Santiago
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Update: Fixing broken temp/speed & Transducer mounts?
If you recall, last October my aluminum boat spent 6 hours on the 'beach' at Gecko waiting for the returning tide and the dying wind in order to get
it back into the water and on the trailer. At 11:00pm or so, the tide started lifting the bow and was maybe 3 or 4 inches up the aft, two guys with
8' 2X4s got on each side of the stern and lifted the back of the boat by using the 2X4s as a pry bar. In a dozen or so 'lifts' we were able to push
the boat forward until it floated.
We had to leave early the next morning and in securing the boat (we do not tow it home), I noticed that the guy on the rightside had put his 2X4 under
the bracket that holds the temp/speedo and transducer connected to the my Lowrance Fishfinder. The bracket is very heavy and was not damaged at all,
but the plastic sides of the sending units were snapped off where they are screwed to the bracket. The 'meat' of the sending units are fine, just the
sides where the screws go in.
I'm going to try to repair these on my next trip: should I use epoxy or JB Weld or ??? Or is it hopeless and they need to be replaced? See photo of
transducer below.
[Edited on 2-19-2012 by Santiago]http://store.navico.com/ImageHandler.ashx?u=userfiles/images...
[Edited on 2-19-2012 by Santiago]
[Edited on 3-8-2012 by Santiago]
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bufeo
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Without seeing photos I think I had a similar accident and used epoxy for the fix. It was still holding up (5 yrs later) when I replaced the whole
unit. I was told that the JB doesn't do weld [spelling and pun intended] in salt water, but I don't have any evidence to back that up.
Allen R
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Santiago
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JB Weld has a marine product that is supposed to be impervious to saltwater. I've never used it.
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woody with a view
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jb weld put a dime on the base of my VW bus carb that developed a leak back in the late eighties. it never leaked again. try it, after all it is just
another 2 part epoxy right?
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Islandbuilder
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I had the exact same problem, and used JB Weld to glue it back together and make a re-inforcing gusset. Still good after 2 years.
If it ever fails I will use Fiberglass cloth and laminating epoxy to make a new mount.
[Edited on 2-19-2012 by Islandbuilder]
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larryC
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Jim
I don't think the type of epoxy is that important but they do make marine epoxys so get one of those and then if it was me I would epoxy it back
together and then fashion some thin aluminum sheet metal and sandwich it on both sides of the transducer repair. Cut and shape the sheetmetal so that
it fits well and then clamp it all together so that it is oozing epoxy. After it sets up file and sand it to be hydrodynamically shaped so that it
travels through the water with the least resistance.
Good luck.
Larry
PS I have some aluminum sheet metal here and a metal cutting bandsaw if you need some help.
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Santiago
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LC: Thanks - maybe next week or one after that.
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Bob and Susan
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end the pain...get a new one
$64
http://www.emarinesupplies.com/lowrancehst-wsbltransommounts...
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Santiago
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I owe a big thanks to LC: he went by the boat before I left south, saw that the transducer was not repairable and U2U'd me. I was able to snag West
Marine's last one a few hours before leaving. Had to tear-up the floor boards to run the new wire as it's just impossible to pull the wire thru -
took half a day. One thing I wish FishRite would offer is a junction box at the aft where all the electronics plug into so that if you need to
replace something you don't have to go thru this process. Anyone have a boat wired this way? I suppose I should just replace my wiring with the
newer Lowrance net-work cabling and be done with it?
Thanks again, Larry.
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Islandbuilder
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Good idea about a junction box at the transom. I've never seen a small, plug and play with anything other than a pre-wired connection.
Everything in the wire bundle should be color coded however, so it's possible to put a screw terminal block in a vapor-proof housing and make one
yourself.
Experiment with your old unit, and see how it goes?
Use crimp eye terminals with shrink tubing on each wire for a good, longer lasting connection.
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