swbca

I found the thread. It says 49 inch-pounds. (they must say "49" to get your attention, or would 50 actually be too much) I have an inch-pound torque wrench . . . I will see if the 49"-pounds matches the instruction to stop when the convex washers are flat.

THE DEALER - MIDWEST WATER SPORTS - SAYS There is no torque spec. The bolts are pre-fitted with a rubber washer and a metal washer that is cupped up in the center. Tighten the 12 bolts in a star pattern until the washers are flat. Because there is rubber washer under the metal washer, it would be possible to tighten until the washers are cupped down, but that would be over-tightening.

 

Has anyone ever heard different (an actual torque value)

I tracked a fuel/fumes leak to the gasket and bolts that holds the fuel pump to the tank. Its the large Circular plate with 12 bolts to the tank. This fuel pump was replaced by the the dealer in 2018.

 

I have a new gasket and bolt/washer kit.

 

Anyone know the torque setting on the 12 bolts ?

 

 

 

Our whole family went to the nationals several years when the kids were young. They always had fun because there were other kids there that they new. They would usually find a place to swim and run around. Even though we were unofficial, my wife and manned a safety boat for a few of the big slalom events . . that makes it fun.

@UWSkier @Bongo @RichardDoane @Andre @MNshortliner

 

Findings about the fuel leak

The strong odor occurred originally when the boat was in storage and I turned up the heat in the garage from 45 to 65 while working on the boat. I am inclined to think it was just vapor pressure leaking from around the fuel pump mounting plate when the temperature rose.

 

The fuel line from the pump to engine under pressure for 4 hours doesn't cause any fuel odor. (this was after the boat was aired out from the vapor noted above). The pressure held in the main fuel line held for several hours after the pump was off . . I release the valve that looks like an oversized tire fill valve and pressure was still there.

 

There is a slight odor around the fuel pump.

 

3 of 12 fuel pump mounting bolts have an significant oily residue coating on the large washer used with the bolts . . Appears to be from recurring seepage of fuel at those bolts.

 

The pump is dated 2018 in a 2004 boat.

 

The seepage and the odor make believe it just the gasket at the fuel pump.

 

ANY OTHER THOUGHTS ?

 

thanks

 

 

 

If I were to replace the fuel line, should I get the line and clamps from my Master Craft dealer ?

 

 

@RichardDoane @Andre It was easy to access the back of my old SN and older ProStar, but this 2004 ProStar is like an iPhone to me . . can't get it apart.

 

It appears the hinges on motor cover have to be unbolted from the floor panel to get the motor cover out. Is that right ?

 

Are there fasteners for the floor panel, or is it just really swollen into place ?

 

The upholstered seat back does not pull up or out . .

 

Specifically, can someone help me get access to the rear of the boat to inspect the fuel lines ??

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

My first wife did when we were 26 years old. I am restarting competitive skiing in M9 and my second wife has never heard of it.

 

This is probably age/division dependent

 

local tournaments ???

First wife sometimes

 

The regionals ???

Firsts wife usually

 

The nationals ???

First wife always

 

 

@Deke The link you posted is dead. Interested in seeing what you found

@Andre Thanks for the heads up. I am going to pull the boat out of storage tomorrow and fix the fuel leak problem.

@jmoski Yes, I way laying under the dashboard for about an hour installing an updated Perfect Pass system and then wire tying all the old and new tangled cable bundles under there. The fuel smell was so bad up there I was starting to have weird day dreams.

 

The leak is also bad enough that the 40x20x16 storage garage smells like gas when I go in there.

 

I have some time tomorrow to dig into this problem. Having the tank full will be inconvenient assuming I have to take something apart. I will bring a bunch of my 6 gallon fuel cans to siphon out the fuel if needed.

 

@deke I did some testing with rare earth magnets for attaching buoys to sub buoys without going swimming. The concept is good but it would be hard to get to 400 pounds with a magnet assembly that is light and small. Plus it all has to be water sealed because they fail with corrosion. there may be some industrial magnet solution that would work. My knowledge is just with generic rare earth magnets.

@BraceMaker If the cable clamps don't calibrate with torque setting consistently, this looks like a good alternative.

@Andre Fuel Outlet, I suppose that's the outlet on the fuel tank ?

Bought the boat in October; it was a warm day here Monday so I went to the boat storage to check it out. The boat has a fuel leak somewhere and I couldn't see anything under the engine cover. Where would you look first and how to get access.

 

When I put the boat in storage I added fuel and fuel conditioner, unintentionally filling to the max. 2 weeks later the fuel level had dropped below site when I opened the fuel cap. At the time I figured it was a problem with the filler connections above the fuel tank.

@2Valve Fantastik ! ;) I will give it a try to see how it compares to DAWN, the stuff used on the wildlife after oil spills.

@buoyboy1 This isn't a cable course. It has individual anchor lines that are pulled over at an angle to lower the course. The horizontal network of ropes connects at 44 feet above the bottom. Pulling the anchor lines 26 feet horizontally lowers the course 6 feet.

 

Below is my first 1975 installation on a different lake where the horizontal lines were all at the sub-buoys. I am going to try calibrating the safety-break on the cable that goes to the winch with torque values on a cable splice. I just got a 1/4" pound-inch torque wrench to test and set this up.

