Didn't expect to be posting, but I got some pretty good news. It looks like my oil cooler and oil pump will both be rebuilt and back to me before the end of the month, so the next trip very well could be to install the transmission and hope I rebuilt it correctly.

Now I'm starting to get excited.....

I didn't get down to the boat this weekend, but I did still do some work.

While I was at the boat, I was able to pull out the Raritan Purasan waste treatment system. This is a nice little device that takes your bodily waste, treats it, and allows you to push it overboard, unless you are in an NDZ - No dumping zone. The one that was in the boat was not working, and, in fact, was not even hooked up. When the bilge flooded, it was submerged under the water in the bilge, so it was likely destroyed then, if not before.

On Sunday, I was able to start taking it apart, to identify what was wrong with it and hope I could fix it. If not, the whole set up for this unit would run me about $2500.

So, I did what anyone would do - I took it outside, hosed it down as best I could, cleaned off what I could and took off the lid. This is literally, a crappy job, and boy did it stink. It had already been emptied, but that did not matter.


This was the box while still in the bilge.

After that, I took off the mainboard (fried), removed the top, and started working on the motors (the two round pieces on the left and right in the picture above. One controls the macerator (chops up waste) and one controls the mixer, which mixes the waste with the treatment solution. What I have discovered is that both the macerator pump and the mixing pump were both bad, but everything else seems to be complete (except the fried mainboard).

So, once I order the parts, which I was surprised to find that I could still get, I should be able to fix it all for just under $500. Still a lot of money, but a lot better than I was expecting, since I pretty much just expect the worse now, Ha! Now, I just need to decide what marine toilet I want to get for the boat, that can accommodate my huge self, and I can possibly check this project off soon as well.

Below are a couple of pictures of the unit partially disassembled.






A little bit at a time. Eventually, I might have a boat!

All right, back at work after a 3 day weekend at the boat. This one was a beating, literally.

It started off with enlisting my dad to help me in an attempt to re-install the marine gear that I had rebuilt (hopefully correctly). We took 3 days, knowing that we were going to be in for a tough time, since we had never done this before. I had lots of verbal directions from my mechanic in South Carolina, but not having done it before, well, there is just no substitute for experience.

But, to start it off, I was waiting on my rebuilt oil cooler, which I had sent off - It was supposed to be here last Monday, it did not show up until Thursday, just before we left. I also needed the rebuilt oil pump that was in Shreveport - Thankfully my dad was able to pick that up.

It made it! That box was the oil cooler I was sweating.



And this is the rebuilt oil pump



So we got to the boat fairly late on Thursday, and basically I gave him a tour of the boat - he has always been a boat guy, and has a 20 foot ski boat and a 26 ft cruiser (that he has taken all over, including to the Bahamas), so he was very excited to see it. He also WANTED to help, and was excited about the trip, which was nice. We then went to sleep and were up at 7am to get to work.

In case anyone forgot, this transmission/gear is a beast, and heavy as can be, so we had transported it in sections to make it easier to lift. Basically 4 major sections, the flywheel adapter, the clutch pack, the main gear housing and the gears. We installed the flywheel adapter onto the engine, and then assembled the the main housing and gears, and lowered it into the engine compartment. The flywheel adapter went easier that I expected.

Then, we pulled up flooring. Some of this flooring had been in place for probably 40 years, but we wanted to be able to access the area directly above where the gear would be, so we could use a hoist to maneuver it. Way too heavy to do it any other way. I think it weighs in around 500 pounds.

The view from above after we got the floor removed (and actually after we had the transmission mostly in place)



After we got the floor up and set up the hoist, which took about a half a day, and after a trip to Wal-Mart and Harbor Freight for a couple of disposable tools, I got down in the engine room, and went abut installing the clutch pack into the forward clutch drum. I used a small ratchet strap to help take weight off of it while I shimmied it into the forward drum. All those teeth have to line up exactly right to slide into the case, and I was having to do it in a space where I was lying on my side, as the space is only about 2.5 ft tall, and Im way too tall to fit in there, even sitting up. Not to mention that the clutch pack is pretty darn heavy also.

After a couple of hours of fiddling with everything, and learning some tricks, I was able to get it in place.

