Sea Ray 180 Engine cover

[Marco1]

I have a question for those who know the 180 sport.
Mine is 2005 and is the one with the bench seat and the big cross sunpad that doubles as an engine cover.

I only recently bought this boat and have yet to take it for a ride. I had to do some cleaning up, change a few parts and general maintenance.

I noticed that the cover has no safety lach or any lock of sort that would stop it from blowing open when picking up speed.
However there are two laches that would probably do the trick only that they are mounted the wrong way around. There are two screws with a dome nut each, that would lock in the two latch if they would be on the outside, yet the two screws are inside and so it is impossible to lach the two straps on.

I could of course turn the screws around and get the two domed nuts outside. I would need to also turn the straps around. The straps in question have a metal ring that fits the size of the dome nut and buttons on it. Strangly enough, the ring is not riveted properly to the strap and the metal points that should be bent tight to the fabric are still stright and waiting for the hammer to flatten them.
The boat has only done 50 hours but this straps mounted the wrong way around has me puzzled.:huh:

Any thoughts?

 

[Lazy Daze]

There's been a few variations over the years, but if you're talking about the black, plastic "male stud" mounted to the carpeted engine bulkhead... the extended portion of the stud should be facing down. The metal ring gets slipped over the extended portion first, then smooshed up onto the rest of the stud. That way, the only way to pull the strap off is from the bottom. Is that how they are, or are they different? Do you happen to have a picture?

Reagrdless, that's interesting that the boat is 6 years old and no one has thought to take care of the points until now. :smt101

 

[Marco1]

Hi and thank you for your answer.
The studs in question are not plastic. They are two long screws probably 3/16 or therabaouts, capped by a brass dome nut.
If I use the same screws, I would have to take them out and screw them from the inside out and place the nut this time on the outside.
The straps can be pulled over the bulkhead and latch onto this stud of sort.
I would have to turn the latch around since the ring is facing the transom, finish to rivet the ring onto the strap, cut the vinyl out of the hole and then I suppose it should be ok. Like you said, strange no one noticed, and even stranger that the cover didn't fly off. They may have had alwasy someone sitting against it.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Granted, I see a lot of boats, so I may be getting some things confused, but... do these dome nuts look like this: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.gatewayfasteners.com/images/acorn%2520nut.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.gatewayfasteners.com/nuts-c-10.html&usg=__KR4dab05nzRJkZvg2WLWzwNc12Y=&h=200&w=200&sz=33&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=NDaBMdyr7AOErM:&tbnh=99&tbnw=108&ei=m1B_TfKlJeOV0QHDu6j5CA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dacorn%2Bnut%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-USfficial%26biw%3D836%26bih%3D499%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=640&vpy=234&dur=2739&hovh=160&hovw=160&tx=116&ty=89&oei=m1B_TfKlJeOV0QHDu6j5CA&page=1&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0

If so, I think what you are referring to is not involved with the latching system. Those nuts are simply there so someone doesn't scratch their hand. What, I think, you should have for a latching system is two parts:

(1) Two, black rubber "cups" mounted on the top of the engine dividers. They mate to the male parts which are mounted to the underside of the sunpad. Typically, this is all that is needed to keep the sunpad down (but it's always a good idea to use the second part, too)

(2) The black plastic things I was referring to. There should be two black, plastic, oblong-shaped studs mounted on the outside of the engine bulkhead. These would be approximately in the area where a person "small of their back" would be when sitting on the left and right side of the bench. That's what those black straps are designed to attach to. Based on your description, the ring in the black strap is positioned properly.

 

[Marco1]

I have the rubber cups and male parts in place but they don't seem to hold much at all, I can lift the cover with one hand and there is no resistance coming from the rubber things.

Yes, that is a dome nut, I see you call it an acorn nut.

So perhaps the screw I can see is what use to hold the plastic stud and the plastic is missing so the screw was sticking out and someone thought of screwing it all in to keep it out of the way that is why it seems to be on the wrong side of the bulkhead.
That makes sense. Can you give the website of a part supplier that can post me this two studs?

Marc

 

[Lazy Daze]

Marc, I honestly don't know who makes these for Sea Ray. It'll likely be easiest to just get it from a dealer there in Australia.

I don't think the dome/acorn nut is used in the middle of black plastic thing. I'm pretty sure a flat-head bolt is used... the acorn nut is probably used on the backside (engine side) of the engine bulkead (unless a screw is used instead of the bolt). The snap is only about a 1/4" thick.

In other words, if you are seeing a screw head on the outside of the engine bay (where your back would be), that is correct. Someone probably did not know the correct way of using that black-strap-snap and must have broken it off... which may explain why the little teeth are also messed up.

Check the alignment of the rubber cups - if they are not engaging, you can shim the cup a little bit higher.

 

[Marco1]

Finaly I got some spare time to check this out.

I took both screws from the bulkhead out only to find that the plastic "studs" were there all the time. They are minuscules and someone mounted them without a washer behind them so they were buried in the carpet pile. The misterious long screw and acorn nut on the motor side seems like some sort of joke. Clearly three times longer than necessary.
I got two SS washers behind the studs to make them stand out, cut the screw to size, tied all up and now I have somewhere to latch the straps to.

The straps I got were unfinished. It seems the guy working on them dropped everything for lunch brake and that is how they fit them.
I found washers that fitted the back side of the snap on ring, rivetted both together and then cut the hole in the strap. I had to re-position one of them some 3/4" back and now both straps hold the sun pad down.

The rubber cups did not engage at all, so I got a stright edge from one end to the other of the engine bay and found that the rubber cups were 5/8" too low. I had to dismount the brackets that hold them, drill new holes, and bolt them in the new position. The metal knobs were both off the map. One I had to put 7/16" back and the other 5/16" to one side in order to be centered over the cups. After an extra washer under each knob, I got them finally to engage and hold the engine cover down.

Both struts are also out of alignement one by 1/2" and the other by as much as 2" but I will fix them another time. Honestly this boat seems to have been put toghether by a miopic apprentice that forgot his glasses at home.

 

[Marco1]

Finaly I got some spare time to check this out.

I took both screws from the bulkhead out only to find that the plastic "studs" were there all the time. They are minuscules and someone mounted them without a washer behind them so they were buried in the carpet pile. The misterious long screw and acorn nut on the motor side seems like some sort of joke. Clearly three times longer than necessary.
I got two SS washers behind the studs to make them stand out, cut the screw to size, tied all up and now I have somewhere to latch the straps to.

The straps I got were unfinished. It seems the guy working on them dropped everything for lunch brake and that is how they fit them.
I found washers that fitted the back side of the snap on ring, rivetted both together and then cut the hole in the strap. I had to re-position one of them some 3/4" back and now both straps hold the sun pad down.

The rubber cups did not engage at all, so I got a stright edge from one end to the other of the engine bay and found that the rubber cups were 5/8" too low. I had to dismount the brackets that hold them, drill new holes, and bolt them in the new position. The metal knobs were both off the map. One I had to put 7/16" back and the other 5/16" to one side in order to be centered over the cups. After an extra washer under each knob, I got them finally to engage and hold the engine cover down.

Both struts are also out of alignement one by 1/2" and the other by as much as 2" but I will fix them another time. Honestly this boat seems to have been put toghether by a miopic apprentice that forgot his glasses at home.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Actually, those black plastic studs are supposed to be mounted the way they were - you just push the black strap into the carpet to engage the lip. It's a tight fit, but it keeps them from protruding too far out. Oh well, you got it working so that's what's important.

Myopic apprentice? That's a good one! :lol: