Deck replacement on 1995 AS Explorer 245 - advice needed

[RickK]

Usually the core doesn't go to the edge of the hatch. There is usually an inch+ gap, so that allows the 1708 to roll down to the lid and become part of the lid. See the above picture, the lid still has the lip. Of course it's your choice and design.

[msteinkampf]

Thanks for explaining. My hatch doesn't have a fiberglass lip because it was cut out of the deck to access the fuel tank, so I'll have to work around that.

M

[msteinkampf]

The demolition phase continues. I cut a hole in the back of the fishbox with my angle grinder and an air saw to access the bilge – a modification previously described by Pete here: https://classicaquasport.com/smf/index.php?topic=6311.0 (or you can search for “fishbox drain project”.



Looks like there is a lot of work to be done back there. I see a bilge pump that has been disconnected, a float switch whose leads are falling apart, a thru-hull valve that hasn’t been closed since installation, and some stout wires hanging loose with ends free. If anyone can identify that flat gray wire just to right of the float switch, I would appreciate it.



I’m going to be installing the “Innovative Boat Hatch Access Panel 520-603 | 12 x 16 Inch Artic White” (GLS Stock: 1032308) that I got from Great Lakes Marine, but for now I’m leaving the panel off to maximize access.

[Capt. Bob]

 

[msteinkampf]

Except for the tank repair, I’ve been in demolition mode for the past seven months, but that changes now. I cut a template for the fuel tank deck board from some scrap plywood, fitted it to the hull, and then used it as a guide to cut the Coosa board.

Plywood template in place.


I used my router with a carbide chamfer bit to duplicate the angle of the sides of the board, and I rounded off the front and back with a roundover bit. This material was easy to cut and mill with conventional tools, about like wood.

Coosa board cut and ready for fiberglass.


Since the original deck board was ¾" thick and the Coosa board was ½", I built up the board with 1708 fiberglass cloth and West System 105/206 epoxy. I have no experience with laying fiberglass, so I figured this was a good part of the rebuild to learn on since no one would ever see it. I laid two layers of 1708 on the bottom of the Coosa and let it cure for a few days; then I flipped it over, laid three more layers on the top surface, and while the top layers were starting to gel, I wet out the hull (previously washed, sanded, and wiped down with acetone) with epoxy and came back with more epoxy thickened with colloidal silica. I then installed the (still tacky) tank platform, wet out more 1708, and laid it over the board. When I had about half of the board covered, I ran out of epoxy. This wasn’t all bad, because by this time the tank compartment was a sticky mess, and it’s probably better to fiberglass half the deck board, let it cure, and then glass the other half. I carefully weighed down the platform with a couple of concrete blocks and stopped for the day. The next morning the epoxy had cured enough to walk on. There was a noticeable flex of the part of the board not yet covered with the 1708.

Tank platform partially glassed in. I had left a thin rim of the original glass mat to make it easier to fit the new board into place.




By using undersized Coosa board for this project, I can fine-tune the final core thickness with fiberglass, but this requires a lot of epoxy – I wound up needing more than a gallon just for this part of the project. Since I am past the heat of summer, I reordered an epoxy kit with the fast cure hardener (West System 205).

[msteinkampf]

With no more epoxy to complete the fuel deck installation, I decided to work on the steering. When I bought the boat, the steering wheel spun freely with no movement of the motors. I was hoping this was just from loss of hydraulic fluid, so I ordered seal kits for the unit and obtained the installation instructions/owner’s manual for the unit (available here: https://www.seastarsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/296784at.pdf). The manual and every YouTube video I watched called for buying a connection kit for the fill port at the helm, attaching this to a bottle of Seastar hydraulic fluid, hanging the bottle upside down, and poking a hole in the bottom of the upturned plastic bottle to allow air to enter as the fluid flows into the fluid reservoir. The drainage ports for the cylinder at the stern are then opened after tubing is attached (some videos called for purchase of another kit for this), and the steering wheel is moved back and forth to allow the hydraulic fluid to flow through the system and expel air through the drainage ports. I thought there were several problems with this protocol:
1.   It’s cumbersome. The manual explicitly states, “this procedure requires two people”.
2.   I try to avoid buying special tools that I will use only once unless there are no alternatives. (I once rebuilt an outboard motor using a service manual that called for obtaining 25 special tools. I fabricated two of them and used standard tools for the rest.)
3.   Seastar hydraulic fluid is currently selling for $32 per quart. In contrast, Dexron II automatic transmission fluid (ATF), which is specified for the hydraulic systems of my Yamaha outboards and Bennett trim tabs, sells for as little as $5 per quart. I wasn’t interested in running expensive fluid through the system only to have it leak out or be contaminated by old fluid still in the system. (By the way, the Seastar manual says, “Automatic transmission fluid Dexron II may be used in an emergency.”)

