The saga begins - bringing my $100 Seville CC back to life

All y'all,

quick update, pics to follow. 'Ohana is now parked all snuggy in our driveway. We solved the half-lowered sterndrive by unbolting the trim pistons, and strapping the unit up as high as it could go with a ratcheting cargo strap. Hooked her up to Big Tater, and backed her into the driveway with no scraping! Her trailer is now up on jackstands, so she is stabilized. Gave her a good bath, all the ugly rust stains are gone!:smt038 Reconnected the lift pistons, connected a battery to her engine and tilt pump leads, and lo and behold, the tilt system works! As dusk fell, we looked at her instrument console, and woo-hoo! All the instrument lights are lit! The kids found the horn button, and yep! That worked too *chuckle* Now all I have to do is troubleshoot the running lights; they are dark. Oh yeah, the bilge pump and bilge blower need love as well, hoses are shot.

'Ohana is slowly coming to life. Next up is the outdrive, but I'll have to engineer a removal strategy for myself, my step-daughter's strong young boyfriend has gone the way of all boyfriends (idjit doesn't know what he is missing out on *humph*)

Baby steps, but we are feeling good about 'Ohana Nani Nui.

Regards to all,

Al and Bernadette

OldEngineer said:

Masochist? But it feels so good when I stop bashing my head against a stone wall ... or my aching arm and hand from pulling my wallet out so many times already ... :grin:

Of course, a good wet-sand and compounding session is the preferred method to restore the gelcoat to a lasting shininess, and is on the rehab schedule, but for now, the Vaseline treatment is a short-term, feel-good fix that the Tribe can do right now while I'm working on the essentials (engine, drive, electronics) without them getting underfoot.

On the number on the transom, good catch, y'all! I have never "boatel'd" a boat, so that number was a mystery to me. (Shoot! Y'all just ruined a part of the fictional story I was gonna write: "... curious, Ole OldEngineer reached out, and gently touched the number on the transom of his new purchase. As his fingers touched the hull, he heard a soft, feminine voice in his head: "Sir, did you rent me? I am so tired, and my battery is so low, I can barely talk, but I will do my best to serve you...")

Oh by the way, the Tribe finally settled on a new name for the boat. She will be christened 'Ohana Nani Nui, which means (loosely) in Hawaiian, Big Beautiful Family.

On a more practical note, the outdrive gets removed this Thursday evening (when my step-daughter's boyfriend is free to help), and I have 90-weight gear oil, gear oil pump, grease and an impeller rebuild kit on order hopefully to arrive that same day. I will order a replacement prop today as well. Three-blader I think, 14x19 per the prop matrix on Sea Ray's website.

Regards to all,

Al and Bernadette

Click to expand...

You know there are other uses for Vaseline................

Quick Update redux: got out my handy-dandy freebie Harbor Freight Multimeter and troubleshot the running lights: voltage is good to bow and stern lights. The bow light fixture is shot, so new one on order. The aft light pole is AWOL, so new one is also on order. After putting a full charge in the battery, and cleaning all the wire terminals, checked the bilge pump and bilge blower. Bilge blower was frozen, but as soon as I turned it by hand, it started and ran by itself! Gave it a good shot of WD-40, and it quieted down and stopped vibrating. I think I have to fill the bilge with water to check the bilge pump, since it has a float switch. (Shouldn't the console switch override the float switch? I don't know, anybody's thoughts on this one?)

Anyhow, one more baby step towards resurrecting this sweet boat.

Regards to all,

Al and Bernadette

Cprrect. The dash switch should turn on the bilge pump.

OldEngineer said:

I think I have to fill the bilge with water to check the bilge pump, since it has a float switch. (Shouldn't the console switch override the float switch? I don't know, anybody's thoughts on this one?)

Click to expand...

Yes to testing with water and yes to testing with dash switch.

Quick update: nav lights came in the mail last Friday, installed bow and stern Saturday morning, all lit up when First Mate Daisy (13-year old grand-niece) hit the console switch. Yay!

About time for a photo update, isn't it?

Many apologies to all for the long hiatus, but Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, plus family issues (happily resolved) all intervened, preventing any meaningful work done on Ohana. However, here she is, all decked out in her tactical stealth outfit, secure in our driveway. Scrungy old prop is off, prop shaft greased and covered with a baggie, test battery removed for the duration.

So Tactical!



New bow light

Here's my solution -

All y'all,

it was finally warm enough this weekend to put a little effort into fixing up Ohana. Couldn't do much with the boat herself, but got her up off of the trailer, and on boat jacks, and yes, the forward tarp is new, since the old one ripped during a windstorm we had last week. Oh, and it's too small, because I didn't take the Admiral with me to Harbor Freight when I went to buy a new one. When am I gonna learn ...



That's the good news. The so-so news is I wasn't smart enough to get the placement of the jacks such that I could pull the trailer out from underneath her. She is up high enough to work on the trailer, so y'all can see my next item on the to-do list: getting these rollers working or replaced, as needed.



