Rotten luck...

[GeorgeWBush]

Today I discovered that the bolts on one of my engine mounts are loose, and will not tighten. The other 3 engine mounts are solid. Does anyone have an idea on how much it might cost me to get this fixed? And how urgent is it? Could I go this summer without worrying about it? I also have a couple soft spots in the floor (I've always know about them) and was planning on replacing the whole floor and refurbishing the rest of the interior next winter. So would it be safe to wait until then, or should I take care of it now?

Thanks.

[aneal000]

What do you mean by loose bolts on the motor mount? Give us some more detail. They loose but no play, they have a lot of play, which ones? Picture? Etc... I'm guessing you might be referring to the bolts that bolt the engine mount to the floor/stringers?

[obski]

If the engine mounts are loose it will cause the drive shaft to be out of alignment, which will cause fatigue and eventual breakage of the shaft or the coupling. Been there, done that.

Get it repaired.

[88Skier]

Today I discovered that the bolts on one of my engine mounts are loose, and will not tighten. The other 3 engine mounts are solid. Does anyone have an idea on how much it might cost me to get this fixed? And how urgent is it? Could I go this summer without worrying about it? I also have a couple soft spots in the floor (I've always know about them) and was planning on replacing the whole floor and refurbishing the rest of the interior next winter. So would it be safe to wait until then, or should I take care of it now?

Thanks.

Are you talking about the lag bolts that attach the blocks of wood to the hull that the engine mounts are bolted to? I think there are 4 of them with two bolts each. A couple of mine have never tightened up real tight and I've never done anything about it. Kind of hokey, just lag bolting the mounts to the hull.

[Gordo]

If the answer is the bolts that hold the engine mounts to the stringers, you got real problems. That means the wood inside the stringer is rotten and will not hold the threaded bolt. The classic way to handle that is to pull the engine, strip the fiberglass off the stringer(s), dig out the rotten wood, replace and refiberglass - then drop the engine back in!!!! Piece of cake Another way is to buy a product that you can inject into wet wood (its a 2 part epoxy). You drill some strategic holes in the stringer and inject the stuff. Then you fiberglass over the holes, fill in the hole that is stripped out with somelike JB Weld and run your engine mount bolts back in. I would consider selling if you really have the problem I described - unless, of course, you like to spend a whole winter on this project. The other posts are correct - a loose engine mount will cause the engine to loose it's alignment to the driveshaft, which will cause you a lot more money and problems.

PS - Using lag bolts into the stringers is the old, classic way to attach the engine mounts to the stringers. This is fine until water starts holding in the bilge and the wood gets wet - and stringers were made of wood for a long time.

Edited April 11, 2006 by Gordo

[GeorgeWBush]

Some more info... it is the rear motor mount on the drivers side. There are two bolts that are loose, and will not tighten. And it is from rot... Anyways I've already dropped the boat off with some professionals in Portland. The are going to dig into it and tell me how extesive my problem is. So anyways I guess at the very worst I'll get a brand new interior And even if I have to go to that extrem it will still be done before the end of may.

What do the masses think? Is a '88 skier, with less than 300 hrs on the engine and a near perfect gel-coat, worth up to ~$4000 remodel, all new wood, carpet, upholstery... Never mind don't answer that

[88Skier]

Some more info... it is the rear motor mount on the drivers side. There are two bolts that are loose, and will not tighten. And it is from rot... Anyways I've already dropped the boat off with some professionals in Portland. The are going to dig into it and tell me how extesive my problem is. So anyways I guess at the very worst I'll get a brand new interior And even if I have to go to that extrem it will still be done before the end of may.

What do the masses think? Is a '88 skier, with less than 300 hrs on the engine and a near perfect gel-coat, worth up to ~$4000 remodel, all new wood, carpet, upholstery... Never mind don't answer that

If you like the boat and you're not looking to get your money back, it's worth it. Why do all that though? Fix what needs to be fixed. The interior in those Skiers is expensive to replace. Fix the rot and replace the carpet. I've got a soft spot on the floor under the rear seat that I've been watching for 10 years. Eventually I'll get to it but, I will have to remove the gas tank and all the interior and replace the carpet. I'm in no rush to do it. A little Git Rot from time to time and leaving the rear seat in is good for now.

