New owner of a 1989 Advanced

[Dfw 1989]

Hi I just bought a 1989 American Skier Advanced,
This seems like a great board and I have been trolling around here for a few days searching an learning.
Got a good deal on it 2900 has 980hrs showing on the hour gauge that I am not sure is working. HAHa,
Tranny was slipping switched the oil twice and put some lucas stop slip in and readjusted cable to get the ball to seat.
seems much better.
I think it has the 351 in it. Only 6 valve cover bolts so I think its a Cleveland?
Replaced wood in rear corner seats and replaced and rewired the blower.
Front passenger bench has busted seems.
Was not much info with the boat or engine. I was wondering if its been rebuild there is some red rtv peaking out of the gap between the
intake and head. The head on the left side has a B written on it in sharpie? Yall thinks some one rebuilt it or is the B a factory mark or something.

I have also changed the plugs and cleaned out the carb a little with carb cleaner. Was battling the secondarys not opening but I replaced the cork between diaphragm and carb I hope that fixs it.
Diaphragm holds vacuum with the finger over the whole test and I disassembles and cleaned it and cleaned passage into carb.

[Dfw 1989]

Well an way. I am excited about the new boat. sorry for long post and thanks in advance for yalls help.

[Dfw 1989]

Oh a few more questions.
I have a lot of bounce over 35 mph anything I can do? Put some fins on the metal tab thingy on the rear behind the prop made it plane quicker but and added a couple of mph before it started bouncing. I think?
It has a tower installed is it safe to pull from there? I has a lot of front to back stability but side to side it seems to make the whole sides of the boat move?

[backfoot100]

Welcome and congrats on the new boat.
Its a Windsor motor. Cleveland's were never marinized.

I would guess the intake and/or head has been removed/replaced. The red RTV isn't factory.

How are you testing the secondaries? The only time you'll get them to open is running it underway someplace around 40 MPH or more. Winding the hell out of it in neutral won't do a thing for you. Needs to be under a load.

You have to explain the sides moving on the tower. That doesn't sound good at all. The tower is not stock. It was added. I would have concerns about how it was mounted.

Also the bouncing above 35 is not normal nor does it sound good. I've never known any of these boats to bounce like that. Something just doesn't sound right. I'm guessing there has to be some major weight added someplace to cause that but it's purely a guess.
My boat had the floors and foam waterlogged before I redid them and it never bounced like you describe.
I'm sure that Ron and/or Dan would be along before long with some answers. They've forgotten more about these boats than you or I will ever know.

[RonT]

Welcome to the A/S Family! A full tune-up is always the first thing I recommend when getting into an unknown boat & engine & then diagnosis issues from there. As for the "bouncing" aka porpoising it's not uncommon for the Advance to do this above 40+ mph if loaded heavy aft. Speeds below this need to be addressed. Causes are heavy aft loading, modified hook in the hull bottom, really messed up cavitation plate, or in the worst scenario was  the boat equipped with the optional lifting eyes and spent most of its life hanging in a lift in warm climates & loaded with fat sacks while hanging. I have seen this scenario cause the hull to distort. 

[Dfw 1989]

Thanks for the reply's.

I did test the secondary's under load on the water. They where not opening when opened by hand you could feel a difference. I think the cork washer sized gasket was leaking vacuum. I guess I will see the next time I am on the water with someone I trust to drive the boat a full throttle

The bounce is only over 35-40 really faster than I usually would go but its a new boat and I wanted to seeing how fast it was. If there is a solution great if not 35 not bad on water.

The tower feels very stable It seems to be mounted well front to back it does not move at all. When you stand next to it and push side to side there is some movement. What should I look for in reading another post I know my 89 was not designed for a tower.
I have not been using it to pull people but would like to if its safe.

Thanks again.

[Daximus]

My tower will move side to side a bit if you push on it, been like that from day one. To be safe, I'd check the mounts from the inside of your hull and see if they are tight. Maybe have a friend push the tower around a little and check for excessive movement.  As for the tower itself, check all of the bolts, locktite as needed, and that's about all you can do.

We hang like drunken apes and sit on top of my tower sometimes...it moves a little, always has. Hope that helps.

[Dfw 1989]

Thanks.
Just dealing with a hard shifting Velvet drive now. Took the shifter valve out and it was all marked up. I emory clothed it down to smooth and that helped a lot but it is still hard to shift into neutral once it gets hot.
I am concerned a rebuild will not fix the problem as it doesn't really touch the shifter valve from my understanding and a new shifter valve might not help if the case it scratched up internally on the shifter valve journals. I don't want to buy a new transmission.
Any opinions?

[backfoot100]

Disconnect the shift cable from the tranny and see if it shifts easy by hand.

Verify that fluid level is where it should be too.

[Dfw 1989]

Yeah I have switched out the cables and the hard shifting it at the trans. I had to push really hard by hand to get it to move. Now that I have emory clothed the valve cylinder its better but still kind of hard once hot.