I ran across a video from another manufacturer that showed using a funnel to fill the reservoir. I had a small, translucent funnel that easily screwed into the threads of the reservoir, making an effective seal, and I attached some flexible tubing from my scrap collection to drain the cylinder. This system worked very well.

My reservoir fill setup. I kept the funnel about half-full of ATF as I turned the steering wheel back and forth to fill and purge the system.


After the system was filled and purged, the motors turned, but the helm reservoir immediately started to leak.


Replacing the seal at the steering wheel fixed this. There was no leakage from the cylinder at the stern, so I wasn’t going to change those seals yet, but since the hydraulic cylinder must be removed to access the steering tube zerc fittings of the starboard motor, I’ll probably change the seals when I grease the engine.

[msteinkampf]

My boat has been parked at my lake place 70 miles from home, and this has really slowed down my progress on this project. I checked the municipal ordinances for where I live, and there’s nothing that says you can’t park a boat in front of your house, so I did just that. It is so sweet being able to just walk down the driveway and work on the boat whenever I want! I’ve deferred further deck repair until the weather improves, and I decided to work on the motors. At first, they both required starting fluid to get them going, but after running them on gas mixed with Seafoam, they are working considerably better; however, the starboard engine was overheating, with very little water coming out of the confirmation stream (“pee hole”). The previous owner claimed to have changed the water pumps before selling me the boat, but one never knows about stories like that. The thermostat bolts did have fresh tool marks on them, and when I removed the thermostats, they appeared to be new, with no sign of buildup or blockage within the water jacket, so it was clear that some work had been done on the cooling system in the recent past. As best I could tell, cooling water for these engines enters the lower unit intakes and gets pumped up by the water pump to the thermostats, where it enters the engine’s water jacket and then exits through a pressure control valve (“poppet valve”) at the bottom of the cylinder head, finally going back down into the lower unit for exit through the propeller. The confirmation stream hose is adjacent to the poppet valve, which means that on this engine there could be a problem anywhere from the intake to the poppet valve. Before I pulled the lower unit, I decided to run the engines with a thermostat removed to see if water was making it up there.



On the left, water is pouring out of the port engine’s thermostat socket, but there is only a little steam coming out the starboard engine’s thermostat socket (right). This wasn't entirely bad news, as it meant the problem was not due to a blockage within the engine itself. However, when I removed the prop in preparation for pulling the lower unit, I found some fishing line wrapped around the prop shaft, and the prop shaft seal was leaking.



The water pump was completely fried, and the water tube connecting the water pump to the engine was filled with carbonized rubber from the impeller. After I removed the water pump, I pressure-tested the lower unit to find the drive shaft seal under the water pump had also been damaged. The only good news was when I drained the lower unit lube in preparation for the repair, there was no sign of water intrusion.



Leaking drive shaft seal.

Although there is a special tool marketed for removing the drive shaft seals, it can be done with conventional tools and a little patience. Pulling the prop shaft seals is more challenging. The service manual calls for the prop shaft bearing carrier to be removed, but the ring nut that holds it in place wouldn’t budge when I tapped on it, and I wasn’t interested in buying the special wrench required to exert more torque on the nut, so I pulled the seals out using a modification of the method shown on this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo9oQZI3QPM&t=364s&ab_channel=JackedUpFishing. You basically screw drywall screws into the seals and pop them out with the bearing carrier in place. One problem with this method is if you damage the prop shaft while removing the seals, you must either polish out the scratch or replace the shaft – ouch! The other challenge is that the rubber seals have steel inserts, and I struggled to get the drywall screws to penetrate the steel insert. After I drilled small pilot holes in the seal, the drywall screws went right in (I used fine-thread screws), and the seals popped out just like in the video. Drilling the pilot hole is easier if you use a drill bit with a hex head, because it allows you to use a hex bit extension that will keep the drill from bumping against the prop shaft.



