80's era 170 questions.

[wingtime]

Ok guys as most of you know by now I picked up a 1987 170 and I have some questions for you 170 owners.  

What is the fuel tank capacity?

The compartment under the seat on the front of the console is that supposed to be used as a livewell of cooler or something?  It is oval shaped with a curved bottom.  There is a drain on the port side.  about halfway up the back wall towards the starboard side there is a 1" hole.  Was this for a light?  Water inlet?  on the back starboard wall near the top there is a fitting of some kind... maybe a  nipple or something..

The bilge pump thru-hull fitting appears to be cracked.  It is located on the upper starboard side just a few inches forward of the stern...  there is no way to get at the back side of that thing to replace it.  I don't see a pie plate so I guess I'll have to put one in.

My boat has a Stripper badge on the hull sides.... yet the console says Osprey...  Whats up with that?  is it a package or something?

Where have members added livewells?  od do you use the under console seat area?

The cooler seat installed on my boat does not appear to be original.  Does anyone have a swing back seat they want to get rid of?

I'm sure I'll have  more questions... until then thanks!

[Capt. Bob]

Wing,
I had an 86 170. Looked like this one pretty much. It was not a Striper model (don't think they carried that name that year??)
http://www.classicaquasport.com/gallery ... -4&cat=574

27 gals. on the tank (as noted above) was what I remember.

My factory cooler seat did not swing back but rather you removed the backrest/bracket by lifting up and out from frame and reversing 180 and replace in frame.
It appears to be the same one I had from the photos on your other post.

Not a great pic but you can see the resemblance.


I fabbed the rod holders out of mahogany and PVC pipe.

[akbridge]

The area in the front of the console is supposed to be a livewell.  I think it is more of a passenger leg wetter than anything.  I would suggest getting transom mounted livewell.  They work great, often act like trim tabs on these little boats, and chicks dig them!  I can't comment on the stickers and badging.  Mine has nothing of the sort.  Cooler seats are great for holding stuff.  These boats lack storage.  If you have a nice cooler seat, keep it, mount rod holders like the above photo (I have always wanted to do that to my seat) and use it.

[wingtime]

Capt Bob. Your right the seat does look just like yours.  I guess that answers the question of if the PO had changed out the seat or not.  I guess I'll keep it for now.  Was there pins or something to lock the seat back in place?  I see holes for them and the seat back drifts down on one side and get lopsided.   Did you add the rod holders to the seat back?

I took the boat out for a shake down run today and met up with Blue Agave.  She runs great and I was surprised at how fast the 90 jumps her up on a plane.  WOT gave me 5400 or so RPM and 38 mph with three people, gear and almost full fuel.  So I think she is propped right.  A couple of times the system check beeped and went thru a self test when I hit a bump so I'm going to look for a loose power connection or something.  Seabob any ideas?  The boat has some scupper flaps but they don't work worth a crap.  I found several rubber plugs in the tackle drawer so I put them in.  I had the usual water in the splash well.  When we made it back to the ramp and pulled the plug I was surprised at  how much water came out.  Can water make its way into the hull thru the rigging trough?

[seabob4]

Bruce, check all your wiring on the gauges, ESPECIALLY the tach, make sure everything is tight.  Do you have a separate "System Check" gauge, or is your's in the tach?  It's an 8-12 pin deutsch plug, pull that out and look at the pins for corrosion.

Well chit, you know this, you already have an OMC on the Explorer!  DUH!!!

[Capt. Bob]

Capt Bob. Was there pins or something to lock the seat back in place?  I see holes for them and the seat back drifts down on one side and get lopsided.   Did you add the rod holders to the seat back?

Yes and yes.
I'll need to think a bit on the type but there were pins.
I did add the rod holders. Again, I'd have to think how they mounted but I remember it was fairly easy once I built the holder itself. Of course I had a Bimini top so reversing the backrest with rods in place didn't work all that well.  Still, I never really reversed the backrest that much.

The boat has some scupper flaps but they don't work worth a crap.  I found several rubber plugs in the tackle drawer so I put them in.  I had the usual water in the splash well.  When we made it back to the ramp and pulled the plug I was surprised at  how much water came out.  Can water make its way into the hull thru the rigging trough?

