New tower install - finally!

[Woodytoofl]

Plugging away one weekend at a time. Today was steering day. I had drawn out a diagram showing all the fittings, and then order d everything through amazon. You know the drill, 1/4 npt to seastar hose thread, elbow, straight, female, male etc. I figured it was a crap shoot, but I ended up doing pretty good. The only part I did not get right were the reservoir connections with the compression fittings. They are offset a bit and will be difficult to get an elbow on them.

I have an autopilot so the install is really adding a third station. So I found some pretty sexy quad npt manifolds and they really worked out well. Everything went in by the numbers, and the wife and I bled the system without issues.



Upper console



Main station



Looks pretty good!

 

[grouperjim]

Were you able to find a patch of shade to do all that work? 8)

Looks great.

 

[Woodytoofl]

Were you able to find a patch of shade to do all that work? 8)

Looks great.

I wish! I tell ya I am one sweaty stinky piece of pud at the end of the day! The Admiral makes me use the hose outside before I am allowed back In!

Got some more done this evening. Dry fit only, mt3 up top.

 

[Woodytoofl]

Chipping away!

I pondered a bunch on where to put the ds units, and finally decided on putting a shelf between the helm and the crew seat on the starboard side. So I scribed the hull profile and cut out a plywood shelf, laminated it with fiberglass, tacked it in place with epoxy and then glassed it in. I really suck at the glass work, but with a lot of sanding and a gel coat topper it came out ok.







After it cured I started on the main helm. Here is the Yamaha 704 opened up. Pretty simple operation.



Here is the main helm cleaned up and back together. Good perspective on where the ds units will be.



Getting close - tomorrow I hope to be done!

 

[Brent]

Looking good!


In your Pine Island canal. is there sufficient water depth to launch a low tide in your Parker?

 

[Woodytoofl]

Looking good!


In your Pine Island canal. is there sufficient water depth to launch a low tide in your Parker?

Thanks Brent!

Plenty of water in our canal. Note - we are on big pine key, NOT pine island. The canals are deep, the issue is getting anywhere! Our neighborhood is in port pine heights which is the north end on big pine key. We are 4.5 miles from route 1 and pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

At a super low tide, I have a bit shy of 2 foot of water in spots between the house and the Atlantic to the south , and same to the gulf headed north. The north route is a little dicier, but I put her on a plane and get the stern up as high as possible and let her rip. Running in the keys has given me a lot of experience running skinny water. Definite pucker factor at times!

 

[Brent]

Thanks for the clearing up location. We are in Pt Charlotte canal and cant launch at low tide bc not enough depth under the lift. We have been digging by hand but the muck is so hard and thick , it will take a long time to dig out 18 inches. It is crazy money to hire someone to remove it, haul it and dispose of it from what I have read.

 

[fannin]

Thanks for the clearing up location. We are in Pt Charlotte canal and cant launch at low tide bc not enough depth under the lift. We have been digging by hand but the muck is so hard and thick , it will take a long time to dig out 18 inches. It is crazy money to hire someone to remove it, haul it and dispose of it from what I have read.

I’ve heard of people using deicers to clean out the muck.


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[Woodytoofl]

Rigging install is pretty much complete. At least I have everything run and connected. I still have a bunch of tuning and adjusting to do with the control cables. The gears work fine from both helms, but the throttle feels sluggish and I do not get WOT from the bridge. I figure it will be a day of tinkering, and then cleanup and squaring away cabling.

So since I last posted I snaked the control cables to the engine, only hard part was rounding the corner in the stern and getting through the rigging tube to the engine.



I do have to confess - this is one reason I have been busting my hump on the controls, we had a gear cable failure last month, and I did a jerry rig wire tie number to keep fishing. Not pretty but it worked!



Here is the hazard of working with the boat on a lift. I dropped the grommet on the engine rigging tube. Of course it does not float!



On with the tank ... and in the water I go for the retrieve!



Install done ... doesn’t look too shabby



Celebration time!

 

[fannin]

I also rigged my second station with my boat in the water. I lost two washers for the cables. Luckily the dealer is just 10 minutes up the road. I also thought getting the cables through the rigging tube was the most difficult. Luckily you only have one engine. I rigged twins.


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[WCS]

Beautiful job!

 

[Woodytoofl]

Thanks guys, so close but yet so far. Had to buy out of the keys for a while due to work and personal commitments. But before we left I took her on another shakedown cruise. Absolutely love the sights and feel of the boat up there, unreal the difference!

Major problem though that I am still working through. Gears and steering works fine both stations, all goodness. Throttle ... different story.

Lower station is good, wide open throttle in forward, and measured by the engine in reverse. Up top no joy. I get 3/4 or so throttle forward, and a little more in reverse.

Couple things going on from the best I can tell. 1) the clearance from the bottom of the mt3 controller to the bottom of my control box is tight, requiring more bend in the cable that I like to see. 2) there is an option on the mt3 to increase the throw of the throttle gearing of the controller.

As for the first point the cable bend looks like it binds the action on throttle cam and arm of the controller. I have tried different cable lengths to provide slack which has helped, but don’t like it. I plan on taking the controller apart and increasing the throw as a next step, but bummed because the manual says that the current setting is the standard for Yamaha 90hp and up.

Don’t know if you guys have any experience or suggestions. I Am using teleflex xtreme cables, which are about the best on the market.

 

[Woodytoofl]

Did it, fixed it, done! Well at least this part.

Problem was that I could not get WOT from the tower, lower station was fine. Tore the Norse controller up top apart again and realized the adjustment I wanted to make was for the gears - not the throttle. Duhhh

Back at it - I spent a lot of time just working the throttle and watching what was going on. I think I had 2 issues 1) too tight of a bend in the cable, and 2) the angle the cable was running from the controller.

The bend part is easy to explain, fixed that by just pulling cable back through the pipes into the console. The angle thing is more difficult. The way the controller is installed I was basically pulling the throttle cable to the left which bound up the throttle cable travelled arm. A couple well placed and loose wire ties did the trick!

Here is the service loop now in the console ..

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Boom - on a plane from up high!

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Finished install lower helm ...


The ds units all cleaned up ...



Time to start think through the next steps. First I need to install a cable tube from the main helm to in front of the copilot seat in the v-berth. I need to route cables for power, ground, Garmin network, tach, trim tabs, and lanyard switch to the tower. Any ideas? Then it is time to gather parts to start making it a real helm up there.

Does Yamaha sell a y-cable for the older digital tach’s? Or do I cut and splice for a second gauge?

Everything else should be easy, just money!

 

[Woodytoofl]

Still plugging away! Time for accessories. I needed to reinstall the horn, and added nav lights, kill switch, a compass, and prep for electronics. I decided to glass in a mounting board so I would have a neat place for the install



And then coated with gelcoat ..



Then installed a power and ground block, and based on my power calls decided to run awg 3 cables back to the battery switch. Crimping those baby’s required new tooling for me, I always like that. I added a terminal block for miscellaneous connections and walk - looks neat and is functional.



Finally I added in a mfd. I have a Garmin 7612xsv in the pilot house and a pair of really nice (aka expensive) transducers. So I added a smaller Garmin networked mfd up top. Love or hate Garmin, this baby is nice. Without any configuration, the two devices found each other, transferred waypoints, and bam ... I can select both transducers on my upstairs station.



So it is now pretty much time to fish her, just need the winds to cooperate!