 

So I have seen all the YouTube videos of guys cleaning their bass boat carpets. Many products were used in these videos but I don't know what really works. Last October I bought a 2004 Prostar 197TT . . The boat is almost like new except the carpet is original. The boat will be coming out of storage in a couple of weeks and I want to clean the light grey carpet that has several oil spots . . . if that's possible.

The bottom is better looking than the carpet

 

@BraceMaker The Sensor After looking at your post, the winch will be mounted on a vertical plate with bolts and rubber bushings. It will be mounted so it doesn't move down but will compress the bushings at the bottom edge of the winch body when there is sufficient downward tension on the cable. A microswitch will be activated when the bottom edge of the winch presses in towards the mount plate, but with a physical stop so the switch doesn't get crushed.

 

The email alert Our local sheriff has relaxed enforcement of state DNR rules and there is no other jurisdiction. Without a permit the Sherriff allows submersible courses as long as they aren't UP from sunset to sunrise.

 

This is a second home so I need to know if the course comes up accidentally when we aren't around. We have a system that runs HVAC, Security, Lighting with unlimited auxiliary inputs and programmable conditions. Email alerts can be sent for any event. The microswitch on the winch has been assigned a sensor ID that is programmed to send us an email when the cable has low tension or normal course-down tension. I programmed this stuff remotely last night . . that was the easy part.

 

Thanks for your assistance.

I appreciate you applying your skills and effort on my behalf but their is a logistical problem with the break-away near the winch.

 

If the break-away is in the middle of the cable, I can fix it in a half hour. I wind out an extra 50 feet of cable from the winch, Retrieve the 2 ends with my grappling hook, add temporary floats to the ends, pull the ends together and replace the link. If the cable has been pulled out of the pipe, my techniques for getting a cable back into the pipe don't work. (cant blow a pull string through a wet pipe floating in the lake). Water pressure would maybe work with fittings made to connect a water hose into the same end of pipe with the end of the cable and a piston fitted to the pipe interior to pull the cable.

 

I like the pressure sensor concept for monitoring . . I will keep working on it.

@BraceMaker Interesting . . The pulley idea looks very interesting but creates a problem. I am concerned about an anchor line from a boat. When a boat finds it is hung up on something, they will probably maneuver the boat, or forcefully wind the anchor to get un-hung. If the release is on shore, that could end up pulling the 250 foot pipe protecting the cable out into the lake, and may not release the boat from the our cable. I expect that a break-away in the center that has no sizable hardware at the break point, would allow an anchor line or anchor to slip off the end of the cable.

 

But here's another design question and design seems to be your expertise

 

This is a second home, so we are frequently away. All critical functions at his home are monitored with programming conditions to send us an email alert identifying problems. I have been trying to think of the most simple method to detect when the course is "up" based on low cable tension near the winch. All I need is a contact closure or opening when the cable is at low tension.

 

We are under legal requirements to never have this course UP over-night or lake property owners would have cause to take action with the Sheriff. So I need to know if the course is UP due to some mishap.

 

I don't want to interfere with the cable winding in neat layers with something that inhibits the cable from moving laterally near the winch drum. So then I was thinking of some type of pressure or magnetic switch function that could detect when the winch mounting is stressed by high cable tension or not. If the winch-mount was spring-loaded and hinged to allow enough travel for a magnetic security contact, this would be the most compact method to input this change of state into our processor. I would just need to make it weatherproof.

 

Any other ideas ?

@Jody_Seal I will contact Ron. Thanks

@mwfillmore HDPE ski rope is good in water for a very long time, if not forever. (my previous slalom course was in the water for 30 years) I have some new bulk ski rope from Masterline. I think I counted 15 filament sets in the rope. A bundle of 4 sets broke a 420 pounds in a single test. With some testing while wet after many load/offload cycles I might be able to provide a sufficiently constant breaking point.

 

A better idea ?

Calibrating a tensile safety break based on a product breaking probably isn't the best concept for a cheap solution. Using a stainless cable clamp to splice cables end-to-end, a failure value could be calibrated by the torque value on the two nuts. This would be less likely to change in value over a long series of load and unload cycles because no materials are being stretched to their limit repeatedly.

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

@BraceMaker This illustration is from my original article in the Water Skier magazine with "how-to" instructions on the world's first submersible course. (Mike Suyderhoud apparently produced and patented the second submersible course)

 

On this illustration, if a boat's anchor line puts 100 pound of lateral or vertical pressure on the 700 foot cable, it increases the end-point tension on this cable by several hundred pounds. I want the cable to break at 400 pounds so it doesn't pull components in the slalom course out of position.

Someone is going to wonder Why this design ? I want a course that can be wound up or down from shore, 700 feet away from the course.

 

My friend Lance in Minnesota uses several hundred feet of plastic tubing to inflate 42 foot long bladders inside aluminum pipes for each set of buoys (straighter than PVC pipes). It was more expensive to implement and required a very long series of tweaks to make the deflation of the bladders reliable. His course has been reliable for many years and sinks to the bottom of the lake (45 feet down) when he lets the air out.

 

My course is low tech and was trouble free for 30 years the last time I built this design. On the 1975 original installation, the course went up and down with a button on the dashboard of our boat.

@BraceMaker if a 700 foot line has 300 pounds of tension, a momentary100 pound lateral conflict has the leverage to increase the tension by a more than 100 pounds.