48 DA Owners Club

So this project started several months ago. I am fortunate to live in the capital of mega yachts. I came across a yacht getting a refit and the removed a set of marine Recaro captains seats. I was able to score them for a song. Dropped them with my upholstery guy and told him play with them when you have free time. Well he called me yesterday and told me come get them. Dropped them in today. Let me tell you this for me is a win because when we do long runs to the Bahamas 6 hours in those OEM chairs almost kills me. You arrive just beat up. These should make a huge difference for me on that front. I always loved these as I had a set of these in my Slant nose 911 years ago. I am ready to travel now.

 

Wow looks unreal

 

OC those seats are sweet.

the headliner and sunroof clips are concerning. Dam! Repairs never seem to end. I hope I sell it before those problems arise.

 

Just finished this project on our 52 Sedan Bridge. It was a big learning curve that I just figured out along the way. Sea Ray did provide the drawings which helped a little. Most of the headliner is held in with the Xmas trees and a few hidden screws at the bow and stern of the headliner. As Grant said some of the ceiling is put in first before they build the outer valances. For our boat I was not able to get the Port and Starboard sections out but they were small and have very little sag so I let it go.

I agree to get the drawings from Sea Ray, study them and your boat to get your arms around it. I posted the project on the Captains pages. I will try to copy some of those pages into the 52DB Pages to show everyone what I dealt with. Turned out really good in the end...

FYI - Our headliner was in great shape, we were able to pull it from the plywood panel, clean it up a bit and re-glue with adhesive.

 

Those seats look awesome!

 

Well, it's time to change the Group 8D batteries. Got two new ones sitting in the parts department awaiting my pick up on Saturday. Does anyone have any "words of wisdom" on a good way to remove two 170# +/- 8D's and go back in with the same? Can two men with ropes on the handles safely lower them down to the third guy to guide them in? Just looking for a bit of advice to avoid a sh!t show.

Thanks,

Jaybeaux

 

i removed one of the 6" inspection ports on the hardtop, and put a 1" x 24" pipe in there with shop towels wrapped around it and attached a chain hoist. Hardest part was getting the batteries on the boat.

-Tom

 

@TNT8808 How cleaver. I take it you were by yourself?

 

Unfortunately, yes. At least I was able to have my batteries delivered, and convinced (tipped) them to set them on my boat.

 

I got the AGM's which are 192 pounds each. Me and my buddie used ropes tied to the handles to both remove and replace. Once you lift the old battery up it should swing to the center of the hatch opening. The difficult part is maneuvering the battery to a flat area without falling into the engine bay.

 

Yep exactly how I did it. Really quick actually. Ropes make it easy to slide into place.

 

I'm going out and back in with wet acid batteries. Putting the ropes on the handles, do they have a tendancy to want to spin, rotate, and spill shit everywhere? I have a crap load of cardboard to lay out on the teak. Sound like a good plan? The @ocgrant seal of approval?

Jaybeaux

 

They don’t move or spin that much. I did it with myself and one more person. 1st 1 man in the hole rope on the rear of the battery goes to the man up top, man below lifts the other end and helps get the battery out of the tray and guides it to the floor. Then add the second rope and get out of the hole. Lift it straight out. Pretty simple just go slow and make sure it is secure. Reverse going in. If you have a 3 person should make it even easier…maybe.

 

Just a follow up on the 8D battery replacement. Easy peasy job especially with 3 guys. Two up top manning the ropes, and one in the hole guiding the batteries out and in. I spent more time removing the hold-down bar thing and re-installing that!

Thanks for the guidance as usual! On to the next question/project....

Jaybeaux

 

Fuel Leak on Generator Racor.....

I've developed a small leak on the generator Racor. I probably created it when I was attempting to install the drain valves I purchased last fall. The big "nut" below the heat shield is so thin and the drain plug has probably never been removed. It was difficult getting the proper tool on it to accomplish in place. I've tried to tighten the big nut to stop the leak, but it keeps weeping.

I figure its time to change the o-ring and gasket on the bottom of the bowl. My plan is to shut off the fuel valves, remove the big nut and let the contents drain into a bucket. Up top, where it is easier to work, remove the plug from the big nut and then install my drain valve and then use the plug to plug the drain valve, as others have indicated. I found a seal kit at West Marine for $12.99. It says its for the 900 and 1000 series, but I have double checked with Parker and have concluded that it is the same kit for the 500 series (Generator Racor).

https://www.westmarine.com/racor-dr...HjJpchrtpg9rmr4jf-YFnEI0iMyWu_nBoCjiYQAvD_BwE

What I don't understand is why do they include two bowl drain gaskets? A spare? From the parts list, https://www.parker.com/content/dam/...h_Install/15335_500MA-MAM_Marine_Turbines.pdf See page #6, it just shows the o-ring (Part #15) and one gasket (Part #16). Also, for those that may have done this repair, does the o-ring go around the plug assembly (Part #18) like it does on the T-Handle at the top, or does it just seat up in the lip of the bowl? Obviously when I take it apart the answer should be apparent, but this is how I like to over-think all boat projects. See battery replacement above!

Thanks in advance,

Jaybeaux

 

Fire Boy (?) Alarm...

When changing the on engine fuel filters (secondaries) the other week, my procedure is to cycle the switches as to activate the fuel pumps to fill the new filter. I crack open the outlet vent to rid the system of air. When we started to do this, I had an alarm at the helm. I had a red light on the fire supression "guage". Not wanting to deal with it at that momemnt, I just threw the switch into "Bypass" to complete the fuel filter change out. Knowing that I had a battery situation at the time, I asked the question to the Service Dept can a "low voltage" type scenario cause an alarm on the fire supression system. I got a "yes".

Ok, so next, I changed the batteries. See post above. Brand new 8D's, wet acid, 1400 CCA. Last night after dinner on the boat, I remembered the alarm. I turned on the keys down below and then went to the helm and activated each switch. I still had the fire suppresion system alarm...red light on the guage.

Last fall and at winterization, there has been no change. As far as I know, there is no "code" being thrown. Would that show up on the Smart Craft display? Mine is original to the boat. Admittedly, I did not look through that display. This afternoon, while at home (naturally), I thought about disconnecting the wires at the the big red bottle and reconnecting, just incase they had wiggled loose or something.

Any other ideas? The guage on the red bottle is in the green, but it was not straight up and down. Say 11 o'clock. It was fairly cold in the engine room. Could it just be at colder temperatures it lowers the pressure in the bottle just enough to cause an alarm condition?

As always, thanks.

Jaybeaux

 

I just finished this exact same job, chasing generator shutdown issues - The rebuild it was RK15211 and the Service Kit was RK 15010B (Check Ball).
That large nut not only holds the heat shield but also seals to the clear plastic fuel bowl. The large nut goes up into the heat shield then the fiber washer then the O-Ring. In the instructions that came with the kit look at the three different drain configurations.

 

@ttmott So only use one (1) fiber washer? The second is just a "spare"?

 

Put a jumper across that fire bottle disconnect plug as see if you might have snagged the wire. The Jumper will bypass the fire system bottle.

 

They probably are different sizes one is for the FE, FF, and FG Racor filters and one is for the MA like we have. Match to the washer you remove.