I may also have to replace most or all of the U-bolts holding the darn thing together, since they are all rust-toast. Fortunately, since I am a packrat, I still have my nut-cracker from many years ago, so busting those rusted nuts will be time-consuming, but easy.



Sigh.
All suggestions, encouragements, and commiserations gratefully received.

Is the boat in the picture? I can't see it... :lol:

U-bolts... just cut them off with a grinder. Super easy and super quick.

I'm a little worried about the stands at the bow. I see you have them chained and they're definitely beefy enough. But it makes me cringe a little that those front ones could tip out. There's an easy way to get the trailer out from under the boat - just requires a floor jack, some concrete blocks and few pieces of 2x's. If you'd like, I'll explain, but I don't want to bore you if you don't want to. I'd just be uneasy working underneath - whatever you do, at least make sure to never have any part of you between the boat and the trailer. Sure would be easier, though, if you slid the trailer out! :smt001

Dennis,

I share your concern for those two forward jackstands. They scare me too. I am wondering, perhaps I could pull the trailer forward enough to be able to put temporary supports under the boat, but behind the trailer axle. I think the trailer would be far forward enough that those supports would be forward of Ohana's center of gravity. I could then remove the forward jackstands, pull the trailer completely out from underneath, and reset the forward jackstands further underneath and further back under the hull. Your thoughts?

Yes, that's the idea. I'll try and paraphrase the general idea and then you can take it from there. The first thing you need is a floor jack (bottle jacks can work, but they're "tippy", so be careful). Now it looks like the boat's keel is too high for a floor jack to reach (since the aft is so high because of the stands) so you may need to first build a simple (but sturdy!) support stand/step to place it on. You can jack under the keel all the way forward till about where your horn is.

Start by pulling the trailer as far forward as you can. Then jack the keel up enough to be able to remove the forward stands. Pull the trailer forward again until the first crossmember reaches the jack. Lower the boat back onto the trailer, move the jack behind the crossmember and jack it up again. Pull the trailer forward again until you reach the axle... repeat the procedure. Do it again when you get to the rear crossmember. It would be a good idea to have the trailer attached to your truck so it doesn't rise up with the boat weight on the rear of the trailer - or keep using those jack stands. Now the trailer is free and you can lower the boat onto the stands (in a better position as you pointed out).

Side note... personally, I like having support under the forward keel - and this is where the cement blocks come into play as you can stack them two by two, rotating 90* as you go, ending up with one block and a piece of wood to protect the keel (if using a 2X lumber, be sure the grain is perpendicular to the keel). For this size boat, you really only need three points of contact - the two aft corners and one under the bow keel. Larger boats require more keel support, along with chine support. You have the stands, but the blocks can also be used under the aft corners - just an fyi.

Lastly, use separate chain/straps to tie left/right and forward/back. You essentially have a circle - better than nothing, though.

This process probably sounds more complicated than it really is. After you've done it a time or two, it's about a 30-minute job. I did this for the first time in my driveway with a boat about your size when I was 14 or 15 years old. My dad came home from work and his only comment was "Alright, well, just put it back when you're done." :smt001

OldE, I'm enjoying your pics and story and learned how to get a boat up off the trailer. I'm going to bottom paint my Whaler and was wondering how to get it off the trailer.

Keep posting. I love it.

Yeah, this is good stuff. I can't wait to see you out on the water.

All y'all,

We did it! Me, First Mate and Second Mate (Daisy and Kane). With Dennis' procedure and a little patience, the trailer came out from under Ohana without a "hitch" *heh-heh* Apologies for only taking pictures after the fact, but in the heat of battle I was more concerned about young folks fingers and toes and such. Also, the interim jack point was right under the bow eye, and looked very scary, but allowed me to move the trailer forward enough to place the side and keel jackstands in their final positions. See below for final results:











Regards to all,

Lookin' good, Al! I bet it feels SO much nicer (and easier!) to be able to work on the trailer out in the open!

Can I make on or two little suggestions? First, move the jack back to about below your horn. The jack is a little too far forward where it is. Secondly, those 4x's that the jack is sitting on. They're plenty strong, but we can make the top two a little more secure by adding a third 4x and then screwing a piece of ply over top of the three of them, then setting the jack on top of the 4x/ply contraption. I just don't like how the feet of the jack are close to the edges of the 4x's - just a little bit of movement from the boat could cause the 4x's to tip and the jack falls off. Granted you have the extra stands, but better safe than sorry!

Nice job, though!

I agree, plus moving the jack stand back will raise the bow a bit and better allow any rain water to drain out of the boat.
The Jack Stand up on the 2 separate 4X4's is a little scary. One of them could kick out on you when you're moving around in the boat. I might get rid of the Jack Stand all together and just stack up more wood to get to the desired height.

It's like playing jack stand Jenga.

Quick update,

This past month's budget allowed a purchase of enough rollers to refit the stern-most 8 on the trailer. Here they are:



Will update again tomorrow after install on the trailer.