40 sedan bridge forum

[TotallyGross]

I can tell you that the best thing that I ever bought was a Trac Ecological flushing cap that replaces the strainer caps with a plastic cap with a hose fitting. I put a seacock valve and clear water hose mounted to a 5 gallon bucket with the flushing cap on the end. Replace the cap, fill the bucket with 5 gallons of antifreeze, close your raw water intake, and fire it up. 5 minute job for both engines. Our marina charges $166 per engine plus $18 a gallon for pink antifreeze. Ridiculous. Mine are gas. I use the same cap for the AC and Genny strainer which is too large to screw on, but works fine to just hold in place over the strainer with the same result. For whatever reason, they don't make the flushing cap for the smaller strainers.

I bought the trac cap also but I have diesels and use PVC pieces. I take 6-8 gallons of antifreeze. I bought a Walmart 15 gallon tub and full it with antifreeze and then just open it. I’ll look. I did make a checklist and can share it when I get to my computer.
Scooper has one also.

 

[Shaps]

I bought the trac cap also but I have diesels and use PVC pieces. I take 6-8 gallons of antifreeze. I bought a Walmart 15 gallon tub and full it with antifreeze and then just open it. I’ll look. I did make a checklist and can share it when I get to my computer.
Scooper has one also.

What do you do with your fuel and tanks? Fill them and condition them?

 

[Plumbing Guy]

I can tell you that the best thing that I ever bought was a Trac Ecological flushing cap that replaces the strainer caps with a plastic cap with a hose fitting. I put a seacock valve and clear water hose mounted to a 5 gallon bucket with the flushing cap on the end. Replace the cap, fill the bucket with 5 gallons of antifreeze, close your raw water intake, and fire it up. 5 minute job for both engines. Our marina charges $166 per engine plus $18 a gallon for pink antifreeze. Ridiculous. Mine are gas. I use the same cap for the AC and Genny strainer which is too large to screw on, but works fine to just hold in place over the strainer with the same result. For whatever reason, they don't make the flushing cap for the smaller strainers.

Thank

I can tell you that the best thing that I ever bought was a Trac Ecological flushing cap that replaces the strainer caps with a plastic cap with a hose fitting. I put a seacock valve and clear water hose mounted to a 5 gallon bucket with the flushing cap on the end. Replace the cap, fill the bucket with 5 gallons of antifreeze, close your raw water intake, and fire it up. 5 minute job for both engines. Our marina charges $166 per engine plus $18 a gallon for pink antifreeze. Ridiculous. Mine are gas. I use the same cap for the AC and Genny strainer which is too large to screw on, but works fine to just hold in place over the strainer with the same result. For whatever reason, they don't make the flushing cap for the smaller strainers.

Thanks Drafter! Much appreciated.

 

[Randy Scott]

Looking for the plastic burl wood panel for the radar display on a 2001 400 DB. Anyone know where I might find one ? Thanks for your help !!

 

[CaptRonn]

Looking for the plastic burl wood panel for the radar display on a 2001 400 DB. Anyone know where I might find one ? Thanks for your help !!

Doubt you will find one unless somebody has some NOS.

You can however find different companies that can make one for you.

 

[ZZ13]

Looking for the plastic burl wood panel for the radar display on a 2001 400 DB. Anyone know where I might find one ? Thanks for your help !!

I have one. But it has the big square cutout for the Raymarine RL80C. Looks like Flounder Pounder has it, though.

https://www.searay-parts.com/Sea-ray-dash-instrument-panel-p/fp-panel-1-5-sf380410da.htm

 

[Randy Scott]

I have one. But it has the big square cutout for the Raymarine RL80C. Looks like Flounder Pounder has it, though.

https://www.searay-parts.com/Sea-ray-dash-instrument-panel-p/fp-panel-1-5-sf380410da.htm

Thats what I am looking for. My boat had the RL70 and I found a used RL80C. Would you be willing to part with your panel ?

 

[ZZ13]

Thats what I am looking for. My boat had the RL70 and I found a used RL80C. Would you be willing to part with your panel ?

