Question on used SPN

Duane in Indy wrote: I will be posting pics of machining a single taper shaft into a double taper shaft in a few days. The tapered coupling is about $65.00. To machine a taper onto the end of the shaft is not a huge undertaking and most local shops have a lathe capable. Save $$ by converting your current shaft if it is straight

Duane,
Fantastic idea! Don't forget the woodruff key and then lapping the two together.

Paul,
I agree with the others that the strut sure looks bent. Also, to me the shaft to coupling does look fretted. With a good interference press fit, there shouldn't be signs of rust at the bore. The only way to really tell is pulling the two apart and measuring.

Strut looks bent to me.

I do have some alignment work to do, I had them just pull it apart (since I haven't had time) and it's pretty far off, I posted a picture prior of the drive shaft entering the hull, looking like it was centered in the log but like the hull hole was off... the hull hole is not centered, however, the strut *is* misaligned. It doesn't look bent to me but like it is shimmed crooked (you can see it at the plate where it attaches to the hull)? I'll get a picture of that later... I will check for straightness with a straight edge then shim it if it's ok, cutlass appears to be ok but I'll need to verify (prop is off)...I don't understand how I could turn it with a finger or two if that off? Or maybe I misunderstood...it didn't spin "freely" but with constant resistance.

Ok, here are some photos from yesterday to try and show the bilge etc (it all looks stock to me, and my "white" bilge comment must have been from using the flashlight on my phone and looking at the front of the bilge, otherwise I'm just on crack):








Is that fretting (eek) on the drive shaft from misalignment? Hope my tranny bearings are ok :(, there was no obvious vibration/noises and it shifts smoothly (EDIT: Included zoomed in picture):







Current prop is a 14x16 OJ 3 blade.

BTW, marina PO'd me pretty bad, they smashed up the front of my motor box, they are going to fix it (I'll be doing my own "maintenance" from now on...). Obviously slammed the box down without it aligned with the floor wedges:



So... I guess I like to learn the hard way. But I sure as hell know a LOT more about these boats now because of this site and going through the pain myself.

Winterization is fully covered in the manual. Don't bother with the drain plug on the tranny cooler or the tranny, pull the hose off the cooler bottom and suck out the tranny fluid. Everything else could be done to their spec. If you get all the water out nothing will break over winter, everything else is maintenance. It's not complicated.

There should be plenty of info on the 89-91 stock 240 hp 1.23 transmission prop choices.

Keep the OJ as is and in the garage as a spare, you'll likely never want to use it again after getting the appropriate Acme.

The top does look custom made.

If it really is a 120" inside/132" outside "pontoon" lift it is at least 3k.

Stainless cables are nice, and not cheap.

Where did you see that lift is 3,000#? It looks like my old ShoreMaster 2500#, which held a Barefoot ok but not well. We eventually replaced it with a 4,000#

I wouldn't spend $900 for just the lift but it would work and I kind of like top...

pedricd wrote: I have these screw on balls with a tether to hold the motor box hinge. Are you supposed to be able to unscrew them without removing the screw they are tethered to?

There are no nuts they just stab through the floor.

yes step back and take pictures that show the boat with the motor box out maybe the back panel out ... don't take apart what you have done it sounds like a reasonable repair for the time being

TRBenj wrote: Pictures

We all agree that construction would be a bad idea... it would also be different than any previously seen, You should definitely post pictures of the bilge area and what you have found...

Based on your recommendations, I grabbed a 1" hole saw and ended up cutting 7 holes out. My findings are this:

- There has been no "patch" job done that I could find (consistent fiberglass/material throughout)
- The construction appears to be bare plywood with 1/2" of foam on top of that with fiberglass on top of the foam (floor is floating on top)
- Since I only had to go through a thin piece of fiberglass to investigate, I cut out two of the holes near the hull. The wood did not extend all the way to the hull and is not glassed to it...(bare wood)
- Some of the holes (especially towards the back of the seat) have clean "brand new" looking wood in them (the screw hole itself was torn up).
- Others were marginal but were solid and appeared to be dry
- there is one "bad" hole, with some rot, the wood is still "there", rot was clearly tied to the screw hole and extended laterally a couple of inches on both sides about a 1/4" wide.

MechGaT - I found your thread on the stringer job you did on your 92 SPN (thread). Great pictures and info, and if I end up there at least I have good reference.   That's the only example I've been able to find of someone tearing apart a 92 SPN... Does my floor construction sound at all like yours?

Also, I see that my bilge and every exposed area below the floor is pure white and yours appears to be grey/black? Wondering if that's stock on mine... I also have a round plastic "hatch" behind the engine for access to the output shaft/coupler. Again, the PO stated that the guy he bought it from said it had composite stringers...I'm wondering if it's had a stringer/floor job once already...assuming everybody *knew* what they were talking about and were being honest.

So, what I'm doing for now is digging out the bad wood I found in the one hole (already done this, did not have rot all the way through), drying it, filling it with CPES and plugging all of the holes with 1" CPES soaked dowel rods after putting CPES in every cut out hole for good measure. Then I'm putting some fiberglass over the top of each hole, drilling and remounting the seat. This will then let me see if I have time/the location to rip out the flooring this winter or not. If not, I'm sure it will hold for at least a couple of seasons while I figure it out.

In any event I think it's a terrible idea to have fiberglass, with a foam filled void, then bare wood THEN put a screw through that...would that really be stock? The fiberglass would flex up/down around the screw, opening the hole more and more and allowing even more water in than a wood backed fiberglass....

If the floor was replaced in the last few years, that seat shouldn't strip out - even with some dude sitting on the seat back....... unless there's cancer. Fix it up for now but be on the look out...... few people go through changing a floor for fun. And if it's new-ish, it should hold up for several years.

It is starting to sound complicated and expensive so at this point I would say tear it out and do it right.   The floor under the seats was likely the same 1X stock they made all wood stringer boats I have every seen. You are probably right that it has been repaired before... question is was it really repaired and the only problem is how he attached the seats, or was it not repaired at all or very poorly. I wouldn't waste git rot stuff on it, as unless there is dry but spongy wood down there that product wont do you any favors, Us composites sells epoxy, the minimum repair I would recommend is to get some cloth and get a hole saw and screw out some one inch plugs an inch or so deep on the holes no where near the side of the hull. If you like what you see in those holes fill them in with plugs and go over them with some layers of fiberglass... if you find wet wood then pull up the whole area under both seats dry out and repair in the off season.

Nice work Cousin Donald, key point here is encapsulating your wood in rubberized protection before dipping to ensure your wood will not get soft prematurely

Hi I was looking into doing stringers on our 88 2001 and Cpes from the rot doctor. They had a real good article about treating plywood with and leaving it out in the weather for 3 years and still looked good. I ordered some to shoot up into the a platform mount holes and to try out on some wood pieces. Have to see how it does.