Clutch pack pre-insertion



Forward drum that it had to slide into.



After that, we started sorting through the bolts to attach the transmission to the flywheel adapter, and realized that we really needed to replace some of those bolts. So we hopped in the car, and drove to West Marine in Corpus to grab what we needed. It is about a 40 minute drive each way, and they had all the parts we needed except one, but luckily Home Depot had one. All told, we spent about 2.5 hours getting all that. We came back, and installed the rear clutch drum into the main housing (sorry, no pictures, I didn't think to take one,) Before dropping that heavy thing into the engine compartment.

After that we made our first mistake. We reinstalled the transmission mounts.

Transmission mount on the port side. On a side note, look how pretty and clean the bilge is. At least that went right....



We then attached the hoist to the marine gear/transmission, and slid it into the proper location. At this point, by the time we were done, it was about 8pm and time for dinner, so we went and at at San Juan, just a couple of blocks from the marina. When we got back, we made an attempt to install the transmission. First we set up the chain hoist, and the gave it a shot. We failed. We fought it for about 2 hours, and decided to go to bed around midnight.

The newt morning, we got up again, around 7, and started to regroup about how we were going to do this.

The major problem we had the first day was actually getting the prop shaft adapter of the gears to slide past the prop shaft adapter (neither can be removed with the tools on a boat, and I couldn't have removed the prop shaft side had I wanted to, as we are still in the water. We finally figured out how to do that after about an hour or two - I'm not real sure how long, as a lot of the weekend is a blur. After that, we tried to mate the transmission up, but could never get it lined up with the clutch case going into the rear drum - it kept binding up, no matter how much we tried. We literally worked on it all day; we didn't even take any breaks to eat (Boat restoration weight loss plan - I'm down 7 pounds after the weekend).

About 11pm, I had a thought that the motor mounts might be throwing us off, s owe pulled the whole transmission out again, and removed the motor mounts, and tried to install it again. This time, we were able to join it up, with some serious effort, and lots of 'Raise the hoist, lower the hoist' to get it lined up just perfectly. But at about 1am, were able to line it up. Then we tried to install the transmission mounts, while it was in place, but could not make it work. Went to bed about 2:30am.

Next morning, woke up about 8am, exhausted still, and looked hard at the mounts. If you look at the picture of the mount, it has 2 giant nuts. One that it sits on, and one that secures it from above. I decided to remove the lower nuts, wire wheel the mount threads, and screw the nut all the way down on the mount, and then re-attach to the transmission. At some point during this process, I was trying to lift up on something heavy, and even though I was on a foam pad on top of big cables I couldn't move, and the force downward on my ribs was too much, and there was an audible 'pop' from my rib cage, and shooting pain. I decided to just suck it up and keep going.

So we used the compressor and it took a minute to break the 40 years of rust, but finally got them free, and screwed them the entire way down. Pulled the transmission, again, and mounted the mounts on it. Got the transmission back in place, slid it over the prop shaft (we were getting good at that by this point, and when it slipped past, lined up almost perfectly to the flywheel adapter. We were mated up within 30 minutes! Lower the transmission mounts with the newly freed nuts from above, raised the lower nuts, bolted the mounts to the boat, and cranked all the nuts tight. We were in! Bolted up the transmission to the flywheel, and finished that part about noon. This was yesterday, and noon was about our target time to leave, but I still had to attach the prop, mount the oil cooler, oil pump throttle body, etc. We decided to get the prop shaft mated and oil pump before we left.

Got the prop shaft pulled forward by using various length bolts and pulling it to the transmission - took about an hour, but when I got that first adapting bolt in, I was a happy man. And.... All the other bolt holes lined right up, so I think the alignment is probably pretty close. That was victory #2 on the weekend.

The first bolt lining up!



After this, the oil cooler was next. I prepped it, slid it onto the splined shaft that slides all the way through the transmission and mounts to the spline in the flywheel adapter, and.. it would mate up - there was a gap. I pulled the shaft, and it is splined longer on one side than the other - about an inch on one side, and about two on the other. Turned it around, and it was absolutely shorter into the oil pump this time. started bolting it up, and realized the lip was a tight fit, so was using the 4 bolts to tighten it up, and SNAP, the housing broke. I had already seen that a tiny bit of the lip was broken beforehand, and the break was at that same spot, so I'm thinking the metal was fatigued, and I hadn't put much pressure on it, so I'm guessing that is the case. It was in really bad shape before I had it rebuilt, I guess it was just too much for it. Loss #1

After that, we sealed all opening, and got oil into the transmission so that it would not rust, and sealed it up.

