tdappleman
Active Member
- Dec 17, 2007
- 1,608
- Boat Info
- 1996 270 Sundancer
- Engines
- New twin 4.3's - 235hp each with Alpha 1 Gen 2 Drives
So - I finally got around to doing some work on the boat. Replaced my cockpit lighting with LED which made a huge improvement - nice and white instead of yellow. I had replaced the stereo and speakers after Christmas and just got around to adding the XM radio and an MP3 port to the cockpit to make using the ipod a little easier. An amp, additional cockpit speakers and a sub are next.
After reading some of the posts here about bilge blowers and them not holding up well... I decided to replace mine. I had an Attwood Turbo 4" blower and it was noisy and of an unknown age - it's also not rated for continuous duty. I replaced it with a Shurflo Yellowtail blower which says it's rated for continuous duty and was only $33 on sale at WM. It is definitely quieter - I mainly hear the air rushing in and out the ports which I guess I can't do much about that. The swap was easy - the tubing is held on with wire tires and the blower is held on with 2 screws. Replace that and connect the 2 wires and I was done. The old blower didn't look that bad on the outside but was black on the inside - all kinds of residue on the inside - so I'm glad I went ahead and replaced it. Nice to have peace of mind.
So my final project was to look at my trim tabs. My port tab will go down but not up. Using the troubleshooting info on the Bennett site it says to check battery voltage (good) and wiring connections (all good/no corrosion). I cleaned all of the terminals on the batteries, the trim tab switches and the quick connect on the hydraulic power unit - no change. The next step was to swap lines and see if that helped - well - that worked. So now I'm left with a bad solenoid on the HPU. I can replace the entire HPU for about $230 or the solenoid for $55. Has anyone ever replaced one and is it worth it or is it better to just replace the entire unit since it's probably original?
After reading some of the posts here about bilge blowers and them not holding up well... I decided to replace mine. I had an Attwood Turbo 4" blower and it was noisy and of an unknown age - it's also not rated for continuous duty. I replaced it with a Shurflo Yellowtail blower which says it's rated for continuous duty and was only $33 on sale at WM. It is definitely quieter - I mainly hear the air rushing in and out the ports which I guess I can't do much about that. The swap was easy - the tubing is held on with wire tires and the blower is held on with 2 screws. Replace that and connect the 2 wires and I was done. The old blower didn't look that bad on the outside but was black on the inside - all kinds of residue on the inside - so I'm glad I went ahead and replaced it. Nice to have peace of mind.
So my final project was to look at my trim tabs. My port tab will go down but not up. Using the troubleshooting info on the Bennett site it says to check battery voltage (good) and wiring connections (all good/no corrosion). I cleaned all of the terminals on the batteries, the trim tab switches and the quick connect on the hydraulic power unit - no change. The next step was to swap lines and see if that helped - well - that worked. So now I'm left with a bad solenoid on the HPU. I can replace the entire HPU for about $230 or the solenoid for $55. Has anyone ever replaced one and is it worth it or is it better to just replace the entire unit since it's probably original?