Finally done fixing?

Are we finally done fixing?

The new fridge went into the cabin last weekend.  It was pretty simple and straightforward, with the most complex part finding which orgami-like orientation would get it through the cabin door.  It fit, but I mean barely.

It also fit the cabinet opening...kind of.  Width and height wise it was a perfect fit, however it's "too deep" by about an inch.  The fridge ships with flanges meant to secure it to the cabin opening (the parts saved from the old fridge were not needed), and these stick out about an inch, maybe a little less.  I just used longer screws to secure it for now.  I will probably make some kind of trim pieces to fill in the gaps.

What's annoying about this is that there doesn't seem to be a standard for marine appliance sizes.  The old fridge (Norcold DE0051) had a sloped bit at the back of it, and it's like Sea Ray designed the cabinet to fit the fridge, taking into account the slope, as if all fridges ever made would have this kind of unusual shape.  It'd be nice if Norcold recognized this kind of variation and made the flanges adjustable in some way front-rear to take into account variations in depth.

Anyway, at this point EVERYTHING in the boat works, with the caveat that we haven't used the hot water heater and my son broke the coffee maker carafe.  How long will this last?

Anyway, now I can move on to either just using the boat or tackling some other more minor items.

• Replacing the factory CO detector.  It's expired, and while I have two home models in the boat, the factory one needs to be replaced to be legally compliant and for general good sense.  The cover comes off easily, but's not obvious how the rest of it is removed.  No visible screws or attachments.
• Need to get the all-around light fixture bulb replaced with an LED so we don't drain the battery if we anchor out all night.  This will require a ladder or collapsing the bimini to get to it, or maybe both.
• The stereo needs some investigation.  Previous owners added some weird dimmer control that does some weird fading which I think has altered the stereo output, and a side effect is that aux in doesn't play in the cockpit.  This is a big job involving pulling out the stereo and sorting out the outputs.
• TV reception is pretty crappy.  Need to sort out where any amp is, is it working, and other mysteries of RF cabling.  Like the stereo, this may involve MCP loosening and pull out to see what's behind there.

The electrical front specifically:

• Still dreaming of Balmar Smartguage battery monitoring and possibly ammeter setup.  I think the wire route to the cabin goes through a PVC pipe (helpfully foamed up with expanding foam).  Need to confirm this (and the viability of punching through the foam without wrecking anything).
• I'm feeling newly enthused about adding solar to the top of the bimini, with a partial attachment for structural integrity to the radar arch.  Some challenges include the right panel with the right dimensions, enough output to be worthwhile (I'm thinking 5 amps), how messy wire routing would be, panel weight, and the Lego mess of mounting frame and hardware.

Fantasy projects -- these are things that I'd like to do, but complexity and cost make them more challenging:

• New MFP/chartplotter and sonar.  Found a local guy who knows it all and have talked to them.  Need to narrow down brands and how much junk I can afford to add.  I will probably be selling off my reloading gear to finance it.
• Tapping the air conditioning raw water supply and adding a washdown pump plumbed to the fresh water spigot.  This would make a lot of boat washing tasks much simpler. The challenge is finding the right fittings to split the supply.

Mechanical projects:

• I think I really do need the prop and skeg work MarineMax recommended.  I find that my steering isn't as true as it could be, although some of this may just be never being able to perfectly balance engine RPMs.  It's not really an issue until you get to planing speeds.  I'll wait on this until the off season.

Anyway, I guess we're never done with stuff to do.  I'm sure the cockpit fridge will eventually crap out, for example.

It does highlight my bargaining problems.  I probably should have bargained higher when I bought the boat, asking for another $10k in concessions to offset the $7k I put into it and the other unexpected stuff (most of which has been relatively cheap and easy).  Live and learn, I will add this to my book of knowledge if there's a next time around.

This fixing business is getting silly

Last Saturday we had our first real summer day on the boat -- it was hot, the water was warm enough for swimming, and it was like you want it to be and at the end of the day I noticed that the VacuFlush head had no vacuum.  After double-checking the obvious, I went into the engine room and sure enough the vacuum pump motor is running...and not stopping.

So I shut it off and dived into the Internet to sort out what to do.  I'd known, sort of, that the system's rubber "duck bill" valves were wear items and could cause vacuum problems.  My research suggested both duck bills and pump bellows (they can dry out and crack over time).  I ended up ordering a rebuild kit with duckbills, bellows, and O-rings and tracked down some decent exploded diagrams so I'd know how it all went together.

The repair was easy enough, although it took about 2 hours to do, mainly slowed by the difficulty in separating the motor from the eccentric crank and removing the bellows bolt.  The motor shaft and eccentric are held together with a set screw, which was really tough to loosen.  The bolt wouldn't budge at all without being put in a vise to allow enough torque.  I think the motor should have a keyed shaft and the eccentric a matching key slot; this would simplify removal.

