40 sedan bridge forum

[scooper321]

The naming ceremony, delayed for a week by work and wind, was completed today.

Me, on my best impersonation of a Baptist preacher, leading the denaming ceremony. I don’t buy this mumbo jumbo, but I do it to keep you people off my back!

The first mate, after the renaming.

Meet “Shenanigans”!

 

[Grizzly Sauce]

View attachment 68776

Thanks for the info and pictures. Greg

 

[Drafter]

A little electronics upgrading this weekend. Last year I added a Lowrance HDS 12 under my switch panel. This weekend, I added a Lowrance HDS 9 to go with it. The two share a thru hull transducer that I had installed last year and are networked to one another via an ethernet cable. This gives me side scan sonar, down scan, and typical cone sonar options, along with a chart plotter, back up camera, etc. etc. on either screen. The electronics are probably a little overkill for lake boating, but it's interesting to cruise around and see all of the things that have ended up on the bottom of the lake in pretty great detail. I wish my boat was new enough to use the engine management feature, but I think I missed that by a couple of years. Lowrance is a local company for us, and have a brother in law working for them. The family deal gets me factory cost pricing, which was pretty sweet at about 80% off retail. I pulled the factory Raytheon Nav 398 Loran unit for the install. If anyone on this forum would like to replace their's, they are welcome to it for free, otherwise I'll toss it on Ebay.

 

[ZZ13]

Here's a story. I never had good cold water pressure at the galley sink. Hot water side seemed twice as good as do all the other cold water faucets on the boat. Yesterday I tried to figure out way. I even went as far as taking the faucet out and apart. Couldn't find anything. Put it all back together and decided it just was the way it is. When I reassembled everything I found one of the fittings wouldn't reseal without dripping. So today I replaced that fitting and look what fell out. A sizable piece of shrink wrap plastic was stuck in the elbow. Probably been there for 18 years. Cold water pressure now good and strong like the hot water side. Threw in a picture of the faucet just for fun.

 

[Drafter]

Here's a story. I never had good cold water pressure at the galley sink. Hot water side seemed twice as good as do all the other cold water faucets on the boat. Yesterday I tried to figure out way. I even went as far as taking the faucet out and apart. Couldn't find anything. Put it all back together and decided it just was the way it is. When I reassembled everything I found one of the fittings wouldn't reseal without dripping. So today I replaced that fitting and look what fell out. A sizable piece of shrink wrap plastic was stuck in the elbow. Probably been there for 18 years. Cold water pressure now good and strong like the hot water side. Threw in a picture of the faucet just for fun.

Bill, how hard was it to get out? I've been thinking about upgrading mine to something a little more current in style.
I replaced the faucet in the day head, and it was not a great time to get under that vanity with 2 hands.

 

[scooper321]

So many of you removed the cockpit ice maker and repurposed that area as storage. I'd like to repurpose that as a fridge. Can anyone tell me what fridge fits in that space? Is "widening" the opening needed?

 

[ZZ13]

Bill, how hard was it to get out? I've been thinking about upgrading mine to something a little more current in style.
I replaced the faucet in the day head, and it was not a great time to get under that vanity with 2 hands.

Well, I could probably due it 10 times as fast now. There are two water connections. And a sprayer connection. I disconnected each individual line at the faucet. That required two hands and two wrenches each up in a tight space. But if you take the big nut off you may be able to wiggle it past all the connections (squeeze all the lines as close together as you can) or at least two and thus only have to disconnect the other one. Then you can disconnect the water feeds at the reducer fittings and the sprayer at the spray head. Then pull the whole thing out with all the lines connected.

 

[Nepenthe]

Update:

I re-caulked the seam lines around the air intake on the exterior of the boat. We had over 8 hours of steady to heavy rain today, and no leaks.

Is this repair still working for you? I also have a leak finding its way into the area beneath the port bed and had been suspecting the porthole above the bed was the source.

 

[CaptRonn]

Is this repair still working for you? I also have a leak finding its way into the area beneath the port bed and had been suspecting the porthole above the bed was the source.

More than likely your leak is coming from the port air box. What happens is water can get through the louvers and collects in the bottom. When the boat was new a tube in the bottom of the air box would drain the water to the bilge. As the boat ages the sealant used to seal some screws in the bottom of the air box deteriorates and the water leaks there and migrates to the port guest bunk area.