[GeorgeWBush]

I have not heard from the repair shop yet If I did decide to redo the interior I would keep it very simple, using at the most 2 colors. Plus I don't think I would even have the back seat done, I would just get an upolstered board to cover the gas tank in the rear, maybe leaving a little bit of room for storage bihind the board. That would open up a lot of floor space, as the stock back seat is unessesarily huge.

[obski]

What shop did you take the boat to? Cost for repair?

[GeorgeWBush]

I took it to Pacific Power Boats up on Marine drive... I have not got an estimate back yet? Do you know about them, or have another place to recomend? Anybody?

[obski]

I don't know about them. I have used Bridge City and have been happy with them. Gunter has invested in improving the service shop by hiring good mechanics.

I have also worked with Pat Fogg at Superior Inboard Repair in Lake Oswego. I have A-R friends who won't let anyone else touch their boat.

[BBeakley]

I had this same problem on my '85 Ski Centurion. Had to remove the engine and carve out the rotten stuff like mentioned above. This was after my wife took the boat by herself with a bunch of girlfriends to Lake Powell where it decided to break. Arrgghhhhh! She was pretty bummed. It wasn't too hard but it wasn't a quick fix by any means.

I don't think the repair costs should affect your decision much though. You could either:

1) Park it (YEAH RIGHT!!)

2) Sell it as is and shank the new owner (not polite) and a lot of money to buy a newer boat

3) Repair it and enjoy (that's the route we chose until we got the wakeboarding bug bad and needed a bigger wake)

Good luck. If nothing else, check your engine alignment frequently so you can quit using it before you break a propeller shaft. Those aren't cheap or fun to replace.

[jetskipro550]

I don't know about them. I have used Bridge City and have been happy with them. Gunter has invested in improving the service shop by hiring good mechanics.

I have also worked with Pat Fogg at Superior Inboard Repair in Lake Oswego. I have A-R friends who won't let anyone else touch their boat.

That is something the desperately needed to do!!! My friend took his boat in to be winterized 2 years ago and they forgot to drain the water

[kscarter]

I just finished putting new stringers in my Skier and new floor. I was lucky because the main stringers were fine but the secondary stringers were gone and the floor had a lot of soft spots. It hasn't been hard but I didn't have to pull the engine. Here are some pics to give you an idea of what it looks like under the floor.

http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dl...geid=238574&ck=

You might want to drill a couple of more small holes in the stringers to see if the rot is along the entire stringers if just around the engine mounts.

Kevin

[Gordo]

Get a very sharp ice pick. Remove the loose lag bolts you mentioned before. Insert ice pick in the stringer holes and see if you can determine how far the rot has gone (dont worry - you cannot do any more damage!). Assuming you encounter all rotten wood, move back and forward every 6 inches along the stringer(s) and ram the ice pick thru the fiberglass encaasing the stringers to see where you actually start encountering good wood. You may have to drill a 1/16 hole into the glass each time. This will give you some indication how much work this is going to be....and it generally is a lot. Stripping the glass off the stringers, replacing the rotten wood, and then refiberglassing is a lot of work - not to mention the labor of hoisting the engine out and putting it back in. I will bet you that that shop will quote you close to $4,000 for that work.

Here's a link to Rotdoctor http://rotdoctor.com/ This guy sell a product that you inject into rotten wood and it drives the water out and then hardens the remaining wood. You cannot have a really rotten member (no pun intended) for this stuff to work, but if it's just soft, it works pretty darn well. If your stringers are not too bad, I would still so what I described above and then use the holes to inject this stuff. This is not as good as replacing, but is sure alot more cost effective. This is a great product line this guy has. You can call him and he will counsel you. There are excellent instructions on his site. I have used his stuff before and it works very well.

Edited April 27, 2006 by Gordo