IDEAS TO AVOID WATER DRIPPING FROM DRIVE DURING MUSSEL INSPECTION

I'm tired of the anxiety when driving to the lake if will I pass inspection. The only issue I have is the drive drip.

I'm not crazy about the idea of running the engine dry for a few moments (although I saw a post by Teague on a different boating site that recommended it)

I've done the up/down drive over and over again, the jack rabbit starts and batman stops up and down the street only to still get a few drips after getting to the lake.

I'm considering disconnecting the intake hose (b/t the intake and the pump) and trying to blow out any water back through the pick-up on the drive. But, I don't know if that will eliminate the chance water in the block will get past the pump and back to the drive. That hose looks to be the lowest spot in the water line. What a PITA

Anybody have any input as to my idea?... or other suggestions???

Thanks Inmates.....

Black duct tape. Blends right in. Just don't forget to take it off.

20 psi air?

Yellowboat said:

20 psi air?

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Been that route as well..... but from the drive forward... I defeated the purpose by pushing water froward towards the pump

I'm think'in a brass ball valve in the pump exit hose (gotta remember to open before launch!!) that should keep the water from draining from the engine back past the pump and through the drive.

Then put some air pressure through the p/u hose from the pump side to the drive... that hose is the low point

A valve in the hose from the drive would work better but it's a very stiff reinforced hose and hard to manipulate. The other hose is very flexible.

Attempting to isolate the water from the engine so I can flush any h2o from the raw pump back.

Seems to be a reasonably simple way I can think of to eliminate the "drip" still a PITA

please keep those thought coming!!

What lake are you afraid of an inspection? Boats usually dry after 5 days. Sometimes I leave the drive down to drain it.

I use a leaf blower. It seems to work

Running it dry will not help. The pump will not pull the residual water from the drive, it will pull air... path of least resistance. Disconnect the hose AT THE TRANSOM that goes to the water pump and blow air back through the drive with it trimmed all the way down. Leave the hose off over night and trim the drive up and down the next morning to see if anything is left in the drive. Usually it will be dry. You can also leave the hose off to make sure no residual water runs from the engine back into the drive while driving, then hook the hose up after inspection.

Don't have an outdrive.

Problem solved.

Done-it-again said:

What lake are you afraid of an inspection? Boats usually dry after 5 days. Sometimes I leave the drive down to drain it.

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I wish that were the case...

Went to the lake with a friend last year... he dripped and was failed. Boat hadn't been wet for 6 months.... Drive left down and kept outdoors in the so ca climate...

I've been off the water for months and still had water come out of the drive....

BDMar said:

Running it dry will not help. The pump will not pull the residual water from the drive, it will pull air... path of least resistance. Disconnect the hose AT THE TRANSOM that goes to the water pump and blow air back through the drive with it trimmed all the way down. Leave the hose off over night and trim the drive up and down the next morning to see if anything is left in the drive. Usually it will be dry. You can also leave the hose off to make sure no residual water runs from the engine back into the drive while driving, then hook the hose up after inspection.

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My thoughts exactly..... The "running dry" idea was killing me!

Friend sold his boat after constantly getting rejected. Shop vac blower tried it all. Each time one or 2 trips and fail.

wsuwrhr said:

Don't have an outdrive.

Problem solved.

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so you are saying buy a jet bote?

My boat, 496HO.
I took out the blue plugs that are down low, 1 is on the raw water pump the other is in about the same position on the other side of the motor.

Done-it-again said:

What lake are you afraid of an inspection? Boats usually dry after 5 days. Sometimes I leave the drive down to drain it.

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Not trying to hijack the thread, but you do realize you should always store the drive down.

FreeBird236 said:

Not trying to hijack the thread, but you do realize you should always store the drive down.

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I don't. What happens if battery's are dead or the trim stops working? Then I'm screwed towing out of storage. But I do use those ram plastic things.

The drive usually has a night in the down position to drain before heading back to storage.

Well...

I disconnected both water pump hoses. First the intake. Blew it out and sucked it dry. Then the outlet hose. About a gallon of water drained into the bilge from the engine. Blew it out and sucked it as dry as possible as well.

The power steering cooler (along the back of the engine) seems to be the high point. I sucked out about 1/2 gallon of water from that hose. I figure if I can get the water out of there there will be less chance of any water draining out from forward of that point since its all lower.

Then I plugged the outlet hose eliminating any water that may get past that cooler and drain into the bilge while the hose is off.

