articfriends

iTrader: (1)

I just got home yesterday from lk Winni NH,this was the worst boating vacation I ever had!!! I should have known when we were getting ready to leave just to stay home!!! The night before leaving i was servicing rearend in my 04 duramax and discovered the posi was blown up,it seemed to be working fine,pulled cover to change oil/service it and found teeth missing in the junk factory gov-lock and a split in the rotating gear. I rebuild rearends as part of ny business so i have seen ALOT of broken ones in the 1/2 tons that the owners weren't even aware of,obviously i couldn't get parts for it so i buttoned it up and towed EASY with it(we had reservations for a condo there and family coming up from florida so not going wasn't a option). Pulled the brakes, drums and bearings off trailer before going,they were gone also after one season,replaced everything on trailer before leaving too. We get there,boat ran 2nd day flawlessly(it thuinderstormed the first day),pulled my little nieces on tube at high idle barely on plane. 2nd day of boating pivot pin on engine hatch sheared off,wedged a towel between hatch to keep from damaging boat,before we made it in from that the coil burned up,thought it was in distributer,screwed around on water with distributer,couldn't get no sparl. Sat dead in water for 2 hours in middle of the lake while a few people drove by in non-performance boats went by(tryed waving them down but no-one would stop). Finally another performance boater on a 353 formula towed us in(great guy who never heard of OSO). Bought a 93 chevy truck coil the next day,borrowed a drill from a guy building house next door to where we were staying,drilled out hatch pin and replaced with a bolt,rained the rest of that day and the next .Launched boat the following day,fired it up,set the timing from screwing around with distributer,backed away from lauch,put it in gear and the frickin shifter cable broke !!Paddled boat back to the trailer,called it a day. Got on the phone the next morning,called 20 of the 42 marinas around the lk figuring i was tired of pissing around i would just pay someone to change the cable,yeah right,couldn't find a shop that could change cable in a week let alone a day !!!Drove to closest place that had a cable,bought it,pulled outdrive in the parking lot and changed it,of course just as we were finishing it it startd raining again. Took boat out next day,drove 20 minutes and poly lock holding comp rocker on cracked right below hex adjuster,rocker backed off,motor started clattering/popping. Limped boat in,i brought my old crane gold rockers and nuts(the comp adjuster nuts seem to crack below hex,this is the second one that has broke). Pulled valve covers in parking lot figuring I'd change all the rokers and nuts,yeah right,fricken lifter broke and it mangled the pushrod !!! Of course it was nice the rest of the time we were there watching all the boats go by from shore! . I just didn't have time before going to work bugs out of my boat (waited on exhaust tails until week before leaving). Came home yesterday(luckily truck didn't break)pulled intake off hoping lifter didn't wreck the lifter bore,luckily it didn't. Overnight aired everything to fix it today and I'm going to PUNISH it this weekend,Smitty

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

of course heres some pics. Has anyone seen a coil burn from the post down the body before,i haven't. These comp rocker nuts seem to crack below the adjuster hex,I didn't tithen them any tighter than i have tightened the cranes in past.

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

I didn'y know arp made better nuts for the comp rockers(the comps have a .550 step where it goes in the body,but thats not where they been cracking). But i ordered some and if they break I'm going to buy jesel shaft rocker arms,Smitty

mopower

Thank God I'm not the only one with vacations like that. Here all this time I thought it was just ME

Believe me I feel your pain...been there , done that and at Winni too.

Wobble

Smitty,

I feel for you. Had a summer like that. Almost quit boating and seroiusly considered buying a race car again (less work ).

I have seen a coil do that, bad coil wire and dirt.

I know you have to be totaly disgusted.

Wishing you a good day and season on the water.

88Fountain

iTrader: (1)

That sounds like my trip to SML last month. We were going down for 4 days and my oldest son (3 1/2) and I went down one day early. We got there and launched the boat. I started up the engines to let them warm up (new 540's with about 5 hours on them). As I am getting all of our stuff out of the truck and putting on his life jacket, I hear a noticeably different sound coming from the boat. I turn to look at the boat and the exhaust hoses on the port motor are smoking and had shrunk and pulled away from the header. I ran down to shut it down and looked at the water pressure gauge to see that it was reading 0 and I probably lost a sea water pump impeller. We ended up limping it to our house on the starboard motor. Tied up to the dock at the house, I jumped in the water and pulled the flapper from the tailpipe so I could remove the tailpipe. I am standing on the swim platform, trying to get the hose off of the tailpipe and a neighbor cruises by. As I waved to them, I drop the tailpipe in the water. Took a neighbor and myself 2 hours to find it. Eventually got it all back together and checked out the headers and they weren't damaged. I was going there with a box of jets to get the boat dialed in, but I ended up spending the first 3 days fixing my mishap at the dock. Needless to say, I will never leave my boat running without someone in it that can check the water pressure.

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

When we left to go there i thought we were loaded for bear,i brought spare oil filters,distributer,oil,out drive oil, tools,plugs,wires,rocker arms,fuel pump,2 spare props,belts,blowerbelts and pulleys,3 spare tires for the trailer AND a spare max machine worx outdrive just in case!I was more worried about the outdrive breaking (or the spare getting stolen) than anything else.It's just disapointing,we were going to stop in the finger lks on our way home in NY state and meet RM Builder and turn the boost up on my boat ( i put a 4" pulley on it for the main trip figuring we'd take it easy on everything then put the 3.85 on that made almost 950 hp for some hard runs on our way home,if it broke then at least we'd got to use it for the week and a 1/2 at lk Winni). Things happen though and you can either give up or keep trying,Smitty

NetGain

Smitty, I just want to know two things, did you get a Clam Roll at Pop's in Alton Bay and did you play skeeball with the kids at the Weirs?

I may tow up to the lake in a few weeks. Would have liked to go this weekend for the Poker Run, but it didn't work.

have a great summer!

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

Had a lobster roll at some mom and pop joint in mass,never made it to the weirs.We did dodge a few rain storms when boat was running by going way up into Alton bay.I expected to see a total mayhem of jetski's and go fast boats tearing the hell out of the lake from all the talk about speed limits but it seemed alot quieter and less congested then any of our popular lakes in michigan,Smitty

rich allen

Bummer trip, but you still kept swinging, right to the end, so cheers to you.