Sure. You can have it. Just PM me your mailing address.

 

[ZZ13]

My boat is on the hard getting bottom paint and some starboard running gear maintenance, so I figured I'd change the long exhaust hose and elbow after the mufflers. They are 20 years old. I was very surprised at how supple and healthy they were. Seems they could have gone another 20 years. The factory 30" hose was softwall so I replaced it with Trident softwall. It's pretty well supported as the fiberglass tubes stick into them about 9" on each end. So you are only looking at about a foot of unsupported hose length.

 

[scooper321]

What do you do with your fuel and tanks? Fill them and condition them?

yes and yes

 

[scooper321]

I bought the trac cap also but I have diesels and use PVC pieces. I take 6-8 gallons of antifreeze. I bought a Walmart 15 gallon tub and full it with antifreeze and then just open it. I’ll look. I did make a checklist and can share it when I get to my computer.
Scooper has one also.

what strainers do you have? Mine are ARG-200. Which cap$ did you get?

 

[dgerrit]

That is REALLY good looking! I just couldn't be without my side curtains though for the rain storms.

Thanks. Yeah, I'll need to enclose it pretty soon as our rain season is coming up. We welded in the tracks for canvas but need to stop the cash hemorrhage for a while...

 

[ZZ13]

The joys of boating. The starboard prop shaft as never "felt" right the whole 7 years I owned the boat. So this haul I had the yard dial check both shafts. Port side is perfect. Starboard side was off at prop taper about 2/1000 over spec. So we pulled it and sent it to a shop for further analysis and straightening. Turned out not too good. It's .013 out at coupler (that's a lot) and .007 out at prop taper. Plus that shiny part you see is at the cutless bearing is worn down .010. So they condemned it and said to get a new one. Costs a bit but still half the price of a Cummins aftercooler. Ha!

 

[Drafter]

The joys of boating. The starboard prop shaft as never "felt" right the whole 7 years I owned the boat. So this haul I had the yard dial check both shafts. Portside is perfect. Starboard side was off at prop taper about 2/1000 over spec. So we pulled it and sent it to a shop for further analysis and straightening. Turned out not too good. It's .013 out at coupler (that's a lot) and .007 out at prop taper. Plus that shiny part you see is at the cutlass bearing is worn down .010. So they condemned it and said to get a new one. Costs a bit but still half the price of a Cummins aftercooler. Ha!

I have a vibration in my port. I think it's a tweaked prop. I haven't had a chance to run it without a prop on it. Yard said it was 20/1000 out at the prop. I found a custom marine shaft manufacturer in California, and 20/1000's was within their spec new? That's the thickness of a human air over 7'? If you don't mind....What was the cost of a new replacement shaft I assume through SeaRay? We'll probably pull out again over the winter for a new bottom job anyway.

 

[Steve S]

I believe a human hair is about 0.002" - 0.003". What the yard measured is 0.020", which in the machining world is a relatively large amount of runout, but over 7' may be within the new specs as you indicated. The shaft itself is probably machined and held to a much tighter tolerance over the length, but once you add the tolerance of the mating surfaces and any runout from the power side of the assembly, that gives you a "tolerance stack", which added up gives the total runout tolerance allowed.

 

[scooper321]

The joys of boating. The starboard prop shaft as never "felt" right the whole 7 years I owned the boat. So this haul I had the yard dial check both shafts. Port side is perfect. Starboard side was off at prop taper about 2/1000 over spec. So we pulled it and sent it to a shop for further analysis and straightening. Turned out not too good. It's .013 out at coupler (that's a lot) and .007 out at prop taper. Plus that shiny part you see is at the cutless bearing is worn down .010. So they condemned it and said to get a new one. Costs a bit but still half the price of a Cummins aftercooler. Ha!

I'm there with you, Bill. The problems I'm having on my port side (chronicled in the 450 Diamond thread) don't seem to be engine related. I had a diver confirm that while my SB prop spun freely, the P prop was quite stiff. So that might be why I'm not getting full RPM on the port side any more. I'll be taking the boat in Friday to get the bearings and alignments checked (and corrected).

