Official 510 DA Owners Group

[stephens013]

Nice work, Was that access panel under the sofa toward the rear bulkhead?

It's in front of the sofa. There are two more, one for each saddle tank. They are in line and the pannels are a bit larger. Those two are working so I'm leving them undisturbed.

The initial problem from the previous owner was the center tank gave an intermitant reading. Thought it might be faulty ground. Never could find where SeaRay grounded the sending unit. Also had fluctuating power. I sumized that the stepdown power and grounding unit on this system had failed. Just gave up and went all new power and ground.

 

[stephens013]

Nice work, Was that access panel under the sofa toward the rear bulkhead?

It's forward of the couch

Also, if you need to change the sending unit you can't use a universal sending unit; least ways not o the 2001 models. Universals have a 16 swing arm which contacts the tank baffles. The OEM sending unit is by Rochester; has a 9 inch swing arm. Having issues sourcing the OEM unit. SeaRay says they have them but then they don't. Rochester says talk to SeaRay; but I digress, I'm replacing it with a 23 inch reed type. Ah the simple joys of boat ownership.

 

[Avenger]

It's forward of the couch

That is very helpful info as those access panels appear to be covered with the original carpet on my 510.

 

[stephens013]

That is very helpful info as those access panels appear to be covered with the original carpet on my 510.

I thought actual access hatchs would be much smaller.
My boat had the carpet but he guy before me replaced it with 3/4 plywood covered with linoleum like sheet flooring. Sounds funky but looks ok. Anyway; the plywood is about the same spacing/thickness as the carpet.

If you ever need access to these fuel cells there might be an issue with just rolling back the carpet. I changed out the carpet in my 400DA and found that SeaRay glued the dickins out of that stuff. From what I see of the old carpet they left under the couch I'm thinking they just glued the edges; least that's what it looks like on my boat. You'll note in the photos that the hatches themselves don't have any glue residue. Meaning they didn't have the carpet stuck to them. Still, rolling back the carpet to gain access would most likely mean removing the sofa and couch. Or at a minimum lifting them off the carpet or cutting the carpet from around the mounting brackets. Those items were bolted to the deck after the carpet was installed.

 

[stephens013]

So I finish up the fuel indicator system and hooked up the rudder displacment goodies all to have the blasted tachometers, both of them, read zero. I mean really!
Come to find out all the gauges on that instrument panel are fed data via the MMCA through three wires. I did the math and there's a bunch more guauges then wires. So the analog instrument data wire carries coded info to all the engine and the rest of the stuff on that damned panel. Note the attached wiring diagram. Best guess is my MMDC unit got corrupted on certain codes. At least both my 4 in ones are operational. Well for the time being. Anyway, there is a work around should you need to retrofit guauges, replace the MMDC, what have you. Bottom line you can install what ever guage you wish and then pull the engine data from the engine analyzer plug and/or direct from the individual engine sending units. May not be SeaRay OEM but you'll end up with reliable, readily replaceable 12 volt instrumiation. Oh, did I fail to mention that the out put voltage from the MMDC along those three crummy wires going to the gauges is 7 volts. This replacement program ain't perfect but it getts the job done. There are some pretty nifty gauges you can slap on that board. There is one issue, not sure how to get data for the fuel tanks. I did a complete system replacement on the center tank but the side tanks are tied into those 4 in one gauges. Short of laying fresh wires from the sender, and trust me, you don't want to go there, I'm thinking you'll have to ID the perticular wire that feeds the MMDC raw data then do some creative wiring.

Anyway, just food for thought should you find yourself cruseing down this path.

 

[stephens013]

A few more tidbit of input on changing out the SeaRay gauges for Faria guages. First off for the life of me I could not get the SeaRay tooth counter to talk to the Faria tachometers. Ended up taking data off the alternator. It reads steady and is proportional to throttle inputs so I guess that's as good as it it gets.