When I recaulked the seams it stopped the majority of it, but I still had to go in and reseal the bottom of the air box.

 

[ggiametta]

I can’t believe I’m asking, I need to take an engine out. Hopefully none here has had to do it, but if there’s anyone who has , can you please share how it was done. Starboard Engine. Thanks

 

[mmills023]

I can’t believe I’m asking, I need to take an engine out. Hopefully none here has had to do it, but if there’s anyone who has , can you please share how it was done. Starboard Engine. Thanks

Through the hatches in the salon - usually a long cherry picker in the cockpit stretched through the sliding door (which they may have to take out). Gas will be easier than diesel.

 

[ZZ13]

I can’t believe I’m asking, I need to take an engine out. Hopefully none here has had to do it, but if there’s anyone who has , can you please share how it was done. Starboard Engine. Thanks

What happened? Something with the engine or do you need to do something to the fuel tank?

 

[ggiametta]

Dropped a valve seal Bill

 

[ZZ13]

Dropped a valve seal Bill

Darn. I thought all that rebuild stuff could be done with the engine in place, what with these being sleeved engines and all.

 

[On the Reel]

I’ve noticed on previous posts the part number to replace the gasket on my front windshield. What tools will I need and how difficult is this job?

Sorry to hear about your engine!
Could you just pull the head?

 

[TexasBryan]

After much thought, we’ll be putting our well-loved 400 on the market in the next couple of weeks. We enjoyed the boat, but it’s time for something bigger. Located in Clear Lake, Texas if you know anyone who’s looking for a good one.

 

[Steve S]

I was in the engine compartment today. I was wondering how hard it is to remove the couches to get more swing on the hatches? Is it possible?
Just curious as it seems like they could open further if the couches weren’t in the way.

 

[susanandlance]

The naming ceremony, delayed for a week by work and wind, was completed today.
View attachment 68826

Me, on my best impersonation of a Baptist preacher, leading the denaming ceremony. I don’t buy this mumbo jumbo, but I do it to keep you people off my back!
View attachment 68832

The first mate, after the renaming.
View attachment 68831

Meet “Shenanigans”!
View attachment 68828

Looking good!!!!

 

[my3sons]

A couple of weeks back my port tachometer began to act up a little. I checked all the connections but no improvement. A few days later it got worse to the point that at idle it read nothing and at 2200-2300 it read close to 3000. Later in the day it just quit.
So I had the excuse I needed to get the Aetnas that I always thought would be nice but didn’t buy because there’s always something to spend the money on that really needs to be replaced.
I ordered them last week and had them sent to my daughters in NJ so that I could do the install while here visiting her for a while. The weather here is crumby, so today got the nod for the install.
There are other threads about the tachs here, but I thought that I would post to the 400DB thread because some of the other Sea Ray models apparently have different dash cutouts and the install can be a little more involved. Our dashes (at least the later models) excepts the new tachs no problem. I suspect That Sea Ray changed tachs at a certain point to a smaller size in all the models, but don’t know that for sure or what year it was if they did. The cut out in the dash is 3 3/8”, the Aetna is made to fit a 3 3/16” hole. The original tachs were 3 3/4” OD at the bezel and the Aetnas are 3 9/16”. The relief in the dash panel is wide enough to accommodate this small difference. So now there is a 3/32” “border” around the bezel to the outside of the relief that wasn’t before. I put spacers around the tach to center it in the cutout while I snugged down the bail. The bezel on the Aetnas are shaped differently (stepped) than the original (rounded) and I think that is more noticeable than the “border” around the outside. That may bother some, but I’m fine with it.
The wiring is plug and play except for the dash lights. The Aetnas use the 12v power from the ignition for the back light, so I just had to snip the terminal rings off the dash light wires and splice them together because the dash lighting for all the other gauges are daisy chained together. There is no need to remove the dash panel, everything can be done through the hatch under the helm. 5 screws to remove the hatch door and it can be moved out of the way. I think that the finished look is fine and that it doesn’t clash with the analog gauges. I will try to edit in a few pictures.

The only thing not plug and play is cutting the rings off the dash lighting wires and splicing them together to keep the daisy chain going

 

[ZZ13]

Looks great Mark. You have a brand new boat. Zero hours!