Now, I am on the search for the proper oil pump, and once I get that, I'm hoping that everything else will go relatively smoothly, and that maybe the end of this particular project is in sight,

One side project I did was see what condition the teak on the boat was in, so I had brought some teak oil, scrubbed the wood really well, applied teak oil, and was happy to see that it is actually in really good shape under the grime, and that it should clean up quite nicely. win #3

Starboard side (untouched)


Port side (After cleaning and applying oil)



So, we got back to my house about 10pm, my dad drove home an additional 3 hours and we both got some sleep. I went to the doc this morning before coming to work, to find out that apparently I exerted so much force on my ribs, that I managed to crack one (Loss #2).

I am still counting this weekend as a win (3 victories to 2 losses), but I feel like I've been in a bar fight, and feel like I just eked by. Now, to hunt for the oil pump, and hope it doesn't break the bank!

I may go to the boat again this weekend, not sure yet. Still have some small things to do, as well as work on the teak, now that I know how nicely it cleans up. If not, it will be maybe a month or so before the next update.

Update:

I just got off the phone with the mechanic I've been buying stuff from and consulting with to get this done.

The bad news is that he does have a pump that he could sell me, but that pump is $3600.

The good news is that where mine broke is actually salvageable, and can be replaced for SUBSTANTIALLY cheaper, like a couple hundred bucks. I just have to get back down there to grab that pump nd send it to him. So, it looks like I may get down there this weekend, at least for a day.

Sometimes decent things can happen on a Monday.

Ok, so I managed to leave at the crack of 5am on Saturday, to get down to the boat, and get the oil pump out of it so I can send it to the mechanic for a rebuild. I snapped a quick picture of it, for y'all to see the break. Good news is that lower flange can be replaced. I was able to get the part off after I transferred some oil back into the oil bucket, and fairly easily, so that was nice.

While I was down there, since it's almost 12 hours round trip, I decided to make myself a little busy. I did all the cockpit teak rails - cleaned and oiled them; there are several pieces that have a paint like stain on them that I am going to have to sand off, and I didn't have a sander with me. But the teak I did do, looked pretty good, except for the little bits of stain still on the rear cockpit boards that you can make out. Applied 3 coats of teak oil, and will likely add a couple more - that wood was thirsty!

Also replaced an Air conditioning water pump that for some reason got fried, and the A/C is running really, really cold right now.

This morning, I got up and pulled out the pressure washer and had time to do one pass on the boat. It was filthy (still not incredibly clean), and I will have to do a lengthier clean when I have more time, but it was a pretty good start.

Left in time to hear the Ags play while driving home (well, a couple of hours prior to that, really), and was happy we got the sweep.

Not the longest of trips, but got a fair amount done in the time I was there, and even got to relax out on the back for a couple of hours. Had some winged visitors who wanted to share my dinner with me, but of course, they contributed nothing.

The only downside was that somehow, I bit into a piece of jalapeño sausage from Buc-ees, and must have bit onto a bone or something - what ever it was, I managed to break a tooth, so now I get to visit the dentist tomorrow.

Probably no updates for a couple of weeks, as I have some work things in the near future, and I'm waiting on the rebuilt oil pump, but I'm extremely hopeful, that on the next trip down, I'll start her up and she'll finally run (assuming I didn't screw something up royally - we'll see).

Are you married? My wife would be giving me hell about being gone all the time.

Anyway, love this thread!

Keep them updates coming.

In reply to Bird Poo I'm very lucky - she is 100% on board with getting the boat up and going; we both love being on the water. I was actually hesitant on buying the boat; she was the one that convinced me to pull the trigger.

I don't know if I will live stream starting the boat, but I do intend on filming it - there will either be lots of cheers or lots of cussing. Either way, I will know if I got the rebuild right.

ATX_AG_08, I will definitely keep that in mind.



