Gauges not working

[lcgordon]

So guys I have a question. I have a 1994 TBX and my tach is not working. I looked behind it and the wires look to be tight. I dont really have much boat experience since this is my first one. Is there anything else that I can check to figure out why its not working?

[RonT]

Tach's are one of the first gages to fail but you should always verify that the tach is bad before ordering a new one. The tach will have a ground wire-black, a blue wire for the backlighting, and a gray wire from the Ign. coil. and possibly a purple if it has a built in hourmeter.  If the backlighting comes on with the nav. light switch your ground is good. Now you need to verify the gray (think of it as a sender wire) is good, it has a long way to go & several connectors. I disconnect one end and run a temp long jumper wire from the coil to the tach, if still nothing (with the eng. running) replace the tach.
There are several out there call me or send an email for a replacement quote....RonT

[lcgordon]

Thanks for the information. I will be getting to this problem during the winter. The navigation lights do not work and the speedos do not either. The blower switch works though. I will check when I get home but I probably will not get to trying to actually test it for a while. Thanks again for the info.

[lcgordon]

Well took the boat out today on its maiden voyage and it ran great and the tach actually does work. One question tho it was taking on a decent amount of water. I know where the shaft comes through is supposed to drip some to lube it but it was more water than just that and I looked at that and there was not water coming in from there. Does anybody else know of good places to check?

[Mike Harry]

Check the deck to hull joint. The caulking that was (or is) in there may not be in there anymore or may have become unattached. Especially near the rear of the boat. Spray from underway running and especially from hard turns will come in through the joint.

Another place I found leakage was around my raw water intake grate.

[lcgordon]

Ok if the joint is the case how would I go about fixing that?

[Mike Harry]

Sorry, guess I should have went that far. The old caulk would need to be removed if its still up in there. You would then need to re caulk the area. Ron told me to use a large screwdriver or other device to actually pry the gap open just a bit as I added new caulking.

Im sure he will chime in with any other tips once he sees these posts.

[lcgordon]

Thanks for that. One question do you do it from the out side of the boat taking the rub rail off or the inside? the inside may be pretty hard to get to.

[RonT]

Look under the Technical help section, then hull deck leaks, I just added additional info pertaining to TBX models.

[lcgordon]

Thanks I will do that.

[lcgordon]

I have looked at my boat but not taken it apart. I do have all winter so im not in a huge rush. It does look like a bad design with the rub rail going under the swimdeck and under the water line. My main question is should I take the time and re caulk the whole boat or just the back corners like explained in the Hull Leak thread?

[RonT]

if you have the time I would do the whole boat, just don't remove the hull /deck screws around the rest of the boat, just tighten them, repair if stripped.

[lcgordon]

I will have plenty of time so I will do so. When going through your directions the third step is to remove hull to deck screws. If I was not to do that how would I pry it open to remove the old caulking and re-caulk. Sorry im sure once I start taking things apart I will get a better understanding of what I should be doing i just want to get as much information as I can now so that I can just do the project straight through.

[Midskier]

Imagine a shoe box with the lid flange screwed tightly to the box every 1/2 " - you couldn't pry it apart without damaging the box or the lid with the screws still in place........... your deck fits over your hull like a lid and shoe box and screwed (or through bolted) every 4-6" back the screws out clean the old sealant out, spread it, reseal it,  re screw it

good luck

Dan T

[lcgordon]

ok thanks thats what I was confused about. So just do the same process as listed but only do a 4-6" section and dont take all the screws out on the whole boat at once. thanks