Source of water

Well I found one of the leaks. The port side muffler was cracked. Did a fiberglass repair to it and that is now corrected. But I still have water coming in at other locations. One I can see, the rudder has a slow drip. The other source I cannot see. It is coming from the starboard rear under the gas tank. Maybe the bolts that hold the ski platform? What else could it be in that location? At least I have an operational bilge pump now so I feel better about taking on water. The water is leaking down from the rear and trickling along the path of the muffler and then though the little hole to the center of the bilge. I am sure it is not the muffler this time, it is dry. Leak is definitely coming from farther back. Also not around the muffler exit, it too it dry. Just can't see back in the corner very well, but water appears to be trickling from under the gas tank corner of the boat area. Any help would be appreciated.

OverMyHead wrote: Holes not sealed around speedo tubing where it exits for the pitot tubes. Cracked speedo lines or dampeners. Do your speedos work? might be a clue. You will probably have to pull the tank to find it and fix it.

No one of my speedo's does not work. As a matter of fact, the starboard side speedo does not work and that is where the leak is. Some of the nut/ferrals sp? for the tubing were very loose at the back of the speedo and other locations. Tell me what and where to look. This is a good boat, but definitely has not had any attention spent on it in a long time.

Very hard to see the dampeners without pulling the tank, but you can feel the speedo tubing where it enters the inside of the boat and see if it it wet when in the water , and when underway. If this is a source of water you will have to pull the gas tank. Dampeners are copper tubes that can fill with water if their is a leak in the speedo tubing between them and the guage. They then freeze and crack in the winter. They can be soldered to repair splits.

merbesfield wrote: Does the tubing ever rot?

It dries out and gets brittle then doesn't fit very well at the fittings. I changed all of the pitot tubing on my 77 a couple years ago.

That is the pitot, if the tubing is that bad outside it is likely shot insided, you can pick it up at a marine store or skidim and other sources will have it online. After you remove the chrome trim from the outside where the tubing goes through the hull you will probably have to drill the tubing out of the hull then seal the new stuff in with 5200 before you replace the trim piece. pulling the gas tank will make the job much easier. your discription of the nipple and nut iws correct, if the nipple is broken off in the tubing then new pitots are in order.The pitots also clog , blow them out while your back there.

How about these? Says it is new flow thru style.

Pitot from Discount Inboard

I spent some time today looking at the pitots and tubing. The tubing has been encased in spray foam by the factory so not sure about removing the old stuff. Looks to me like it would have to be abandoned and new tubing ran however I can get it to the front. The original pitot's only have two screws and differ from what I have seen for sale.

I am so glad that I did not throw anything away. Even my broken dampener. While I may not get the speedo hooked up right away I am going to put the hardware back. Thanks Pete for pushing the "Keep it original" mentality. I might have discarded some precious gems if not for that advice.

ErikM wrote: are the pulsation dampeners hollow?

Yes, just a empty piece of tubing!!