Old prop shaft seal removed.

Installing new prop shaft seals is straightforward. The service manual doesn’t call for any lube or glue to coat the rim of the seals, but I found plenty of YouTube videos where they used bellows glue or something similar, and I found remnants of adhesive around the old seals, so I rubbed on some liquid gasket compound, which I already had in my toolbox, around the new seals before pressing them into place. I should point out that with this method of prop shaft seal removal, the two O-rings that provide a seal between the bearing carrier and the lower casing are not replaced. I'm OK with that, as leakage at those sites are very uncommon.

Before I reinstalled the lower unit, I flushed out the engine via the flush hose attachment. Plenty of black particles initially ran out, but the water cleared after a few gallons of flush - see photos below.



After I reinstalled the lower unit and ran the engine, there was plenty of water coming out of the pee hole, and the starboard engine ran at the same temperature as the port engine, with no sign of lower unit lube leakage – problems solved.

M

[msteinkampf]

As much as I have enjoyed having my boat at my house, I miss not having it in a covered space where I could work on it rain or shine. A friend offered to let me keep it in a horse-barn/shed on his property 15 minutes from my house, and I readily accepted. There was only one catch: the clearance on the shed ceiling is about 10 feet, but my boat measures 11 feet 6 inches high on the trailer with the hard top. I hadn’t planned to remove the top, but the offer was too good to pass up.

After removing outriggers, antennas, and as much wiring as I could, I removed the screws and cut the caulking that attached the top to the underlying aluminum frame. The frame is through-bolted to the cabin by six bolts in front which are easily accessible, but to remove the eight rear bolts, I had to open up the panels that held the engine throttles on the right and a drink holder/storage compartment on the left. This also allowed me to pull out all the wiring that had been run through the tubing to the radios and a light on the top. Inspection of the frame during this process revealed a few areas of deep pitting and one crack - time to find another welder.

Since I had had a less-than-inspiring experience getting my fuel tank repaired, I was determined to find another welder. Fortunately, the Birmingham Boat Show was coming up, and though it was filled with ski-boats and pontoon party barges that were of no interest to me, I managed to get several recommendations from boat dealers for welders. After doing some random Internet searches for the places I had learned about, I called one shop, brought the frame over on a Friday afternoon, and got a call at 10 AM on Monday that the job was done.


Here’s the crack in the frame.


This is the shop I brought it to. As the sign says, cash or check only, shop rate prominently posted, a little rough around the edges – my kind of shop. The owner didn’t even ask me my name, he just wrote “Tower” and my phone number on a whiteboard. I had marked all the areas I wanted repaired with painters tape before I delivered the frame to the shop.


Crack repaired. The owner said his son used a TIG welder. I was satisfied with their work and I recommend them. The hole on the upper left of the tubing is for a screw that holds the hard top in place. I'll probably have to re-tap that screw hole.

This welding shop is in northwest Alabama, a part of the state best known for coal mines and meth labs, but I wanted to check out one famous landmark there – Wesley’s Boobie Trap.


Weslie's Boobie Trap in Dora, Alabama.

The place was closed, and it might be shut down permanently, although I noticed a young woman sitting in a car in the parking lot, perhaps a dancer waiting to start her shift? I didn't hang around to find out, but something behind the club caught my eye – a boat.


Boat behind Wesley’s Boobie Trap.

Here was a pocket offshore fishing boat like my Explorer, almost 300 miles from the coast; the sign on the side of the boat cabin said it had come from Lafayette, Louisiana. I suspect there is a certain “flow” of saltwater boats from the coast up to inland lakes as they age; after all, I found my own boat in central Mississippi. I’ve always liked the sexy Caroliina flare of Trophy boats, but those notorious Force outboards scream “cheap” , and the boat looks underpowered, too. Notice that there is a residential air conditioner installed above the cabin. Perhaps someone had been living in it, or possibly the boat has been used for brief liaisons by the customers of the Boobie Trap. I think that an efficient RV air conditioner coupled to solar cells and some high-capacity batteries could dramatically increase the popularity of walkaround cuddy-cabin boats. In any case, if you are looking for a challenging project boat, head for Wesley’s Boobie Trap in Dora, Alabama.


Here is my friend with my boat tucked into its new storage spot. Note the horses in the background. I’ve been instructed to lure them away with some feed if they get too inquisitive.

