Official 370 Sundancer thread

Two seasons ago.....I had my entire FWC system rebuilt ...on my 1995 370DA.... and none of the old coolers had zincs in them.....and the builder didn't put them in the new system either. Should they be in there ??
 
I replaced the heat exchanger on my starboard motor this season it had no pencil zink in it and no spot to put one when i picked up new exchanger and showed old one to ward marine in boston he told me thats why it rotted out they did not put them in before, the new exchanger came with the pencil zinks and last much longer he also told me port side whould more than likely fail soon I just did not no it whould be a week later but there both replaced now and behind me.
 
Gene, that's a good question. I had Crusaders in a past life and remember having several pencil zincs to replace each year. On my Mercruisers I'm not aware of any pencil zincs in the system and have not replaced any. Did the plug you removed from the heat exchanger have a female thread on the inside of it or was it just a solid plug? Mark

All the plugs I pulled were solid or the few that had a hollowed back had no threading. I was hoping to find a few with that indication that there should have been a zinc there. None of the plugs had any residue that were indicative of a zinc. So I guess I'm not nuts. They're just not there and never were.

While we're talking about zincs, I only have two, one on each trim tab and that's it. I'm considering a set of shaft zincs. I guess that will depend on what the other zincs look like when it's pulled from the water for the winter. Call me paranoid about stray current. What do you guys do?

Gene
 
Gene....never too many zincs.....I have 2 on each tab (one top one bottom ) and 2 on each shaft......plus the large main grounding zinc. So far I've had no problems with stray current.
 
I have 1 Zinc per shaft, 2 on each tab, and the large center transom mounted one. Are you sure you don't have a transom mounted zinc at least?
 
Gene, you need more zincs. I have one on each trim tab, two on each shaft, and the big hull zinc. The zincs on the tabs and the shafts are usually almost gone at the end of the season and the hull zinc will last two seasons. If you want to get real anal about it there's a measuring device you can buy that will tell you if you have the right amount of zincs on your boat. A friend of mine that has Bravo drives bought the device and I helped him measure his boat. He ended up having to put two of those clip on fish shaped zincs that hang in the water to get his boat to the right level. If your interested I'll find out what the device is and where he got it. Mark
 
Guys, the link posted by Aarrh & Aarrh is the same device my friend used. Mark
 
......thats a cool tool to have.

A interesting thing about question # 2 ....... is I've heard of similar problems.... with not only using the boats bonding system as a DC ground.....but tieing the AC & DC neutrals together.....can cause premature zinc failure.

Thanks for the link.......
 
Ah, I forgot about the big hull anode. You're right, I've got one of those too. I forgot all about it. It's been a while since I saw the bottom of the boat.:lol:

So next season I will definitely add some shaft zincs and get one of those measuring doohickeys.

Gene
www.370Sundancer.com
 
Gene,

I like all the pics on your site. Of particular interest is a 1995 post #1291949. That's my boat! Probably an owner or two before me (I purchased it this past July from a dealer who got it on a trade), but it would be great to find out any information about it.

Thanks,

-Al
 
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Ladies and Gents, it is time for your collective wisdom.
I was having some work done on the helm seats and the passenger seat as part of refurbishing the cockpit cushions and bolsters. The upholsterer opened them up to find significant rot in every piece. Of course these seats are very custom, and frankly have a lot of strange techniques and odd pieces in them.
So, I am faced with a slow painful and likely so so repair of each of these seats, or start over, and figure out how to use currently manufactured parts, or have something completely custom done.

HELP!

I am already searching through Marinemax with the help of friends and relatives.
 
Been there and done that. The single seat on the port side of mine was reclined like a bucket seat in a sports car when I bought the boat. I removed the seat, took it home and removed the vinyl to find the wood frame totally rotted out. I have actually seen quite a few 370 DA's listed on Yacht World with this same seat bent back that are obviously suffering from the same fate. I bought a sheet of pressure treated marine plywood the same thickness as the original frame and then carefully dissasambled the orginal frame into its individual components and used them as templates the cut out new parts. I assembled the new parts with stainless steel screws and Gorilla Glue. I then encapsulated the new frame in about 3 quarts of West System epoxy. The new frame is so strong you could use it to block up the boat if you had too. I then reinstalled the foam and vinyl cover using stainless steel staples to secure it to the frame. The seat has now survived 5 seasons of total abuse by three kids.

Some one once said on one of these boards that these boats were built by mortal men and can be repaired by the same. I begin each project with the thought "how did they built this in the factory" and then try to figure out how to reverse the process to take things apart. I have the all of the cabinets in my galley removed right now to access the backing plates for the bow rail stanchions. Same process helped me figure out how to remove the cabinets. Why do I need access to the backing plates.... long story involving a storm that caught me off guard and a unfortunate meeting of my bow rail and a piling.
 
370 Dancer, I think I have to agree with J Levine (you guys should post your first name) in that taking the original seats apart and using them as a template is a good way to go. I haven't seen any custom seats that really look like they belong on the boat other then original Sea Ray stuff. Maybe you could get one of those individual Sea Ray helm seats from the Flounder Pounder web site to replace the bench seat like they used on the 380DA. You could also remove the port side seat like I did. Just make sure whatever you do it looks like something that was done by the factory. Just my two cents! Mark
 
I'm afraid I may have to do some of the same work. I'm not a small guy and I noticed some black wood flakes accumulating on the deck under the helm bench seat. I know what that means and it's probably related to the four weeks we were without full canvas this spring. Lots of rain on those seats. My son says he's noticed a little springyness in the port seat back too so I'm sure that will also need some work. Luckily, I re-cored the bridge floor/salon ceiling of my last boat with 3/4" 7 layer meranti plywood and I have good amount of it left. Combine that with some West's and like Jon, it will be 30 years before those frames need repair.

Gene
 
I'll be taking some pics later today, so you can see what is really going on under there.
It ain't pretty.
BTW, Cliff is the name
 

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