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Draining my V-drive compartment and Shower/Heater for Winter


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Hey guys,

Im new to the malibu crew and would like to say hi to everyone, I love my boat and would like to learn more about winterizing so that I dont have to shell out hundreds of dollars every year for a mechanic to do it. Now I know how to drain all the water out of the engine and exhaust, but am kinda unfamiliar with draining my heater/shower/V-drive unit. If anyone knows of any links that could help me out I would greatly appreciate it.

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Hey guys,

Im new to the malibu crew and would like to say hi to everyone, I love my boat and would like to learn more about winterizing so that I dont have to shell out hundreds of dollars every year for a mechanic to do it. Now I know how to drain all the water out of the engine and exhaust, but am kinda unfamiliar with draining my heater/shower/V-drive unit. If anyone knows of any links that could help me out I would greatly appreciate it.

Welcome to the site! Lots of great information here. What year is your VLX?

I don't have a heater or shower, so no help there. But, I have changed

out the transmission and v-drive fluids on my '06 LSV (Sunscape) several times.

I've used the "turkey-baster" method, but I

wouldn't recommend it. Just use and oil/fluid

extractor. On the v-drive, you'll have to

reposition the suction tubing ["straw"] several

times to remove as much ATF [in my case] as

you can.

What I did was pour the used ATF out of my extractor

and into an empty, rinsed, and dried 1L bottle of

soda. I then used a felt-tipped marker to mark the

level at which the ATF settled. Then, I emptied the

bottle, filled it to the mark with new ATF, and

poured the new stuff back into the v-drive unit,

thus replacing the old fluid volume for volume.

Pretty simple.

I use the same procedure for replacing the fluid

in the main unit of the transmission.

Edited by srab
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To drain a V drive:

To drain the shower just turn the shower on until no more water comes out. Then unhook the hot, cold and mixer hoses from your mixing valve and put them as low as they can go in the bilge. The hot hose should lead to the plug to drain the manifold on the starboard side of the block. The 02 sensor does the other side.

To drain the heater you can trace the hoses back from the heater unit to the engine and it will lead you to the secondary water recirculation pump above the impeller pump. Big chrome pully wheel with a belt on it. On the port side of that there is a big hose on top, a medium size hose and if you poke your head down further you will see two smaller 1"or 3/4" diameter hoses. Those should be your heater hoses. Disconnect one and use a Compressor to blow out the system. There should be a manual for this process in your glove box with everything else.

To drain the V drive unit pull the big hose off the outlet side of the unit and put it in the bottom of the boat.

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If you have a Walter V drive, there is a plug on the back side right next to the intake hose that comes up from the through-hull fitting.

On the shower, I would highly discourage using compressed air to blow it out. You'll pop the core. Have seen it several times. Just pull both hoses off the block and blow it out with your mouth. Then pour a little RV anti-freeze into one of the hoses with a funnel and blow that through. When you see red out the other hose, your heater is safe.

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