85 2001 LVL Stringer Project

MI-nick wrote: Big Pappa wrote: One thing I did notice after letting the boat run for a minute was the carb was leaking from the metal plugs on top of both the front and rear bowls. I will have to figure out a way to seal these up before running any more. i had the same issue this summer. i rebuilt the carb over the winter and it sat dry until spring. first time i fired it up in april, it was leaking out those plugs. after sitting for a night with the bowls full, it didn't leak in the morning...and still no leaks. hopefully you have the same luck.

Yea I saw where you mentioned this in another post. Crossing fingers to hope that this is the case for me as well!!!

Jllogan wrote: there has also been a rash of faulty needle and seats. I replaced mine and that solved the issue.

I do not think this will be the problem because the boat ran for 2 years after I rebuilt the carb without leaking. I could be wrong though we will see.

I had a pretty productive weekend working on the boat. I started of Friday afternoon by replacing the fuel level sender in my gas tank. I then mounted the wood strips that the tank sits on and then mounted the gas tank. I then pulled the wheel bearings and seal from the Port side. I knew they were not the best but the inside was worse than I thought!! After I pulled the bearings and races I cleaned the bearings in some mineral spirits to get all the old grease off. After doing that I had a good 1/8" play side to side in the outer cage of the bearing. The inner was not all that bad but was not perfect either. Both races had some pitting in them and the grease that came out of the hub was rust brown and the seal was completely shot.







Saturday I had to take care of a few things for my Mom first thing then it was off to Napa for some bearings. I took the bearings in and let them look everything up. I did not think of checking here for the numbers. I should have!! They had the inner and outer bearings in stock but did not have the seal in stock. They told me that the warehouse downtown did have them. I decided to check the other autoparts places to see if they had the seal. Auto zone, Advance Auto Parts and Oriley's all did not have it. So I took off to go down town to get the seal from the warehouse.

The lady at the warehouse was clueless!! I did not get the part number from my local napa and since she did not have a number to look up she could not help me. Thanks to technology I finally thought to look it up here on my phone and found the part number. She told me that the number I found here was not a number in her system. But she somehow found a part and had it brought up to me. I compared it to what I had and it was the right size, It just had an inner and outer wall on it (only 1 seal though). So I told here I needed 2 I got those then she told me the total I nearly fell out. $33 a piece!!!    That is more than the freaking huge inner bearings!! It was around 2 at this point and I wanted to get to work I went ahead and paid for it and walked funny back to my truck after being raped!!

I get back home get the races installed, bearings packed, (This is a handy tool to have by the way) seal installed and go to slide the hub on the spindle but the inner bearing does not fit. I pull the bearing back out and sure enough the ID is too small. So another trip back to Napa, this time with the PN from here, only to find out that they do not have that part in stock. So that means another trip to a store about 15 miles away. I get those and get back home and everything finally goes back together and that axle is completed.

I needed to pull the boat out to get to the other wheel and it was getting too late for that so I grabbed my seat base and put on my new slides. When I ordered them, I do not know if it was supposed to come this way or not but I received 2 of the slides that locked. I did not want to send one back and wait for a regular slide to come in so I just took a piece of threaded rod and put 2 90's in it then bottom nut and washer. Put it through a hole on both slides then a top washer and nylock nut. It works like a charm.





Sunday I got up and pulled the boat out first thing. Off came the hub this one has had water in it as the grease is all milky color and the bearings are all rusty. I replaced everything and put it all back together with new fresh marine grease and topped it off with the bearing buddy. After it was all back together I cleaned up the old bearings (I like to clean them up removing all the grease to see the condition that they were in. These were both completely rusted but the inner bearing was tighter than the other side. All in all the bearings, races and seals were absolutely needed on this trailer!!

Very creative on those seat tracks! You definitely werent supposed to get 2 latched tracks... only one needs the lever, the other just floats. You may want to consider putting the lever on the port side- it would be very hard to reach down the side of the seat on the stbd side once its installed in the boat.

You also make a very strong case for buying new hubs rather than just bearings and seals! Not sure what quality of bearings the replacement hubs normally come with, but it doesnt sound like your way was better in regards to cost effectiveness.

Be sure to err on the side of overtight on the hub install, as opposed to too-loose. They'll loosen up a little bit as they break in. Make sure you check them frequently the first few trips! Wobbly wheels are no good at all.

MI-nick wrote: did the leak from the bowl plugs stop??

I forgot to mention that, Yes. They have not leaked a drop since they did last week. There must be some kind of a seal that swells to seal things up in there.

Hi Kris - great post - cool to see the progress. I'm working on the 84 ski tique now. We put new heads, cam and intake in it and are in the final stages now. Trying to get my hands on a few photos of the wiring of the motor - have a couple spots were unsure of and right now am having problems getting a spark to the distributor. Didn't know if you had any photos from your motor or rebuild that could help. Thanks a ton man, appreciate it!

TRBenj wrote: Very creative on those seat tracks! You definitely werent supposed to get 2 latched tracks... only one needs the lever, the other just floats. You may want to consider putting the lever on the port side- it would be very hard to reach down the side of the seat on the stbd side once its installed in the boat. You also make a very strong case for buying new hubs rather than just bearings and seals! Not sure what quality of bearings the replacement hubs normally come with, but it doesnt sound like your way was better in regards to cost effectiveness. Be sure to err on the side of overtight on the hub install, as opposed to too-loose. They'll loosen up a little bit as they break in. Make sure you check them frequently the first few trips! Wobbly wheels are no good at all.

Thanks!! I did not think about hitting the wall when I opened the latch. I will switch the handle around when I put the seat on.

Where would I purchase whole new hubs? I am thinking of getting one to have as a spare and to mount a spare tire to on the trailer.

I will make sure to keep a close eye on the bearing tightness!

Good question on the hubs... I dont have an answer for you as I dont have a 2001 trailer. But I would imagine that if you knew your inner and outer bearing sizes, you should be able to find an aftermarket hub that bolted up.

Pat, I just sent you an email with a wiring diagram for your boat. Feel free to call/email if you need some help.

Maybe this?

ya not sure, I will tell you this I paid through the nose last year for timken bearings and they burnt up the second time I took them out this year, so Im not sure you are really getting anything that much better. New rule at my house is the bearings are coming out and getting repacked every year as a part of the winterizing activities.

ya, I think thats about what timkens cost me, this year I did nationals and it was more reasonable, like 60-70 bucks.

Kris,
Do you mind posting a picture of how you are mounting the seat slides to the seat base and boat. I am abou tto do this on my 1994 sport and I can not remember how they were mounted using the big domed washers. Thanks alot it would help me out.

Steve

Here is a picture of the slides mounted to the base if that helps you out Steve.

How many washers do you have stacked up on that seat base, and why? All of my boats only have one domed washer per corner (set wide part down).

Those wood seat bases look good! I bet all the people looking to make delux 2001 interiors would kill to have a set of those plans made available so they didnt have to bank of finding the (unobtainable) plastic bases used 86-89.

Big Pappa wrote: This is how my drivers seat was, I am assuming, from the factory. There are 2 domed washers with the bowl side facing each other and a washer between them. Then there are 2 of those stacked on top of each other.

That is strange- Ive only taken a few apart but have never seen them stacked so high. I wonder if a previous owner raised the seat up at some point? The new seat track kits only come with 4 washers.