Can't fish, do maintanence

[NoSlack]

With the stay at home order it's time to knock out a couple overdue maintenance item on the boat.

I've had a rear main seal sitting on the work bench for several years, just couldn't justify pulling the engine for a small job like that. With nothing but time on my hands, it was time to get to it. Pulled the outdrive and engine last week and knocked out the seal job. While the flywheel housing was off I was going to replace the bearings and seals on the stub shaft until I realized the bearings had spun in the aluminum housing. I had a set of new bearing in the garage and the were way to loose in the housing. I contacted a guy in Florida via ebay and he is sending me a new to me housing.





While I wait for parts I started cleaning things up, and that opened up a whole new list of things that needed attention. Bilge got a cleaning, bilge pumps gone through and serviced my thru hull valves and put new handles on them.



Next on my list was the exhaust tube. Over the years I've lost a coupe inches off the tube and have a hard time connecting it to the turbo with a long section of 4" exhaust hose. I had no idea what the part numbers for the tube was so I couldn't locate a replacement. The part number is on the backside of the tube, facing the transom. With the bilge clean I was able to get down there and feel the part number with my fingers. Not being able to read braille, I grabbed the smallest inspection mirror I had. I could see 5 of the 6 numbers but I was no better at reading upside down and backwards in a mirror than I was at braille. I sketched the numbers on a note pad just like I was seeing them in the mirror then looked at the with a mirror. The numbers made sense once I saw them in a mirror. All I needed to do was fill in the fourth number and start searching the parts data base. Once I had the number figured out, i searched it on ebay and found a real nice one in Canada. That should also be here first of next week.





Back to the engine. I've been having issues with my raw water tubes getting real thin and developing some pin hole leak near the ends. The tubes are 1 1/4" copper, so I cut off a couple inches and soldered on a new section.





Last on the list is my outdrive skeg. I've had a new one in the garage almost as long as the rear main seal so it's time to get that welded on.