- Joined
- May 28, 2008
- Messages
- 13,283
- Reaction score
- 11,195
So, last summer I picked up a little Campbell 20' Whaler V-drive. The seller was a friend of a friend of a friend and the word was the boat was mechanically sound, but needed some love cosmetically. As it turns out the boat did need some love cosmetically, mechanically, spiritually, and most certainly financially. While the boat did run fine for the few seconds we ran it on the trailer, I soon found out that those few seconds were the limit of the machine's abilities.
(Before every professional boat buyer on the internet shows up in here with advice on not buying without a sea trial blah, blah, blah, let me just say... save it, we've all heard it.)
Anyway, the fuel system was screwed, the water pumped was cracked, the rudder stuffing box leaked like the Deep Water Horizon, and if it wasn't for Dave at Connelly Marine I would have just lit it on fire in RD's side yard and gone on with my life. Connelly fixed all the known issues in short time and for a very reasonable price. I would recommend them to anyone.
So, now that the boat was running tip top all we should be good to go right? Sadly, no. Upon the maiden voyage of my new found money suck I discovered that while the boat ran and idled great and actually floated, it also sounded like there was rock quarry the bottom of the bilge. Well, the racket was tracked down to the transmission. Some theories were passed around and it was thought that perhaps the flex plate was loose, so some inspection was in order. Today I took a closer look and found the flex plate to be properly intact, but also found an inspection port had be cut into the bell housing (poorly I might add). Here are a couple videos of the noise. In the first video the trans is in neutral and you can hear what sounds like a spun bearing. The next video shows what this anchor sounds like when you shift it into gear...
[video=youtube_https;jS_4fOLf9WM]https://youtu.be/jS_4fOLf9WM[/video]
[video=youtube_https;d-VMEiicp1A]https://youtu.be/d-VMEiicp1A[/video]
Aside from the obvious you will also notice ATF leaking out of the top of the JB welded access hole LOL. Anyway, the trans is junk. Does anyone have a line on an inexpensive Turbo 400? There isn't much power behind it so I don't need anything special. Just something to get this boat on the water.
What say ye?
(Before every professional boat buyer on the internet shows up in here with advice on not buying without a sea trial blah, blah, blah, let me just say... save it, we've all heard it.)
Anyway, the fuel system was screwed, the water pumped was cracked, the rudder stuffing box leaked like the Deep Water Horizon, and if it wasn't for Dave at Connelly Marine I would have just lit it on fire in RD's side yard and gone on with my life. Connelly fixed all the known issues in short time and for a very reasonable price. I would recommend them to anyone.
So, now that the boat was running tip top all we should be good to go right? Sadly, no. Upon the maiden voyage of my new found money suck I discovered that while the boat ran and idled great and actually floated, it also sounded like there was rock quarry the bottom of the bilge. Well, the racket was tracked down to the transmission. Some theories were passed around and it was thought that perhaps the flex plate was loose, so some inspection was in order. Today I took a closer look and found the flex plate to be properly intact, but also found an inspection port had be cut into the bell housing (poorly I might add). Here are a couple videos of the noise. In the first video the trans is in neutral and you can hear what sounds like a spun bearing. The next video shows what this anchor sounds like when you shift it into gear...
[video=youtube_https;jS_4fOLf9WM]https://youtu.be/jS_4fOLf9WM[/video]
[video=youtube_https;d-VMEiicp1A]https://youtu.be/d-VMEiicp1A[/video]
Aside from the obvious you will also notice ATF leaking out of the top of the JB welded access hole LOL. Anyway, the trans is junk. Does anyone have a line on an inexpensive Turbo 400? There isn't much power behind it so I don't need anything special. Just something to get this boat on the water.
What say ye?