Ah, the ol' flapper valve scuppers. Oddly enough, they also reside on my 210 WAC. The ones in the pics don't look like the type I had. They work muck better on the 210 but then it doesn't sit near as low in the stern as the 170. Still, I replaced (several times) the flappers and as long as they were flexible, they worked ok. :|

As far as water in the bilge/hull, I've never had an Aqua that had as much at the end of the day as my 170. Never had a problem but I'd bet there are multiple areas of ingress for water. I spearfished a lot out of that model and I always figured it was getting in from the deck (somewhere). Might have very well been the rigging trough.
Funny, in those days, it didn't seem to concern me like it does now.

Good luck. Truthfully, the 170 was (probably cause I was younger and single) the most enjoyable of my Aquas. Still it rode like a sheet of plywood in a chop but boy it could go where only flats boat hulls could. On a plane, if you ran aground, you're on an exposed bar.  You will really be surprised how much water you don't need to float under power.

Enjoy.

[pete]

Bruce,
You may have water getting unto the bilge from the bilge pump thru hull.Not much freeboard on those boats and with weight in the stern that thru hull may be underwater.

[wingtime]

Bob, I have an all in one tach with system check.  It acts like you just turned on the key.  Short beep with a self test sequence of lights.   I'll look for a loose connector.  I have to get into the gauge panel anyways since a couple of the lights are out.  I think I'm going to replace all of them (except for the tach it looks much newer and probably was added at the repower) since most of them have broken off needles.

Capt Bob, I think I'll ditch the flapper scuppers and replace them with ball scuppers.  I put those on my 200XF and it kept everything dry.

Pete that could be but I think the bilge pump thu-hull is high on the side..   even higher than the transom...  it does have a crack inside of it so I  have to tend to that ASAP.

[gran398]

Like your new ride

Regarding the rigging trough...Miss Marco had a hidden hole in hers at the bottom of the trough at the very end, at the transom. You had to really dig to find it, beneath all of the rigging. But it was there...a hole about the size of a golf ball, dumping straight to the bilge.

Lotta water in that bilge. First time we removed the transom plug...the plug shot out 15 feet on the last turn of the wrench.

[RickK]

On my 170 there was no way water could get into the bilge from the topside and I think that was the way they were designed.  No access plates plus no bilge pump. The beauty of the trough is that there is no penetration of the sole to get your stuff from the helm to the transom. I still ponder on putting that back in on my rebuild.
After a day on the water I could pull the bottom plug and not get a drop out of the bilge.  So you have something going on.

[Blue Agave]

Any update on the water in the bilge?

[wingtime]

I spent yesterday afternoon tinkering with the 170.  Sticking my nose in places and learning her inside and out.  I ditched the flapper scuppers and replaced them with the Flow Max brand ball scuppers I had used on my 200XF (they worked very good).  That should keep the splash well dry.  I never really had any water on the decks though.  I pulled the cooler out of the seat bracket and found pin holes to keep the seat back in place.  I put some 1/4" bolts in there until I pick up some quick pins.  The oil tank was moving around so I pulled it out of the console along with the battery covers.  This opened up some space so I could look around in there.  Found the negative terminal for the battery tender was not connected... duh.  tightened up the nuts holding on the grab rail on the console.  I found a small hole in the vertical wall at the end of the rigging trough where the fuel line goes into the hull.  I didn't pull up the trough cover but I could not make out any other holes.  I guess I can get out a hose and squirt it around to see if any makes it's way into the hull.  I pulled the instrument panel looking for the loose connection on the tach and such.  Looked good and it had some dielectric grease in there.  I replaced some light bulbs in the gauges.  May water temp and trim gauges do not work. I'll have to look to see if they are even hooked up or not later.  My instrument lights would sometimes not switch on so I pulled the switch panel...  "Oh joy wire nuts again"  Come on PO wire nuts belong on houses NOT BOATS!  There was nice new marine wire though and at least they tried keeping them dry with triple guard grease!  I'll have to pick a switch panel.  I saw a nice one with Carling rockers and breakers that will fit.  I took the cushions into work today cleaned them up, replaced all the snaps and made some minor repairs.