Building a '93 Caravelle 1750 Classic Bowrider

bruceb58 said:

How was the alignment?

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The alignment was fantastic.

Looking back through the pictures, I think I found the problem. Look at the bottom of the bellows. It is no longer seated on the lip. Judging by that and a crease in that area on the rubber, I highly suspect that the lip pulled away there when the unit was fully raised.



I normally store the boat with the unit lowered, and then raise it fully for transport. I suppose the bellows got old and set in its ways and could no longer bear the strain.
Also, I used Aviation Permatex as bellows adhesive last time. I read somewhere that it works, so that's what I did. Well, I don't think it was a strong enough bond, now. I used Mercury Quicksilver bellows adhesive this time.
The Clymer manual says to use grease on the outer part where the drive mates up, but I went with adhesive on both surfaces there, as well. I used the Aviation Permatex there last time, and it doesn't look like it did anything to grip the rubber, so I went with the Mercury stuff there.

I've got it all back together, now.
I think I spend more time hunting tools and putting them away than I spend on actual repairs. Haha.
I still need to put it on muffs and start it, for good measure. Ran out of daylight last night.

That bearing is dry. I got a number for a greasable bearing if you want it.

chevymaher said:

That bearing is dry. I got a number for a greasable bearing if you want it.

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I got one. Thanks. She's all squared away, now.

On the bellows where the nose of the drive presses against it...that is grease only...no adhesive.

There is also no way the bellows lifted from the lip by tilting the drive. The nose of the drive keeps it in place.

bruceb58 said:

On the bellows where the nose of the drive presses against it...that is grease only...no adhesive.

There is also no way the bellows lifted from the lip by tilting the drive. The nose of the drive keeps it in place.

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I would agree, however, there is a strange crease on the outside lip of that area that is pulled up.
When I pulled the bellows off of the housing to remove it, it didn't put up much of a fight. I have my doubts about the aviation permatex that I used to hold it. I feel much better about the Mercury bellows adhesive.
It was certainly overkill to put adhesive on the outer lip, but I was covering my bases. I'll probably go back to grease next time. Thanks for your input, Bruce.

Reserector_ said:

I would agree, however, there is a strange crease on the outside lip of that area that is pulled up.
When I pulled the bellows off of the housing to remove it, it didn't put up much of a fight. I have my doubts about the aviation permatex that I used to hold it. I feel much better about the Mercury bellows adhesive.
It was certainly overkill to put adhesive on the outer lip, but I was covering my bases. I'll probably go back to grease next time. Thanks for your input, Bruce.

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To be clear, grease goes on the inside of the bellows where the nose of the drive goes into.

My wife and I are finally, REALLY starting to enjoy this boat! The mechanical setbacks early on, built a level of mistrust that made us apprehensive about taking it out. But I worked through all of that and have had several successful outings. Well, up until the gimbal bearing going out, but I'm glad it did, WHEN it did. Now everything is fresh again and the boat is running great!
Last year we spent the July 4th weekend at Wilson Lake in north Alabama. It was a big lake without much to see by boat.
THIS year we spent the week on Lewis Smith Lake in central Alabama. It was closer, more beautiful, fewer obstructions, and offered MILES of boating. The lake is spread out over several feeders that flow to the dam at the south end. There are a few restaurants, several marinas, fuel docks and more that can be accessed by boat. It is just what I was looking for.
The water was smooth enough for our little ski boat, aside from the occasional wake boat creating jumps for us. My wife, riding in the bow, became airborne a couple of times. (Not ideal.)
We had the best vacation in a long time. We were truly blessed in every way, and are already talking about going there again next year.

Here are some random photos from the trip. I will include a video of the road tunnel we had to pass through to get to the back area of the slough that our private dock was on. SO COOL!

Glad to see yall enjoying it, Mark!

Looked like an awesome time!

yeah, great post. Love to see these boats in use. My son's fiancée's family has a place on Smith so I know my way around there a bit. And, my boat had some engine work done up there at Trident Marina. Did you go to Trident to eat?

Timr71 said:

yeah, great post. Love to see these boats in use. My son's fiancée's family has a place on Smith so I know my way around there a bit. And, my boat had some engine work done up there at Trident Marina. Did you go to Trident to eat?

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We didn't get over that for east this trip. We stayed near Duncan Bridge. We did go to Lakeshore Marina/Inn/restaurant for lunch. Got gas there and parked in a covered slip. We really enjoyed that.
I get the impression from social media that Trident gets busy and can take a while to get to the dock on account of others waiting. Any thoughts on that?

I think your impression of Trident is spot on. From what we've heard there's not enough places to get food on that side of the lake, so that forces all the crowd to just Trident. Nice place though, and we've heard that the food is good there.

Timr71 said:

I think your impression of Trident is spot on. From what we've heard there's not enough places to get food on that side of the lake, so that forces all the crowd to just Trident. Nice place though, and we've heard that the food is good there.

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There is also Drifters Bar and Grill, farther to the east. It is right across from Smith Lake Park. I haven't been there either. Maybe next year...

I think I am going to add self-levelling trim tabs to my boat. It tends to always ride low in the stern unless I trim down to push the stern up. Aside from other possible benefits, I feel like the tabs will help the stern sty up by providing more running surface. That would allow me to trim closer to level, which would make it more efficient.

I don't see any down sides to adding them. Any thoughts?

I have no interest or need for powered tabs. It's a small boat, and I can't justify the cost, either. I also don't want more complexity. I'd rather have fixed tabs with turnbuckles than add buttons to my console.

The back of my boat has overhanging parts that will make mounting a challenge, but it looks like the Bennett SLT10 system will fit. At most, I will have to redrill the tabs to kick the bottoms of the cylinders out a bit to get the tops lower. That will weaken the spring force, but not by much.

I was wondering if any of you guys have any first hand experience with tabs on a small boat like mine.
By the way, I have removed the fin on the anti-cav plate. It didn't make much, if any difference in performance.

Bennett has short cylinders. You got to simply call them. They swap for your standard ones

Scott Danforth said:

Bennett has short cylinders. You got to simply call them. They swap for your standard ones

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Good to know.
I will try with the standard ones first and call them if those don't clear. Going by their measurements, it will be close.

I would jump straight to the shorter cylinders base on what I went thru with a similar transom on my 2002 SR