Seems to be dry where I need to be.

When I get past inspection I'll connect the outlet hose and be on my way! Ya, It's a few minutes of a PITA.... but if it means getting wet and not disappointed I'll bite the bullet

Stay tuned!

Thanks for the suggestions!!!

Done-it-again said:

I don't. What happens if battery's are dead or the trim stops working? Then I'm screwed towing out of storage. But I do use those ram plastic things.

The drive usually has a night in the down position to drain before heading back to storage.

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You do have a point, but the reason for storing the drive down is so the bellows are not in a bind.

FreeBird236 said:

You do have a point, but the reason for storing the drive down is so the bellows are not in a bind.

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Thanks. I didn't know that was the reason.

FreeBird236 said:

You do have a point, but the reason for storing the drive down is so the bellows are not in a bind.

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Some boats won't allow for the drive to be stored down on the trailer. Insufficient ground clearance.

Done-it-again said:

I don't. What happens if battery's are dead or the trim stops working? Then I'm screwed towing out of storage. But I do use those ram plastic things.

The drive usually has a night in the down position to drain before heading back to storage.

Click to expand...

Trash said:

Some boats won't allow for the drive to be stored down on the trailer. Insufficient ground clearance.

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I used to store with my drive down...as far as I can get it, it hits the ground before going all the way down. It was always a pain to get in, turn the batteries on, and raise the drive, so I stopped doing that. I did store it down all winter though.

Trash said:

Some boats won't allow for the drive to be stored down on the trailer. Insufficient ground clearance.

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I'm not a mechanic, but the natural or neutral position on the bellows is when the drive is down, so I have heard that's the way it should be stored. If you can't do that, it still seems that the closer to that position would be beneficial, all the way up and the bellows are definitely in a bind and distorted. Maybe it makes no difference, eventually with the heat and ozone the rubber is going to rot.

FreeBird236 said:

I'm not a mechanic, but the natural or neutral position on the bellows is when the drive is down, so I have heard that's the way it should be stored. If you can't do that, it still seems that the closer to that position would be beneficial, all the way up and the bellows are definitely in a bind and distorted. Maybe it makes no difference, eventually with the heat and ozone the rubber is going to rot.

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I can't even get mine close to the neutral position on the trailer.

FUN4ME said:

My boat, 496HO.
I took out the blue plugs that are down low, 1 is on the raw water pump the other is in about the same position on the other side of the motor.

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^^^^ this drain the water out of the block and cooling system as best you can, also if the drive still has exhaust bellows change it out to the sleeve, or if you have through transom exhaust just remove the exhaust bellows, the exhaust bellows was screwing me over when I lowered the drive as there was still water in it with no where to go with the drive up. I have through transom exhaust so I just took the exhaust bellows out.

Go with black duct tape

Run the motor on a bucket with 100% ANTIFREEZE in it , before you store or tow your boat .

When the drip out of the drive is GREEN, the cops won't have any leg to stand on .

I would put a little Clorox bleach into the bucket of coolant, just to really make sure the cops know your intent .............

AzGeo said:

Run the motor on a bucket with 100% ANTIFREEZE in it , before you store or tow your boat .

When the drip out of the drive is GREEN, the cops won't have any leg to stand on .

I would put a little Clorox bleach into the bucket of coolant, just to really make sure the cops know your intent .............

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Yeah, I'm sure they'll let you right in with antifreeze dripping from the outdrive.

Kachina26 said:

Yeah, I'm sure they'll let you right in with antifreeze dripping from the outdrive.

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Put an electric heater blowing on the outdrive. Use the heat to evaporate the water and air to blow out the humidity

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Kachina26 said:

Yeah, I'm sure they'll let you right in with antifreeze dripping from the outdrive.

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With Clorox and antifreeze in the water, there would be no problem at all . Clorox/chlorine is the one thing known to kill those mussels, quickly .

All they need do is to smell the bleach and you would be allowed to go .

Have you ever run one of your boats thru an "approved decontamination process" ?

Guess what they use ?

AzGeo said:

With Clorox and antifreeze in the water, there would be no problem at all . Clorox/chlorine is the one thing known to kill those mussels, quickly .

All they need do is to smell the bleach and you would be allowed to go .

Have you ever run one of your boats thru an "approved decontamination process" ?

Guess what they use ?

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No, but I'm guessing they aren't using ethylene glycol.