 

[stephens013]

No sooner get one pain in the ass issue sorted and another bites me in the butt. The darned generator will not crank up. The delay fuse blows everytime. Come to find out it's the Sea Fire engine shut down system is cutting it out. One of the relays in Sea Fire routing board is pretty much toast. Of course they no longer make the board due to this very issue. I got 20 plus years out of it; their technitians say anything over 10 is doing good. The new one is a solid state plug and play deal. Least I'm hoping it's plug and play. If not there's a bunch of little wires to content with.

 

[aunights]

Hello fellow 510 owners. I am closing on a 2003 510 tomorrow. Boat has been at LOTO it’s entire life. It is headed for Lake Cumberland in KY. This is my 5th Sea Ray, but it is my first Deisel boat!!! QSM 11 with just under 1300 hours. I’m really glad we have this forum to discuss common issues. Her new name will be Auburn Nights V!

 

[Alum of CU]

I can't help but notice the lack of input on this thread. One of the reasons I monitor this site is to see any maintnencd issues are discusses owners come across. I'm supposing not seeing many write ups, folks chatting about this and that means these SeaRays are pretty much with out issues. Great

Well I have a small issue; the instrumentation and panel back ground lights. They are suppose to come on when the nav lights are activated; mine do not. I replaced the dimmer set up for the over head spoiler lights. That works great. When That unit was replaced I did not notice any wires going to the insrumintation. The wires coming from the SeaRay dimmer were all stenciled/marked spoiler. I don't see an additional dimmer, wiring or on/off switch dedicated to instruminaion lighting. Additionally; are there suppose to be back lights for the switch panel?

Mean while the boat runs great. Getting the radar slapped back on top and the canvas finished this week.

 

[Alum of CU]

I can't help but notice the lack of input on this thread. One of the reasons I monitor this site is to see any maintnencd issues are discusses owners come across. I'm supposing not seeing many write ups, folks chatting about this and that means these SeaRays are pretty much with out issues. Great

Well I have a small issue; the instrumentation and panel back ground lights. They are suppose to come on when the nav lights are activated; mine do not. I replaced the dimmer set up for the over head spoiler lights. That works great. When That unit was replaced I did not notice any wires going to the insrumintation. The wires coming from the SeaRay dimmer were all stenciled/marked spoiler. I don't see an additional dimmer, wiring or on/off switch dedicated to instruminaion lighting. Additionally; are there suppose to be back lights for the switch panel?

Mean while the boat runs great. Getting the radar slapped back on top and the canvas finished this week.

Stephen, while 2 years late I didn’t see any replies. There is a knob on your dash that only works when the nav lights are turned on. Hopefully this helps.

 

[Avenger]

Hello fellow 510 owners. I am closing on a 2003 510 tomorrow. Boat has been at LOTO it’s entire life. It is headed for Lake Cumberland in KY. This is my 5th Sea Ray, but it is my first Deisel boat!!! QSM 11 with just under 1300 hours. I’m really glad we have this forum to discuss common issues. Her new name will be Auburn Nights V!

I have been watching that boat. Congrats it looks like a real gem and welcome to the 510 club.

 

[aunights]

I have been watching that boat. Congrats it looks like a real gem and welcome to the 510 club.

Thank you. I am extremely excited!

 

[WalterCarl]

Congratulations!!! You'll love her... We splashed for the 2021 season last Thursday the 8th. Left Milwaukee for our dock at SouthPort in Kenosha (we decided to scrap the Chicago Harbor system after those butt nuggets kept everything closed last year) with 6 hungry and thirsty guests to share the ride. While last winter had me at the boat several times a week doing the electronics upgrade, this only had me up 3 times for the splash prep/maintenance... ZHOPKA was clean and I swear, she smiled at me when I stepped on a few weeks before we went back in the water. She started right up with a smoky billowing which cleared about an hour into the trip. I did lose the starboard impeller right at startup, but, one of my friends was delayed by an hour so I had time to change it. Always keep a spare set on board... I also recommend glycerine lubricant, a small hand held sledge and 12" of 2 x 4 to knock it in. Really helps get leverage on that starboard side as it's so cramped.

