Fiat4Fun
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2009
- Messages
- 223
Well,
The story goes, I find our old boat we sold over 10 years ago on Craigslist. I go and buy it and bring it home after a seven hour drive. I have been using this forum for help, and it's all appreciated. The boat is a 1986 Chris Craft 210 LTD with a 5.0 Mercruiser
So, I knew " Never buy a used boat unless you get it in the water" is great advice, but for me, it was more of a emotional purchase. The boat had been sitting for at least 18 months, maybe longer, but was maintained prior to the previous owner selling it to me.
So, I have been going through it, had to replace the starter, got the motor running, and was ready to put into the water before I get it winterized. This past weekend was cold and we got 4" of snow on Sunday morning. I had put a heater in the motor area, so I was not too worried about it freezing.
Monday morning the weather was 50 and sunny. I head out, and hit the gas station, and tell the guy, how about $100. We start to pump and at 4 gallons, fuel comes out the overflow. Must be full and I now know the fuel gauge does not work!
Head out to the lake, about a hour drive, because the lakes closer to me have snow! Get to the first lake, and the ramp is not even in the water, lake level to low! So I head to the next near by lake, about 30 minutes away, and we find a nice dock and nobody around. I put the boat in the water ( yes, I remembered to put the plug in! ) and tie it off to the dock. Put the blower on, and put the truck away. Come back and start the motor, and notice that water is coming in by the sterndrive. I lower the sterndrive, and the water stops coming in! OK, possible bad hose/bellows. The motor is warming up, with good oil pressure. Sounds great. I put it into reverse, and it dies. No problem restarting in Neutral, and try again, and it does nothing, does not go into gear. We push it to the end of the dock, restart it, try fwd, and it works, then try reverse and it works. I am getting read to pull in the lines, and try Reverse again, and it does nothing, then Fwd, and it goes in Reverse! I try to put into reverse and it stays in reverse. I kill the motor, look at the cables on top of the motor, everything looks fine. So then we restart it, and fwd does not work, and we decide to bag it, as I didn't want to get stuck in the middle of the lake.
Overall, I am happy, the boat made it to the water. I still plan to winterize it on Wednesday, and will read the forums to try to understand what's happening.
I learned four things about the boat:
1. Fuel gauge does not work
2. Bilge pump does not work
3. Something is wrong with the sterndrive!!! ( linkage or internal)
4. Water is coming in- need to fix a hose/bellows ( stored with the tilt up?)
But it didn't sink, and the motor runs!!!!
Note to everyone and myself...... Always do a test drive in the water.....
The advice here has been great!
Thanks,
Bob
The story goes, I find our old boat we sold over 10 years ago on Craigslist. I go and buy it and bring it home after a seven hour drive. I have been using this forum for help, and it's all appreciated. The boat is a 1986 Chris Craft 210 LTD with a 5.0 Mercruiser
So, I knew " Never buy a used boat unless you get it in the water" is great advice, but for me, it was more of a emotional purchase. The boat had been sitting for at least 18 months, maybe longer, but was maintained prior to the previous owner selling it to me.
So, I have been going through it, had to replace the starter, got the motor running, and was ready to put into the water before I get it winterized. This past weekend was cold and we got 4" of snow on Sunday morning. I had put a heater in the motor area, so I was not too worried about it freezing.
Monday morning the weather was 50 and sunny. I head out, and hit the gas station, and tell the guy, how about $100. We start to pump and at 4 gallons, fuel comes out the overflow. Must be full and I now know the fuel gauge does not work!
Head out to the lake, about a hour drive, because the lakes closer to me have snow! Get to the first lake, and the ramp is not even in the water, lake level to low! So I head to the next near by lake, about 30 minutes away, and we find a nice dock and nobody around. I put the boat in the water ( yes, I remembered to put the plug in! ) and tie it off to the dock. Put the blower on, and put the truck away. Come back and start the motor, and notice that water is coming in by the sterndrive. I lower the sterndrive, and the water stops coming in! OK, possible bad hose/bellows. The motor is warming up, with good oil pressure. Sounds great. I put it into reverse, and it dies. No problem restarting in Neutral, and try again, and it does nothing, does not go into gear. We push it to the end of the dock, restart it, try fwd, and it works, then try reverse and it works. I am getting read to pull in the lines, and try Reverse again, and it does nothing, then Fwd, and it goes in Reverse! I try to put into reverse and it stays in reverse. I kill the motor, look at the cables on top of the motor, everything looks fine. So then we restart it, and fwd does not work, and we decide to bag it, as I didn't want to get stuck in the middle of the lake.
Overall, I am happy, the boat made it to the water. I still plan to winterize it on Wednesday, and will read the forums to try to understand what's happening.
I learned four things about the boat:
1. Fuel gauge does not work
2. Bilge pump does not work
3. Something is wrong with the sterndrive!!! ( linkage or internal)
4. Water is coming in- need to fix a hose/bellows ( stored with the tilt up?)
But it didn't sink, and the motor runs!!!!
Note to everyone and myself...... Always do a test drive in the water.....
The advice here has been great!
Thanks,
Bob