All right, so I took Friday off, and drove down to the boat Thursday night (right through that Nasty storm - was driving about 30 minutes for an hour or so between Beaumont and Houston - that almost made me turn back around, but I am glad that I didn't.

I had a couple of goals for this trip. One was to repair the teak around several rod holders, where the screws had stripped out the teak, and reinstall them. To do this, I bought some small teak plugs, drilled the wood out to the proper diameter and glued the plugs in. Let them dry 12 hours, drill new holes, silicone the rod holders and then fasten them back to the teak. Worked like a charm, and one of the first real projects where the boat didn't fight me. I did find a small bit of rot under one of the teak boards, but I can cut a little out, and fix that pretty easily.

Another was to remove the water pump on the starboard engine, as I had noticed rust on the transmission directly under the pump, indicating that it had been leaking at one point. I got the pump off, cleaned the transmission really well with a wire brush, and then hit it with a can of rust converting primer (a couple of other spots as well, but this was my main area of concern.

My goal was to remove the old impeller and install a new one, but the water pump had other plans. It fought and fought and fought me. Went to West Marine and bought an impeller puller; still no luck. I finally gave up on pulling it out, and brought it home with me to get special attention in my shop. it was highly corroded, AND appears to be jammed on the shaft, but I WILL get it off.

Below is the water cooler primed with Rust converter primer.



The impeller with the puller, which was not successful



The old impeller



The other MAJOR task that I wanted to accomplish was getting the propshaft mated to the transmission and aligned. I had fought with this issue for a trip or two, and just kind of put it off. This time, it was going to happen. The two adapters were slightly off in the rotation, and I was having trouble turning either, so I got a couple of sacrificial bolts, sharpened them to points, and used them as pins to align the holes. As soon as the holes were aligned, they mated right up. Pretty happy there as well!

The mated propshaft and transmission



I don't have my oil pump back yet, so that was the major mechanical that I did, I also reinstalled some pipes/tubes/hoses, etc., but once I get the oil pump back, I should be able to try to start it at that point and see what I screwed up.

On the way out of town, I stopped at the marina around Hooking Bull (sp?) and looked at a bunch of the sportfishers in dry dock, so I'm adding some pictures there as well.

In reply to fullback44 That is actually the right size impeller, they are huge and a very tight fit. I have a new one waiting, if I can get a picture I'll post it.

I was trying to avoid heat, due to the rubber, but after I exacto it off, I may do just that.

One way or another, it will submit! Ha!

All right, not at the boat this weekend, but some interesting stuff has happened in the last couple.of days.

I found out some additional information about the boat that I didn't know before. I was looking around the Post Owners Facebook page for some information, and found som posts from the guy who owned the boat back in 2019 - there is one owner between he and I.

From there, I looked up all of his posts and discovered the following things:

At one point, there was an electrical fire in the bathroom, and basically destroyed the bathroom and part of the galley. This is why the bathroom is in a completely different configuration than it came from the factory, he rebuilt it after the fire. This also, it appears, is the cause for the dark stain, he was apparently having trouble matching the original shade.

The boat was moored about 6 miles from where Harvey hit, per his post. This is what broke the starboard window, and damaged the outriggers. This is also the reason that the interior is stripped (I think), as it sounds as though a good deal of water got in.

I found videos of the mechanics working on and getting the engines back working. I will try to embed those later in the thread, but I'm on my phone right now, and I'm not that savvy.

Also, I was able to get the impeller removed today - thanks for the tip on the exacto! I cut away a piece of the rubber, and kept tapping on the brass center until it finally came free. Replacing the impeller as soon as I get the right one. My two water pumps are slightly different, and this one has a larger impeller (it was an aftermarket replacement). So, as soon as I find the right one online, I'm ordering and installing.

My mechanic let me know today, that my oil pump will be sent out on Tuesday, so that will be coming soon as well. These *should* be the final pieces I need to test the engines and transmissions out. Pretty excited about that.

Not sure when I can get to the boat next. Have to help my dad rebuild his dock in Shreveport next weekend, about half of it got destroyed in the recent storms, and then I have at least 2 weekends that I have to work. So I will be sitting, staring at the parts, and not able to work on them. Ugh!

Anyway, that's it for this update. Happy Memorial Day weekend to all!