Good luck and wishes to everyone for a great 2021 season.

Walter

 

[bbrinks]

Im taking delivery of my 2000 510 next week. The acrylic grab bars/towel bars in the salon and bathrooms are ugly and need to be replaced. Any recommendations for where to source stainless or chrome similar? Flounder pounder doesn’t have anything. I’ve seen 2001-2003 510’s with stainless or chrome bars. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[WalterCarl]

Yup. I feel for you. I do have the stainless and love them. They fitted the boat with Grohe faucets. I just did a search on Grohe towel bar and Heavy duty towel/grab bar and it returned a pretty good assortment. If you get the on center hole measurements, I'm sure you can find something that looks great. Also try the companies below. Good luck.

https://www.greatlakesskipper.com/boat-parts/cabin-and-galley-hardware/head-hardware

https://www.kendormarine.com/ Call these guys. They'll tell you right away if they have anything close to what you might want.

Walter

 

[bbrinks]

WalterCarl, Thank you for the response. I will look into those options. Have a great week.

 

[bbrinks]

I'll be ordering a new enclosure for my 510DA here in the next week or two. Question for the group, do I go with a solid canvas aft curtain or do I get a couple vinyl windows put in it? The logic I've received for those that have solid canvas is that it's easy to roll up and store on the boat under a seat whereas windows make it more difficult for storage. The boat currently has a full vinyl enclosure that I will keep for early and late season boating but I don't want the aquarium/greenhouse effect going during the middle of the summer. Thanks for your ideas.

 

[Avenger]

The rear enclosure on our 510 is 4 sections and it was done just prior to us purchasing the boat. It is a lot of glass and a bit of a pain to deal with the two center sections, but it's really nice on the cooler days to not feel like your in a dungeon with a solid enclosure. Also provides great visibility while underway. A local canvas company is in the process of making shades out of a soft material that will velcro to the inside glass panels to provide a bit of privacy and cut down on the heat. The shades will also double as protectors when I want to remove the enclosure. The only thing I would have changed with our design is put more thought into how the zip up entrance was constructed. I wish it was completely removable as it just kind of unzips on 3 sides with no great way to secure it. I have asked to the canvas guy to find a solution to that so we shall see what he comes up with.

 

[bbrinks]

I really like your setup and Velcro add on curtain idea. The zip off door would be great also. Thank you very much!

 

[stephens013]

I'll be ordering a new enclosure for my 510DA here in the next week or two. Question for the group, do I go with a solid canvas aft curtain or do I get a couple vinyl windows put in it? The logic I've received for those that have solid canvas is that it's easy to roll up and store on the boat under a seat whereas windows make it more difficult for storage. The boat currently has a full vinyl enclosure that I will keep for early and late season boating but I don't want the aquarium/greenhouse effect going during the middle of the summer. Thanks for your ideas.

I'll be ordering a new enclosure for my 510DA here in the next week or two. Question for the group, do I go with a solid canvas aft curtain or do I get a couple vinyl windows put in it? The logic I've received for those that have solid canvas is that it's easy to roll up and store on the boat under a seat whereas windows make it more difficult for storage. The boat currently has a full vinyl enclosure that I will keep for early and late season boating but I don't want the aquarium/greenhouse effect going during the middle of the summer. Thanks for your ideas.

A solid canvas will truly limit visibility is you ever take her out with the canvas installed. I don't have a full incloseure so when the cold hits (I'm in Florida so cold is a relative thing) or it's raining the rear canvas goes on. Been a few times I've tried docking like that. Even with the open pannels seeing what I neede to see was a challenge.

No matter what you hit on give Boat Swains a call. https://boatswains-locker.com/
They did all the canvas on the big boats coming out of Marrit Island. They are a sponsor on this site. Great folks to work with. Got all my isenglass replaced. Really good stuff; very helpfull.