CSR cruise to the bahamas?

It was a great weekend and a wonderful party on Sunday afternoon. Thanks to Chad and his crew for a warm reception and good conversation. Next time, we need to have Barry and some other CSR folks to join us.

The CAT's ran great on the way home with no temp problems. The marina was terrific, we got a great slip location and did some great snorkeling.

LET'S DO IT AGAIN !!!!

Randy
 
It was a tough month, had to be on the Z-Pak 2x and even then it has taken weeks after that to get over this thing.

Am almost at 200 hours on the 320 (350 Merc V Drives) and in the process of getting everything together to do the maintenance, oil, filters, transmission oil & filters (man those ZF filters are EXPENSIVE), fuel filter, plugs -even those are $15.00 each at the dealer (found them online for about $8.50 each) generator filter oil & plug, etc.

Yesterday I spent an hour just figuring out how to get to all the sea strainers, and did manage to get to the AC and the generator and clean those. The ones for the engines are easier to get to, but I couldn't get the handles on the Seacocks to move an inch to close them, and didn't want to bust them...Any suggestsions?

I want to have everything done in the next 2-3 weeks so I'll be ready for the next trip.. When I was at the Pompano MM, I did see that they are planning a few trips till the end of the year, from the Keys to Bimini...

Where ever you guys decide to go next, let me know and if I can, I'm in.

Randy, looking forward to meeting you and yours, and Chad, since we don't live too far away, maybe we can all meet for dinner one night soon.

Barry
 
Barry - when I first got my boat, the seacocks wouldn't budge. I remember my mechanic saying that he didn't feel comfortable trying to get them open. By the time he finished the service call they were working. I think he sprayed WD40 on them but can't be sure. I would ask others to provide input on this subject. Be careful.

Ever since then, they have been fine. The previous owner must not have ever used them.

R
 
Barry,

The seacock Sea Ray uses has a drain plug on the side of the valve body in order to drain it for winter temperatures. Remove those and insert a grease fitting, then grease the sea cock. You might need to use some leverege to get the handle unstuck since they do get a little marine growth in them if you don't open and close then periodocially. Once you get the handle to move even a little, just keep opening and closing it and shooting grease in the fitting until you get the ball lubricated.

You can remove the grease fitting and put the plugs back in when you are done if you want to. I'm in Panama City and we don't winterize, so I just ordered some stainless steel grease fittings and I leave them in all my sea cocks.
 
Thanks for the info...It's pretty cramped in there so hard to get a lot of leverage. Will look for the fittings and see if I can get some grease in there.

This is one time that being over 6'2 with big feet does NOT help...not too many place to fit..I'm going to have to find a kid to do the work and fit in there!
 
or, trade boats.

So many folks like everything about a new boat, but for some reason how you get to stuff never enters the equation until after all the checks are written. Our dealer's standard answer is "Don't worry about that, our mechanics love working on 320DA's." Then if you go talk to the guys that do the work, there is some poor guy who's unfortunate lot in life is that he is constructed like a monkey with elbows that articulate both directions and he gets all the 32DA work!

Most owners of boats with tight engine rooms do what they can and rely on their dealers for the stuff they can't or don't want to get to.
 
Sea Strainers

Hi Barry: Glad to see you are getting stronger ...

On thos forzen strainers. If you have Appollo bronze ballcocks, (yellow plastic covered handles) they are built of bronze body, bronze ball chrome plated and teflon plastic seats for the ball.

The ball is biored to the same ID as the through hull so there should be nobig stuff growing on the ball. Thuis when thes ehang is is usuall from salt encrustation at the lip of the seat and the ball.

As Frank asvises one you get the aerm moving , continous working of the ball will allow progressively longer throw for the arm unti it travels the entire 90 degrees open to close. If due to angle and lack of leverage by hand you can use a PVC pipe slippped over the arm, or as a last resort, use a rubber mallet or deadfall hammer and tap the end towards close then back to open do this repeatedly until it begins to move and then you can get wipe open and closed.

If nothing like this works, then back off the nut holding the handle in place and releive some pressure on the nut under the handlem say a qtr turn and try to move the arm again, won't crack, add another 1.4 turn off the nut under the arm. Try the dead fall hammer and the pipe. Enough swear words and it will free up. The get them all working.

If you decide to grease the ball valves as recommended by frank, be sure to use teflon waterproof grease.

"Super Lube" is one.
 
barryg said:
...It's pretty cramped in there so hard to get a lot of leverage.
Click to expand...

Nothing can be as bad as my engine room. 3 of the 4 seacocks are located in the rear stern area, back behind the generator. There is absolutely no room to access them. I have to use a 14 inch PVC pipe just to touch the handles. The 3 strainers are all located back there too. Sea Ray should have done a better job with this.
 
Thanks guys..I'll give all the suggestions a try during the week. There are two seacocks and strainers (the AC and Genset) all the way to the back under the bellows of the blower on the starbord side that took me about an hour to find a way to get to. I can't wait to figure out how to get to the generator itself to change the oil, filter, and check the impeller, let alone figure out the ZF trannys...

Part of the joy and challange of owning a boat with inboards.

Barry
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,124
Messages
1,426,664
Members
61,037
Latest member
wojozobl
Back
Top