99% of the words and things you're doing I don't understand but this is such a cool thread and I read it all like I know exactly what you're talking about

I know, I know, it's been a long time since I posted anything. Truth is, work and life got in the way. Working in marketing in a casino means that this time of the year is very busy, as it is the slow season, and we have to figure out how to drive people through the doors. From when the kids go back to school until Christmas is what we call the trough of despair, so I tend to vanish during those times.

Throw in a charity golf tournament, the Global Gaming expo for a week, and the Notah Begay III junior golf National Championship and I'm pretty busy for October and November, with little time for anything else.

That said, I did get to work on the transmission a bit today, and was able to completely rebuild the clutch case/assembly. Took a little bit longer than anticipated, because tolerances have to be near perfect (so I'm told), but was able to finish it. I'm including a picture of the after and the before, too bad the after is a little dark, it looks brand new. Also adding a pic of the bearing carrier that is inside the transmission, it went from solid rust to looking great.

I'm going to try to pull the large bearing inside the transmission along with the gear this week, as after this week, I've got about a month that I will not be able to work on it. Still a lot to do, and the goal is up and running before the end of the year, with cruising it back to Lake Charles some time in the spring. We'll see. Thankfully, the first three weeks of December look relatively calm at this point.

Pretty happy with today's progress, wish I had more days like this lately.

Anyway, it's late, and I need sleep, so catch y'all later.

That's ok, 90% of the stuff Im doing, I don't really understand. I'm learning a whole, whole lot with this project. I actually may get a free weekend this weekend, and if so, Im determined to get quite a bit done...

So, the prop shaft is slid back as far as it possibly can be inside the boat, while keeping all other hardware on. I was barely able to remove the transmission with it on, talking a little light tapping to get it free (I am dreading the reinstallation). Not a lot of room, but it "should" fit. I hope so, anyway. I really don't want to have to jump in the water, pull the prop shaft out and plug the hole in order to reinstall this. - but if I have to, I have the scuba gear needed, I guess. I'm going to cross that bridge when I get to it.

As for removing it - used a harbor freight winch on a scaffold to get it out of the hold. Carried the stupid thing across the cockpit in a few pieces and put on back of boat. got out of boat, muscled the 3 pieces onto land, and dollied them to the truck. Had a buddy help me lift into the truck, after carrying them the first time. Learned my lesson, that is a team lift from now on.

This weekend, I am bringing in the gears to a bearing shop to have a bearing that I mangled removed, and sandblasting everything. Then I get to paint and reassemble. (I'm still trying to pretend that I don't have to put it back in at this point).

Funny story - I was trying to pull the prop shaft coupler with a normal bearing puller - NO luck at all. Getting frustrated, because I can't figure out what in the world I'm doing wrong, as I can't get it to budge. Stumble onto some forum online where they are discussing this exact issue, and several people had the same issue. Found out the mechanic are using a 10 ton hydraulic puller to remove it, so I felt a little better about myself. That is getting pulled by the same shop on Saturday (at least they tell me they can do it, we'll see).

Actually, pretty excited about the prospect of being able to get more into the rebuild stage and not the teardown.

Unfortunately, no. The last several weeks have been rough - the week between Christmas and New Year's is the busiest in the casino, and the prep that comes with it is a lot.

Added to that this year, is that my girlfriend's service dog, our Australian Shephard, managed to get out of our fence on New Year's eve and got hit and killed by a car. It's been really rough on her, and I haven't wanted to leave her alone to go work on the boat.

I was planning to go this weekend, but it doesn't look like it is going to happen, plus, I am waiting for a rebuilt oil pump. I am hoping that in the next couple of weeks, though, that I can get back down there and reinstall the now rebuilt (hopefully correctly) transmission, and test it out. I have gotten it all cleaned up, and test fit.

I'm getting antsy, and want to get that part done asap. I had a goal to get it back up here for the Louisiana Pirate Festival, but found out Sunday that the festival isn't going to be happening. But, my goal is still early May to have the boat here and start seriously working on the interior.

Just wanted to give everyone an update - there has been no update....Basically, I am hoping to get down to the boat in a couple of weeks, but in order to do that, I need my oil pump back from the guy rebuilding it, so that I can install the entire transmission.

If I do get down there, I will definitely give an update.

In the meantime, I have been researching Glass/Plexi to replace the windows (one is completely gone and has plywood, and the other has a crack. Im thinking of taking a few days off to give me a 4-5 day window to work on both the transmission and the windows.

On a side note, I hate not being able to work on much at this point, but work is crazy.

Finally another update - the saying for today is: Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

The plan for this visit was to pull the absolutely destroyed old marine toilet and toss it, and to pull the raritan waste treatment system so I could bring it home and diagnose and hopefully repair the unit. The transmission is 95% rebuilt, I am just waiting on the rebuilt oil pump, which I should have in a week, then I intend to take a few days off, and go down for about 5 days and try to install the rebuilt transmission. That'll be a fun one.

This trip was not one of the better trips down to the boat. I got on board at about 1am, and, as always, checked both bilges. Rear bilge was fine, front bilge was full of water (Not the first time, it was like that when I got the boat, there is likely a very small leak around a thru hull fitting). I had changed the bilge pump out as one of the first things I did, and it has had no problem with the amount of water. Well, for some reason, the bilge pump wasn't working. I used an external pump to pump all the water out before I went to sleep for the night.

The next morning, I got up, and immediately started to try and track down why the bilge pump had failed. What I found out is that not only had the bilge pump failed, but anything that ran off of 12 volt DC power no longer functions, or is even getting power. Yay. So, I spent all day Saturday trying to track down some seriously, umm, modified. wiring that this boat has acquired over the years trying to find a fuse, blown component, breaker, anything. Thankfully I carry my multimeter on my trips to the boat.

