But, I always understood that if someone left their plug out, running on plane would let the water drain out. I guess that's an old wives tale.

Sea ya...

 

[CaptainKickback]

Re: Lost drain plug, flooded bilge...

By the way. On my project boat, I'm considering not even having a drain plug. lol

Sea ya...

 

[RV1700]

Re: Lost drain plug, flooded bilge...

For the first question, The only reason I wasn't freaking out was because I was in shock staring at my boat submerged like that. Like I said, afterwards I couldn't even recall exactly how much water had actually been in there. Also it was a royal pain to drag the boat over to the launch and fairly tough to crank up onto the trailer. I also had to sit on the boat launch about five or ten minutes while all the water drained out. In the midst of trying to crank my sunken boat up onto the trailer I had a ranger approach me and start questioning if I had purchased my state park pass to use the boat launch. (which we had and it was clearly displayed on our windshield). As far as the plug not being needed on plane I have no clue, but we were slowly heading into shore at the time we took on water so we weren't on plane. Either way I don't think I'll ever try to run the boat without a good plug after this.
Mike

 

[Reel Poor]

Re: Lost drain plug, flooded bilge...

When you grease the gimble bearing and the u-joints, if you see ANY water come out of them, replace them.

The oxidation you see on the drive and the gimble housing didn't get there from getting wet one time. That drive assembly has been used in saltwater numerous times.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Re: Lost drain plug, flooded bilge...

Uhmmm.
Now for the dumb question. All my boating here in South Florida has been with boats I kept on the water. So, the drain plug is never taken out (except maybe during service). But, I always understood that if someone left their plug out, running on plane would let the water drain out. I guess that's an old wives tale.

Sea ya...

Running on plane will drain the water out of a rear plug, however I doubt if a boat that full of water would get water out. every boat growing up was a tinny with an OB, would always pull the plug when on plane if there was any water (usually rain water, once busticated live well plumbing)

 

[emoney]

Re: Lost drain plug, flooded bilge...

Every outdrive I've owned has been "submerged in Salt Water" by the way, so don't worry as much as you probably are. Clean it good
and you'll be fine. Living and boating on the West Coast of Florida, you get used to the "extra steps" required to boat down here. As far as any bilge pump is concerned, a good, working float switch is one of the most important aspects of that system, imho. Direct wire it so there's no switch to remember, get a good flow rate bilge pump and let the system do it's job. That way, when you hear the pump working, it makes you check to make sure everything's "A-Ok". If you see the plug is gone, jump in and put the spare in there. I favor the screw-in plugs just because of what happened to you. Sounds like all will be ok for you this time. Good luck.

 

[RV1700]

Re: Lost drain plug, flooded bilge...

Thanks for the advice and reassurance guys. Any advice on what type of grease is best for the U-joints and gimbal bearing? Yeah I know this boat has been in salt water a good deal of it's life here on the puget sound.
Thanks again,

Mike