M

[msteinkampf]

Installing Coosa board. Getting the edges to fit in between the layers of fiberglass required a lot of trimming and filing of the undersurface of the edges. I was initially using a hand file, but an angle grinder did the work much quicker.


I used three pieces per side and overlapped them at the edges with ½ inch rabbet joints.


I had planned to purchase 5/8 inch thick Coosa board, but only ½ inch was available. It turns out this thickness is perfect for the task, as there is a thin layer of plywood completely encapsulated by the resin adherent to the fiberglass, and this would have been very tedious to grind off.

Dry fitting the deck – looking good so far.


When I cut into the top layer of the deck, I left the part at the helm intact and just scraped out the rotted wood with a bent metal rod and a large file. Now I am left with this space to fill. There is just enough left of the old resin to keep even ½ inch Coosa board from sliding in easily, and of course I can’t grind down the surfaces. I really don’t want to cut the deck open here; I suppose I could fill it with scrap pieces of Coosa and a lot of epoxy, but that seems like it would be a challenge to fill all the spaces with epoxy. What about using some 8-pound density pourable foam?



M

[RickK]

Looks like you've made great progress. The coosa seems to be exactly what was needed and your craftsmanship is looking great.

[dbiscayne]

What about using some 8-pound density pourable foam?

Seems like this would work, just be sure it can expand out through the side and not blow up the deck. Expanding foam can do some real damage if it doesn't have a place to go. Maybe a few separate small pours would be safe, but now you're getting into as much work as custom fitting smaller pieces of coosa + thickened resin to fill the gap.
Have you figured out a way to get the foam deep into the cavity?

[msteinkampf]

Have you figured out a way to get the foam deep into the cavity?

I was thinking about pouring it through a funnel connected to a flexible tube. However, I would need to somehow tilt the boat bow-down to get the foam to flow correctly.

M

[msteinkampf]

I’ve been piddling around on this project until the weather and my schedule line up to finish the deck rebuild. I replaced the seals on the hydraulic steering, which stopped the leak at the stern. The manufacturer specifies some pricey hydraulic fluid (which they market @ $27 a quart at West Marine) for their unit, but I will continue to use ATF until I’m satisfied that all problems with the steering have been resolved. I run the engines every few weeks and consider it a victory when I can start them without using starting fluid. I’ve treated the engines with Seafoam a few times, and they do seem to be running more smoothly now, but they really need to be run in the water.

The previous owner said the trim tabs had never worked while he owned the boat, so I removed the tabs' hydraulic power unit, figuring that a failing seal had allowed the hydraulic fluid to leak out.   The unit has a “quick connector” and is easily removed, and that is part of the problem with this system.


The hydraulic power unit is easily accessed at the stern.


Corroded connector and wiring for the trim tabs' hydraulic power unit. I suspect that quick connectors in the bilge never last long.

The pins were badly corroded, and all the wires on one part of the connector fell out when I tugged on it. The fluid reservoir was full with no sign of leakage, and I was hoping that just replacing the connector would fix the problem, but when I bench-tested the unit as per the manufacturer’s instructions, I found that although the solenoid valves functioned normally, the pump would operate in one direction but not the other. The Bennett technical support guy gave me some bad news – “one of the windings on your motor has failed”. There doesn’t seem to be an easy fix for this beyond replacing the motor, and the Bennett web site doesn’t list the motor as a separate replacement part, so I would be replacing the entire power unit. If I can’t find an inexpensive replacement somewhere, I might just replace the entire trim tab system, but for now that job goes to the bottom of the priority list. Any advice about dealing with these trim tabs would be appreciated.

I did manage to resume the deck work by reinforcing the edges of the Coosa boards where they will slip between the layers of fiberglass. I used some 4-inch biaxial tape cut in half lengthwise, but I ran out and wound up finishing with some 6-inch cloth, which I liked better because it’s a little thinner than the biaxial tape.


Reinforcing the Coosa board edges with epoxy and fiberglass tape. This should strengthen the joint when the deck pieces are reassembled. I trimmed some of the rough edges with a box cutter after the epoxy gelled and removed the rest with careful use of an angle grinder with a diamond blade after the epoxy had completely set up.

M

[msteinkampf]

Actually, I used 6-ounce cloth, not "6-inch cloth".

M

[RickK]

A day with any progress is a good day.