It was also less messy, so I'm assuming the system worked well, longer than I thought, before it quit.  No goopy solids, although enough residual crud to make it kind of gross.  Lots of nitrile gloves and shop rags.

I will say this fixing business has gotten out of hand, though!   The good news is the VacuFlush is fixed.

I also took out the broken fridge.  Came out easy, but there was a moment of panic until I realized I needed to remove the door to get it out of the cabin.  I set aside the "feet" it sets on the and flange assembly, they may be added Sea Ray parts not on the fridge from the OEM.

The new fridge is in at West Marine, so with any luck I'll have it put in this weekend.

Then will we be done with fixing for a while???

First weekend of summer

It's been a month and a half since the boat went in and there's a lot to update.

Fixes complete:

• The spotlight -- I finally got it fixed.  When I dug into it the first time, I learned a few things.  One, there's an inline fuse for the spotlight, a 10A automotive-type tube fuse, which I managed to blow by shorting out the power leads.  Two, this thing is poorly sealed and the connections were pretty corroded.  This did fix the up motion on the spotlight, so I at least had both axis of rotation working.  After cleaning the connections, I thought I had good voltage at the light itself, but since there was still no light I assumed the bulb was bad.  I tracked down a replacement cheap on the internet ($30 vs. $85 for the same bulb from Marinco).  Still no light, and when bench tested (why didn't I do this first?) the old bulb still works.
  
  The second time, I finally had the brains to short the hot lead directly to the spot & flood circuits and the light lit, which meant the switch was bad.  Tracked down a replacement switch and got it replaced.  The replacement is lighted like the old one, but required shorting power and the illumination lead with a jumper since the original control package has no separate power lead for the switch light, as the OEM switch is connected internally.
  
• Water system -- That's fixed and works fine now.  I was sucking air on the input side.  The pump had been replaced in about 2010 or so, based on the manufacture date of the pump.  It has a mesh filter inline on the suction side to keep tank silt out of the lines.  It's integral to the fitting, but the way the pump was mounted you couldn't fully tighten the fitting without the filter getting in the way.  I moved the pump about 1/2" so the filter could clear the mounting surface and once tightened water flow returned to normal.
  
• Squeaky Belt -- this was a dodged bullet!  We lost a bolt from the bracket on the belt tensioner pulley.  I retensioned the belt with no effect on squeaking.  My marina owner came out and listened and found both the bolt missing and found the bolt.  We got it back on and the squeak went away.  I'm glad this was easy, because we could have lost a belt and had some real problems.
  
• New TV installed -- I put in a new 32" flat panel TV.  This was mostly straightforward and I was pleased that we generally get broadcast channels, although reception can be dicey.  Sorting out reception means seeing if we have the amplifier the parts diagrams says we have and what kind of shape the cabling connections are in.  It may be that the existing antenna (and amp, if it exists) just aren't great for DTV broadcast, but sorting this means getting behind the main panel which is not trivial and right now is a lower priority.
  
• Rug life extension -- Our poor cockpit rugs are kind of gross, and when I lifted them to clean some dead bugs discovered I'm suffering from the dreaded disintegration of the backing.  I took them off the boat and coated the backs with 6 cans of white Plasti-Dip rubber spray.  This should encapsulate the backing and provide a more durable wear surface.  6 cans should be workable coverage, but just barely.  I discovered too late that I should have used the "paint on" variety for thicker coverage, and more likely, I should have used a white elastomer roof sealant.  But what I ended up with seem decent, and the rugs got a good scrubbing with a hose and detergent, so they are about as clean as they will ever get.  We'll get at least a season out of them before eventual replacement with SeaDek or some other flooring.
  
• Grill element replaced -- this fixed the grill, and we have enjoyed burgers off it at anchor. It works slick and will be a great way to make hot food on the boat.
  
• Pending fixes -- the icebox/fridge in the cabin had the door fall off.  The door pin sockets pulled out of the door.  I think I can fix them with some epoxy.  I ordered a replacement fridge for the cockpit, which ought to be an interesting installation.  In theory it should fit as the dimensions are identical to the original and its from the same vendor, but I suspect some fitting will be required.
  

Overall, it's been a good experience.  We've been mostly cruising at about 9 mph, which keeps fuel burn low.  This speed was impossible in the Yamaha, especially on open water.  It was kind of a plowing speed on that hull, and we got beat up bad in open water.  But this boat's size, power and hull make that speed stable and easy to manage, and I generally prefer cruising slow for the scenery and lack of noise/wind.

This weekend it's projected to be in the high 90s, which means the lake should be warm enough for swimming and give us a real taste of what summer on this boat should be like.