 

[my3sons]

I'm there with you, Bill. The problems I'm having on my port side (chronicled in the 450 Diamond thread) don't seem to be engine related. I had a diver confirm that while my SB prop spun freely, the P prop was quite stiff. So that might be why I'm not getting full RPM on the port side any more. I'll be taking the boat in Friday to get the bearings and alignments checked (and corrected).

Have you noticed the port side being dragged down? Both engines idling, put them in gear, if your low idle is say, 650, you should see a drop to about 600. But regardless, they should be about the same. If one side is really tight, I would think you would see it there, Good Luck.

 

[ZZ13]

I have a vibration in my port. I think it's a tweaked prop. I haven't had a chance to run it without a prop on it. Yard said it was 20/1000 out at the prop. I found a custom marine shaft manufacturer in California, and 20/1000's was within their spec new? That's the thickness of a human air over 7'? If you don't mind....What was the cost of a new replacement shaft I assume through SeaRay? We'll probably pull out again over the winter for a new bottom job anyway.

That's a good question. The prop shop is charging me $1900 for a new shaft. I have no idea if that's the going price or not. I did not shop around. I agreed to their price. This is the regular shop for our yard. I know it's in Bradenton, FL. I am guessing General Propeller, but not sure.

 

[scooper321]

Have you noticed the port side being dragged down? Both engines idling, put them in gear, if your low idle is say, 650, you should see a drop to about 600. But regardless, they should be about the same. If one side is really tight, I would think you would see it there, Good Luck.

Funny you say that. The port has always had a little "rougher" idle than the SB. By that I mean a slight vibration at low idle. Give it a wee bit of throttle and it smooths out. And yes, I believe that was accompanied by a slight dip in RPM at idle. Looking back (isn't hindsight wonderful?) I've actually had the port engine stall on me once or twice while backing into a slip with a current on the stern and rotating CCW at idle. That little extra load (of current) pushing against a stiff bearing at a "dragged down" low idle could have dragged it down even more - enough to stall. It was so infrequent, it was impossible to repeat. It never stalled in calm waters. And it never stalled in forward (but the boat is a little more aerodynamic in forward, too). But it did both drag at idle and vibrate a little regardless of direction.

Great question. Even though I'm all set to get the bearings replaced (and all the angles checked) I've still been wondering if this is the true source of the problem. I hate replacing things just to see if it fixes a problem. I waited 2 days to replace the fuel filters because I really didn't think that was the issue (I was right!). But in thinking about the answer to your question, the behavior of the boat makes it appear that this is exactly the source of my problem. Thank you!

 

[ZZ13]

Funny you say that. The port has always had a little "rougher" idle than the SB. By that I mean a slight vibration at low idle. Give it a wee bit of throttle and it smooths out. And yes, I believe that was accompanied by a slight dip in RPM at idle. Looking back (isn't hindsight wonderful?) I've actually had the port engine stall on me once or twice while backing into a slip with a current on the stern and rotating CCW at idle. That little extra load (of current) pushing against a stiff bearing at a "dragged down" low idle could have dragged it down even more - enough to stall. It was so infrequent, it was impossible to repeat. It never stalled in calm waters. And it never stalled in forward (but the boat is a little more aerodynamic in forward, too). But it did both drag at idle and vibrate a little regardless of direction.

Great question. Even though I'm all set to get the bearings replaced (and all the angles checked) I've still been wondering if this is the true source of the problem. I hate replacing things just to see if it fixes a problem. I waited 2 days to replace the fuel filters because I really didn't think that was the issue (I was right!). But in thinking about the answer to your question, the behavior of the boat makes it appear that this is exactly the source of my problem. Thank you!

Do you have, or could you make a video of you trying to turn the port prop shaft by hand between coupler and shaft seal with engine off? Would love to get an idea of what you mean by "hard to turn".