New Tahoe Owner - 1st boat - Already Feeling The Woes!

[TwoCamSam]

New to the forum and boats! Just picked up a 2007 Tahoe 215 I/O. 4.3L Mercruiser.

I’ve always done a a lot of car work, moved to a lake recently and decided to buy a first boat. The 215 fits our family well. I like and don’t regret buying it, but I’m already feeling the woes of boat ownership! Hah!

Needless to say, we got a lot of rain yesterday which is when I found out the bilge pump wasn’t working. Found a fuse in box was blown, also the fuse directly at the battery blown amongst other fuses. Have a short somewhere because the fuse at the battery keeps blowing.

Once I had the water pumped out (borrowed a spare from a neighbor) tried to start it...battery dead (even though it was fine the past couple days).

Found a hose laying in the bilge that’s been capped off with what appears to be a small drain plug. That has me interested. Found the end of it up near the crank pulley.

When it runs it seems to run strong and steers fine. All of the switches seem to work except the bilge issue. Speedo doesn’t work which isn’t a big deal to me, but I’ll eventually fix it.

Still like the boat a lot, just need to work out some kinks.

Looking for any advice about anything on these boats. Especially wiring diagrams. Someone has changed things around a bit from what the manual shows.

Anything I should check for now to see if they’ve been neglected? Going to charge up and test the battery tomorrow. Ready to go dual if I need a replacement.

Looking forward to being a part of the community!

Thanks!
-Sam

 

[tpenfield]

:welcome: to iBoats . . .

Yes, boat ownership only looks like fun . . .

Not sure about wiring diagrams, many boats don't come with any useful documentation. You are lucky if you got some with your boat. If you get the service manual for the engine and the outdrive, that will be your best bet, as much of the wiring is related to the engine and pretty much all of the boat manufacturers use a standard wiring harness, based on the engine.

Bilge pump obviously will be separate. Short circuits are a PITA to find :facepalm:

Lots of folks here work on their boats and can offer advice. My advice is to get to know the engine, outdrive and other systems well, because then you have a better chance of staying on top of things rather than being surprised.

 

[TwoCamSam]

Thanks for the reply!

I was able to chat with Tracker. They sent me an owners manual for the deck boats. Unfortunately, it seems older for 2002 models and doesn't list the 215 specifically. But, the rep told me they are to be used as a guide and was the most up to date deck boat manual they had. Odd.

I definitely have a short somewhere. I thought the battery was dead because it wouldn't start, horn barely made a sound, etc. My spare bilge pump ran fine though connected to the battery. I had the battery tested today. Tested GOOD. Thinking something got knocked loose in the fuse panel when I was replacing fuses or knocked a wire loose getting the spare pump into the bilge.

Starting to think my random hose laying in the bilge is for the speedometer. It's not working and I've read they work off water pressure coming through a hole in the out drive. Possibly someone capped it off because it was pumping water into the bilge and they didn't know where it went? (or something else is also broken so they capped it). Definitely feels like its running to the back of the motor and near the transom.

Man! Crazy difficult to reach down to the bilge pump! Open to any and all suggestion to try and pop that sucker out. Do you normally need to remove anything from the engine for better access to the bilge pump?

Sorry all of this is in a single post. Probably should have split it up into separates.

 

[tpenfield]

The bilge pump should be 2-pieces . . . the retainer that is fatened to the hull and the pump body, which should snap into the retainer.

Bilge pump should be fairly easy to access . . . wait until you have to replace a starter

 

[TwoCamSam]

I’ll tell you what, I almost feel like the starter is easier to access than the bilge pump. It’s just so dang low. I can feel the starter pretty good and have done several blind on cars. Flexible inspection mirrors always help.

My hose in the bilge is definitely the Speedo hose. Tracked it down today. I’ll wait till winter to fix it. Not a big deal to me as I plan on adding a GPS, but I don’t want to see random hoses laying in the bilge.

still tracking down my starting issue....

 

[TwoCamSam]

The bilge pump should be 2-pieces . . . the retainer that is fatened to the hull and the pump body, which should snap into the retainer.

Bilge pump should be fairly easy to access . . . wait until you have to replace a starter

I think you jinxed me here! Starter was old, but I had enough water in the bilge the first go around that it got the starter. Bought a new one and installed it. It wasn't terribly bad other than the bolts were insanely tight! Flex head ratchet and a pipe for leverage got her loose after a couple of days of trying random tools. Once the bolts were loose, I had the old out and the new installed in about 45 min.

 

[cwyoungb]

The hose you are referring to is to drain the oil when changing it. It should be connected to a metal wire which will will pull through a plug next the boat's drain plug in the back of the boat.