new to site and aquasport

[Aswaff400]

I recently purchased my first Aquasport, its a '96 200 osprey with 112 spl Johnson. after poking around the boat for a few days figuring out what the bugs are on it i have only found 2 things i cant figure out, where is the fuel fill vent tube, and the livewell has an aerator pump but theres no switch on the dash for it

[Hardwater]

Congrats on the Osprey and welcome to the site - you'll like it here

Regarding the questions on your '96 200, folks here will chime in - those questions are likely to be in the sweet spot for seabob4, a member here who was building Aquasports during that time frame.

[Aswaff400]

i've always wanted a 196/200 but couldnt find one i could afford that was running, or didnt need a ton of work. got a helluva deal on this one, the guy couldnt get the tilt/trim to work and couldnt get the engine to run, but everything on the boat worked... had some spare relays and fluid from my other boat, got the t&t workin, and got the engine to run on an external tank with fresh gas. runs great now.

[RickK]

Welcome aboard Aswaff400  :!:  :!:
If I wanted to change anything about my 170 is to add 3 feet  
Yoo should be able to find most of the answers to your questions here - the rest we have resources for  

[Aswaff400]

heres a few pics of my boat    






you can see my other boat in the first picture. they both match, same aqua/teal/green coloring! im gonna replace the gauges tomorrow. the volt dont work and none of the gauges match. luckily after restoring my Sea Ray i have an almost new set of gauges left over, their late 80's style but they all work and match. now the only thing left to fix is the steering, the cable moves freely but the motor is extremely hard to turn

[seabob4]

400,
You may have a combination fill/vent (Hardwater, you were right!).  If there is no external vent fitting on the upper hullside or the gunnel in the vacinity of the fill, pull off the access plate by your fill and take a look in there, you'll probably see the vent hose attached right next to the fill hose.

Now, your livewell.  Stupid question, maybe, but where is it located?  I don't see one aft, so I am assuming it is in front of the console.  Hey, I was a 225/250 Osprey guy.  Occasionally went over to the 175/200 Osprey line.  But I can fix your problem.  8)

Your steering.  I believe your stiffness lies inside your tilt tube.  If you can, pull the cable out of the tube, use a bottle brush and a PB Blaster or the like, and try and clean out the tilt tube of the corrosion and rust.  Reassemble using a good white lithium grease, and she should be good to go.

Bob C

[Aswaff400]

the cable and tilt tube are well greased, turns like new, and is rust/corrosion free... i believe the problem is in the vertical steering tube, the motor is almost impossible to turn(not hooked to cable). im thinking one of the upper bushings are corroded up... ive been trying to soak it with pb blaster the last few days see if it starts to break free...

you guessed right? lol well i found why i couldnt find a switch for the aerator pump, that because there isnt one! haha guess the guy started to put it in but didnt finish! the regular livewell/raw water pump still work though!

[seabob4]

Good luck with the steering pivot tube.  Soak the living crap out of it.  The 112 SPL (really a Johnson 115) is a great motor, although in the future I bet you wish you had a 150 Etec on there...

BTW, loved Amberjacks.  How are belowdecks?

[Aswaff400]

haha actually im not really a fan of johnyrude lol if i had my choice i'd put a 150 yami on it.

the AJ is the only model sea ray i liked besides the laguna. below deck is pretty big, tons of room to move around to work on, everything is new on our AJ, we gutted it and slowly spent the last 4 years restoring it, half of the work was all the teak trim. the big pieces wernt a problem, it was the hundreds of tiny detail pieces that were annoying. made our own custom double-wide fold down seats, custom dash, rebuilt the engines on the floor of my garage, and put about 250 hours on them last year, new gimbals and counter-rotating outdrives. the only thing we regret is not putting in a pair of 350's when we had the chance.

[seabob4]

V-6s, V-8s, wouldn't have been much of an engine room debate, the 350s a little wider.  265-285HP a piece...would've been nice.

[Aswaff400]

we are actually running the 190 hp 3.7L I4's... yeah i know a 4-banger... our neighbor had the same boat as ours but with a pair of 350 mags and his WOT was just over 50 mph at 4700 rpm. so far with just me and 1/8th tank ive gotten 34 mph WOT at 4500 rpm, we can clear 350's by an inch on the width. fore and aft there's about a foot of clearance. and btw the width between a v6 and a 305/350 is the same. all depends on what exhaust manifolds are bolted on... we checked lol.

[seabob4]

Now, I think I know my Mercruiser motors pretty well, but would that 3.7 4-banger be half a bank of a 454?  I mean, that is a damn big 4!

[Aswaff400]

they use Ford 460 heads, on a aluminum block with GM internal/external components. great power-to-weight ratio. bored .030 over and had the heads shaved, with both running at the same time on the garden hose they sound like one mean big block haha, and they actually get decent gas mileage.

back to the aquasport  i soaked the shaft down the last coupla days, and tapped it with a hammer as i had my bro steer it back and fourth as i tapped it with a hammer and sprayed it down. can turn it with one hand now where as before it was like trying to steer my truck with 9 inch lift and 36 inch mudders without power steering going down a 7% grade in colorado last fall... yeah, what fun! haha atleast i have the steering tolerable for now.

on to the electrical, got the engine running great, starts right up, but i cant get it to shut off at the key, im guessing the ground is not connected somewhere. oh i have a few head aches trying to figure out the previous owners hack-job. the wirirng harness for the switches/gauges are un-molested but the ignition key harness is a bit molested lol, replaced the volt gauge, but still aint getting a reading, and all the other gauges work, even the tach. looks like i got my work cut out on trouble shooting the hack-job. i know the in and outs on my AJ and merc i/o's but o/b is a whole new world to me lol

[seabob4]

Ground to coil(s) should do the trick for shutting down with the keyswitch.  But make sure the ground on the keyswitch is good and solid also...

[Aswaff400]

what are the color codes for the omc key switch? it looks pretty hacked up, half of the wires match their color...