The backstory: freshwater only 1999 Bayliner Capri bow rider. Original motor and outdrive. I do most of the work myself and rebuilt the boat top to bottom (everything short of pulling the motor)
I had a small leak through the middle gimbal stud/nut and found nothing in the forums about it so far, so I'm hoping this helps someone else. At first I thought "rotten transom", "failed gimbal seal", "engine remove and transom rebuild". Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me but this is a very clean boat and I did say 1999 not 1979 or 1989. The transom is solid, I drilled a few holes for a swim platform recently and it was dry wood. So investigated some more and found this....
As you can see, the bottom stud is only screwed in about 1/2 way, if even. This was absolutely a failure of Bayliner since you can still see the original paint on the threads that the stud never touched. The top stud/nut/washer looks brand new on the inside but the bottom one is all rusty and leaking because the stud wasn't installed properly. I looked on ebay and saw hundreds of these studs being sold. I'm pretty sure they are some aluminum alloy. The nut and washer on the inside of the boat are a steel allow, not stainless since the washer and nut have both rusted really bad. The stud is a little corroded on the outside of the boat, but since only a few threads are seated, it's enough for water to get through. The new nut I'm getting is made by Sierra and is stainless. I ordered new washers too, but now that I think of it, I will stop by west marine and get some stainless washers instead. If Bayliner assembled this boat correctly, I would not have this leak and if I ignored it long enough I would have ruined the transom and essentially junked the boat
Now if you have this problem and it's not leaking yet, what you can do is just fill the hole with a bunch of 5200 and that should prevent this from becoming a problem for you. I would also suggest painting or putting 5200 over the other exposed studs, that would greatly reduce their life and prevent corrosion. You can also try to use a stud installer or just a bunch of 7/16 nuts to turn the stud all the way in like it should have been in the first place. Another giveaway is that on the inside of the boat, the top stud has about 1/4 of thread left after the nut, but the bottom ones have a little more than 1/2" of thread sticking out. Both lower studs have this problem on my boat, although only one is leaking so far. I might not be able to get to the one that's not leaking yet, but I should be able to get the one that's leaking out and fix this problem. For the other one, I will probably just fill the hole with 5200. What I am doing is soaking the hole/stud with penetrating oil, removing the old stud/washer/nut and installing new ones without removing the engine. It's a tight fit, but should have it fixed soon. I'm using a stud installer/remover kit that should make it a little easier. I also wanted to get the stud out so I can take a look inside the hole and see if I need to go any further
I hope this saves some boats out there, but this leaves me with a very bad opinion of Bayliner. This is a major failure on their part and now I'm 100% sure my next boat will not be another Bayliner
I had a small leak through the middle gimbal stud/nut and found nothing in the forums about it so far, so I'm hoping this helps someone else. At first I thought "rotten transom", "failed gimbal seal", "engine remove and transom rebuild". Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me but this is a very clean boat and I did say 1999 not 1979 or 1989. The transom is solid, I drilled a few holes for a swim platform recently and it was dry wood. So investigated some more and found this....
As you can see, the bottom stud is only screwed in about 1/2 way, if even. This was absolutely a failure of Bayliner since you can still see the original paint on the threads that the stud never touched. The top stud/nut/washer looks brand new on the inside but the bottom one is all rusty and leaking because the stud wasn't installed properly. I looked on ebay and saw hundreds of these studs being sold. I'm pretty sure they are some aluminum alloy. The nut and washer on the inside of the boat are a steel allow, not stainless since the washer and nut have both rusted really bad. The stud is a little corroded on the outside of the boat, but since only a few threads are seated, it's enough for water to get through. The new nut I'm getting is made by Sierra and is stainless. I ordered new washers too, but now that I think of it, I will stop by west marine and get some stainless washers instead. If Bayliner assembled this boat correctly, I would not have this leak and if I ignored it long enough I would have ruined the transom and essentially junked the boat
Now if you have this problem and it's not leaking yet, what you can do is just fill the hole with a bunch of 5200 and that should prevent this from becoming a problem for you. I would also suggest painting or putting 5200 over the other exposed studs, that would greatly reduce their life and prevent corrosion. You can also try to use a stud installer or just a bunch of 7/16 nuts to turn the stud all the way in like it should have been in the first place. Another giveaway is that on the inside of the boat, the top stud has about 1/4 of thread left after the nut, but the bottom ones have a little more than 1/2" of thread sticking out. Both lower studs have this problem on my boat, although only one is leaking so far. I might not be able to get to the one that's not leaking yet, but I should be able to get the one that's leaking out and fix this problem. For the other one, I will probably just fill the hole with 5200. What I am doing is soaking the hole/stud with penetrating oil, removing the old stud/washer/nut and installing new ones without removing the engine. It's a tight fit, but should have it fixed soon. I'm using a stud installer/remover kit that should make it a little easier. I also wanted to get the stud out so I can take a look inside the hole and see if I need to go any further
I hope this saves some boats out there, but this leaves me with a very bad opinion of Bayliner. This is a major failure on their part and now I'm 100% sure my next boat will not be another Bayliner
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