The main panel looks like a rat's nest, but the main DC switch does not have power coming in, if I metered it correctly. I am going to double check when I get down there again.

The batteries have been disconnected for 8 months (and there is no house battery that I can find), but the boat has had DC power the entire time, so I am thinking that there is a converter from AC to DC somewhere on the boat that I haven't found yet. I am also thinking that either it gave out or there is a blown fuse, etc., that I have to find.

The other interesting thing? The boat is on shore power and all AC equipment is running fine. Shore power works, my A/c unit, receptacles, lights, stove, fridge are all operating well.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find the culprit, and worried about water getting into the boat and getting to a high enough level, I set up a bilge pump working off AC power to keep the boat afloat until next weekend where I will get back to trying to trace down the issue. After that, I may call a marine electrician. Let me know if you know any good ones in the Aransas Pass area.

I'm attaching a pic of the fuse panel (front and back).

Also attaching a picture of the giant tomahawk I found at the local HEB and cooked on the boat, because, well, when you're having a bad day, a steak is sometimes what you need. Sorry, no pics of it finished, but came out a beautiful Medium rare.

Oh, I did, on Sunday, manage to uninstall and toss the old toilet, remove the sanitation system so that I can work on it, and actually wash down the outside of the boat. it was starting to look a little green from algae growth. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of it afterwards.

Ok, figured it out, and it was a simple fix, once I realized what had happened.

This boat, when new, had 4 batteries, set up in 2 banks in the engine room in the rear of the boat. The starboard bank was for cranking the engines, and the port was for running DC house power (which is what I was lacking).

The electrical portion of the manual is very clear about this. I checked the batteries (13.8 volts), and the breaker at the main breaker box (0.0 volts), but the breaker itself was ok. No breakers between the 2, but I could not visually trace the wires from the batteries to the panel, due to going through bulkheads, conduit, etc.

Now, here is what kept bothering me. Even with all 4 of those batteries disconnected in the past, I had DC power. So, I figured I had an AC to DC converter, as it has always been connected to shorepower since I owned it. But I could not find any such converter, and the boats did not come new with one.

So I switched my method of thinking. What if there was another battery? I've seen every inch of this boat by now, and hadn't seen one, but for some reason, I really knew there had to be one. So I searched again.

That's when I found it.

At some point, a prior owner had made changes to the electrical system. He had installed a new battery up in the master berth, under the bed, BUT ALSO UNDER THE A/C UNIT in the same location. I saw one wire sticking out, reached under there, and sure enough. A battery.

The battery was measuring 0.0 volts, I went and subbed a different battery, and voila, power! So, went down to the auto zone, got a new battery for $100 bucks and I am back in business! I also organized that space where the battery was (which has a functioning charger) to be more accessible, and the charger and battery are both working great.

Left on the list to do this weekend, since I was able to solve that, is to install a couple of reading lights in the master berth, reattach a rub rail in the cockpit, reassemble my marine grill (and make dinner) and wash the remainder of the boat. It's shaping up to be a better weekend than I originally thought it might be.

I'll post some pictures of various things tomorrow, when I'm done with everything. For now, I'm going to get on that grill!

All right, back home after a pretty productive weekend. Somehow, I forgot to take a picture of the space under the bed where the battery is, and how I set it up. I'll get a picture the next time I go and make sure to post it then.

A list of the things I was able to complete this weekend:

First and foremost, sorting out the DC electrical issue - for more on that see the prior post.

Second, I was given some touch lamps to mount in the master bedroom, for better reading/jut to get more light in the area. They have 3 different light outputs, 2 warm and on cool. I wired them up to the DC power, now that it was working, and they are great. This will be the first pic of pics below, ignore the runs in the carpet on the headboard, the carpet is eventually going away, and I just wanted to put the lights in so that I could read better on my trips.

I also re-assembled my marine stove (easy, but I wanted to grill some boneless beef ribs that I found on sale for dinner Saturday night. Had to order a new regulator, as I couldn't find the old one, but did get it put together in time for a good dinner.

I also had a padded board that was not holding well in the cockpit, so I figured out a better way to thru-bolt it, so that it will stay in place.

One of the former owners had gotten lazy, and instead of putting the proper stainless screws to keep the rod holders in place, he actually used hex head bolts. He had these in 5 different places; I removed those, and replaced them with the proper stainless screws. They were driving me nuts. It's amazing what a small fix like that can do to make you feel better.

I rewired the bilge pump to the DC power on the boat, I will have much better peace of mind knowing that is set up correctly.

I also was able to surface clean the boat a bit. There has been a layer of dirt on the boat for a while, and it's going to need a really good scrubbing one day, I just wanted to get the algae mostly off. It was raining on me, and foggy, so I didn't do a great job, but I did get some done.

So, it was a productive weekend, and I was able to get more done that I thought I would. If I had realized that, there were some other things I would have brought along to do.

Next trip is likely in about 3 -4 weeks (a lot going on at work), but it could be a big one. If I get the oil pump back from the guy rebuilding it, and I should, then I am going to try to reinstall the transmission
I'll likely take a few days off work and be down there about a week, just to try to make sure it gets done. I'm trying to wait for that part, so I can immediately fill with oil and ensure no rust.

Finally, I'll leave off on this post with pictures of the Pelican that gave free advice, pics from the flybridge with and without fog, and of the boat after removing most (but not all) of the algae. As slick as was during the fog and Misty rain, I didn't want to risk falling by trying to scrape the top of the flybridge, and the sides of the hull. Like I said, I'm going to have to rely scrub to get all the staining I can off, and will likely end up painting it at some time. The teak wood is also going to a project unto itself.

Here's hoping that next time a Huge leap forward happens!

Can't wait for the TexAgs fishing trip once it's done