28 Engine hatch won't open...question and answer

[Catch Basin]

This is a response to Captmmm's question about getting the hatch open and a question about a new problem that I had this weekend. A few months back I had to replace a leaking cylinder. Same problem as Captmmm, heard the pump, but no umph. I started looking for the bypass valve and to my suprise, the previous owner had to remove it to install a 8KW Northern lights generator, and never reinstalled it. So what do i do now? Remove both fish boxes, Remove all the batteries, lay down in the hull, take a ratcheting 9/16" wrench and an open 9/16 wrench, fish your hands into the engine compartment, feel for the cylinder, trace down to the lower mount, remove the lower connecting bolt. I used a Marlin Tackle attached to the tower to raise the hatch. Wrap lines around the base of the tacklestations for lifting. I swore I would never do that again. Well, this past weekend, making the run home and smelled strong electrical burning. Shut the boat down fast, cleared the helm platform, got the fire extenguishers ready, went to raise the engine hatch......No power. Bad feeling. Started the boat back up, made the run in. Everything worked fine. Got to the dock, fishbox macerators not working. OK, all this must be on the same circuit. Checked for blown fuses, none. How do I raise the engine hatch? The same way as before. *!!*!JHIUd%$$#. Got it opened yesterday the same as before. This time, I wired a new switch to the electric motor that runs the hydrulic pump and hid it inside the cabin step hatches, just incase. Cheap insurance. I traced wires, sniffed all around for burnt wires. Came up with nothing. Before i called it a day, I tried the original switch for the engine hatch....worked perfect. Tried the macerators, worked perfect. WTF? Now I'm even more concerned. Any ideas where to start looking for problems. Since I have an alternate switch to lift the engine hatch, I guess I'll have to wait for the problem to repeat itself, then follow the smoke. I've checked all the obvious. My best guess is that in tugging and pulling on all the wiring harnesses, I must have closed the circuit back somehow? but its still not fixed. A good day at the office would be better than a bad fishing if I have an electrical fire.

[TwinFin]

Good post and

scary to think of smelling something burning and not being able to lift your engine hatch.

Intermittent electrical problems - what a bitch they are. I don't have any useful thoughts as to why the macerator pumps and the hatch lift would be down at the same time. I'm just not knowledgeable enough about how they are wired.

One thought though. I believe there are two solenoids associated with your hatch hydraulics. Any chance one or both of those might be going bad? A lot of us have had trouble with our main power solenoids and those problems (at least in my case) were intermittent. (though I never smelled anything burning) The solenoids are not expensive and changing the ones for your hatch should be a snap. (Mine are under the port fish box - easy access there).

Have you re-installed the bypass valve? Your backup switch seems like a good idea but won't help you if your hydraulic system goes down due to leak or bad drive motor.

Question. Since you have experience with manually lifting the hatch... Could two or three guys get the hatch open out on the water using the by pass valve? Should we all be carrying any special equipment to facilitate this task if we ever needed to do it in an emergency on the water?

ps - some of have all 3 of our batteries in the engine compartment. One more thing we don't need to loose access to!!

[backman]

Lifting bolts?

since reading all these problems I have been thinking about the feasibility of mounting 2 bolts into the deck immediately next to eachgable.of the tackle stations.

That combined with a rope or block and tackle strung from the tower would make the problem managable.

[Guest]

TwinFin,

Two healthy guys can raise the deck, but you almost need a third to secure it once it is open. That is raising the platform with the cylinders actually diconnected. With them connected and having that extra resistance, it could require three people. Tie lines around the base of your tackle stations, if you have two. Lift the tackle stations, not the lip of the deck. Emptying the tackle stations helps also. Keith from CC faxed me a sketch of how to add the bypass valve back to the system, I will be doing that in a few weekends. Also, the deck switch closes the ground side of the cicuit, there is always power to the solenoids when the "main" switch is on. The macerators will not work if either the ground or the positve is disconnected, so Keith thinks i may have a bad ground somewhere, since that is the only thing the two have in common, maybe they share a ground. More projects.

[TwinFin]

thanks guys

for the replies.

Larry - Are you thinking of two large eye bolts with hefty backing plates? Seems like a couple attachment points out of the way of foot traffic would be better than attaching rope directly around the tackle stations.

Steve

[backman]

exactly - perhaps mount them on the outside of thr two tackl

perhaps mount them on the outside of thr two tackle stations; I don' think the backing plates need to be huge; just enough to distribute the load over a few square inches.

[captmmm]

I got my hatch open and found that the seal on the starboard hatch piston blew out and am having a rebuild kit sent to me.. THAT HATCH IS HEAVY!!!!....

Two new issues i found while tinkering around. The intake hose for the starboard motor was rubbin on the shaft coupler so now ill change it and route it a little different...


The starboard throlle bottoms out before i turn all my rpms....all season it has been takin more and more movement of the lever before the engine responds has anyone else delt with this?????/


The good news ran a 160 mile round trip on a half a tank of fuel at 25 kts.. Put the first 4 tuna in the boat and saw a great Whitle I love this boat just want to get the quirks out cause the bite is really starting