Kachina26 said:

No, but I'm guessing they aren't using ethylene glycol.

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Did you know that "ethylene glycol" absorbs and mixes with water ?

How can anyone accuse the boat owner of "spreading contaminated water", when the drive drips ANTIFREEZE and CLOROX ?

GREEN water is more easily seen than just clear fluids .

The "decontamination services" use hot water and chlorine bleach to clean the motors and drives .

I can't make my post more simple, even down to your level .

AzGeo said:

Did you know that "ethylene glycol" absorbs and mixes with water ?

How can anyone accuse the boat owner of "spreading contaminated water", when the drive drips ANTIFREEZE and CLOROX ?

GREEN water is more easily seen than just clear fluids .

The "decontamination services" use hot water and chlorine bleach to clean the motors and drives .

I can't make my post more simple, even down to your level .

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I could see and understand the chlorine. The antifreeze though, would be considered a pollutant would it not?

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I recently went through a mussel check at Lake Castaic. My boat was already banded with a mussel inspection seal through the bow eye to the trailer. I had three drops of water come out of my outdrive and they barred me from launching for two weeks. I told them I washed the boat after I last used it. The mussel inspector's told me if any kind of moisture is present anywhere on the boat, they will not let you launch.

spectra3279 said:

I could see and understand the chlorine. The antifreeze though, would be considered a pollutant would it not?

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It is not a marine pollutant. But I can't see myself proudly showing the ranger how I used antifreeze as a contrast solution.

CoolCruzin said:

Go with black duct tape

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This ...

I frequent Pyramid/Castaic/Silverwood (along with the river, so I loose the seal) and have to deal with this all the time,
since they don't have the smarts to centralize their mussel inspection bureaucracy.

My routine that has not yet failed:
I raise/lower the outdrive 10-15 times before parking in garage, use a leaf blower on it to get most of the water out.
Then a day or so before launch, I use a keyboard cleaner can of compressed air with the mini plastic attachment
to shoot out as much as possible from the drive. I then usually setup a garage shop light on the drive the night before to evaporate
as much as possible.

Then on the way to the lake, just out sight of the inspection station...I pull over, lower the drive and use the mini compressed-air can one last
time to clear out any water that might be there. Also, if there is a line of vehicles ahead of me, I have also used the air can again while in line.

Racer56 said:

I recently went through a mussel check at Lake Castaic. My boat was already banded with a mussel inspection seal through the bow eye to the trailer. I had three drops of water come out of my outdrive and they barred me from launching for two weeks. I told them I washed the boat after I last used it. The mussel inspector's told me if any kind of moisture is present anywhere on the boat, they will not let you launch.

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If you're already cabled you should get to pass the inspection line. No?

Isn't that the purpose of the cable? Indicates you have been inspected and last been in that lake?

LazyLavey said:

If you're already cabled you should get to pass the inspection line. No?

Isn't that the purpose of the cable? Indicates you have been inspected and last been in that lake?

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That's what I thought and why I didn't bother to make sure every last drop of water was out of the drive. Common sense has been thrown out the window in any government run program in California.

Can someone explain the point of a mussel inspection?

From the US Department of the Interior:

Where Did the Mussels Come From? Zebra mussels, a native species of Eastern Europe, were first introduced to the United States through ballast water released into the Great Lakes in the late-1980s. Quagga mussels soon followed. Great effort has been made to prevent the spread of these fresh-water mollusks west of the 100th Meridian. In January 2007, Quagga mussels were discovered in Lake Mead and later in other reservoirs of the Lower Colorado River. In January 2008, Zebra mussels were discovered in San Justo Reservoir in San Benito County, California. The spread of the mussels to additional California waters will seriously impact the state’s aquatic environment and water delivery systems, endangering recreational boating and fishing.

What’s the Big Deal? Invasive mussels are devastating to an ecosystem once introduced. Mussels can cause the following problems once in the waterbody:
• Increase in harmful algal blooms
• Displace native species and decrease gamefish populations through food web disruption
• Litter beaches with sharp shells
• Attach to boats and watercraft, clog cooling systems and affect engine functions
• Clog intakes to water systems causing increased maintenance and treatment which can lead to higher water rates

Well, to the OP from way back in August, I have your solution and you might just have time before Summer.

1. Go to Powell, Mead, Mohave or Havasu and fill a bucket of water.
2. Bring bucket to local lake asap and dump in.
3. 6 to 9 months you should be good, problem solved.