I hate my bilge!!

[vettnman]

Why in hell Mckee Craft made such a small bilge access is beyond me. My macerator pump has gone out(I'll soon start a thread titled(I hate Macerator Pumps ) There is this very small access opening in my splashwell that you are supposed to use to access your pumps. For those of you that have never met me, picture this. I am a 6'3", 270# man that has a tough time contorting my frame onto my boat's transom while trying to squeeze myself into a 6"x12" hole. To make matters worse, the macerator pump is way over to the side of the boat under one of my fishboxes. The only good news is that I can actually remove my floor where it juts up under the rear gunnel cap. The only problem with that is , while it is right there with all my bilge pumps, it's still about 2.5 feet from the macerator. I have it unscrewed from the transom, but I'm having a helluva time removing the hoses from the pump. A friend suggested taking a hairdryer to the hose and see if that helps, but for tonight, I've had it. I'll try it again tomorrow evening and post some pics.

[Prodigal Son]

That stinks. Could you just jig saw a circle out of the deck, glass the edges and 5200/screw a deck plate right over it? Then you can access it over and over...unless I'm misunderstanding your predicament.

Good luck in any case.

[blueh20pc]

Hire a neighborhood 10 year old @ 80 lbs, give him 20$ and a nut driver, and you're done. I'm serious David!

[vettnman]

Originally Posted by blueh20pc

Hire a neighborhood 10 year old @ 80 lbs, give him 20$ and a nut driver, and you're done. I'm serious David!

I hear ya Chris. Tab and I have already discussed hiring her 3 year old nephew to do the job. He would fir perfect, but there might be a languange barrier!! I live out in the boonies, so there's no neighborhood kids around. I'll figure out something. Here's a couple pics of what I'm talking about. The flooring that comes out is right under the boat name. See the screws? Wish I had seen that before

[Capt. Fred]

What a pain in the butt. Is there any way you cold move it to an easier place?

[offshore]

My Robalo was way worse It had three 8" pie plates in the splash well!!.................I sold it!! Problem solved ......................You have seen my access in the Contender I can almost crawl into the bilge. Meditate before you begin the work... No macerator in this boat thank goodness I hate those things.....Mark

[Prodigal Son]

Lemme go take a picture of my bilge access...be right back...

Before:

After:

Further after:

Not 100% watertight is the bad part...but I could smuggle people in my bilge if the need arose...

[blueh20pc]

David,

Upon looking at the pics, this is one of those things better left to the dealer, and his labor rate.

I'm pretty skinny, and might be able to contort myself up in there, but I'm a long way from Kenly, and I don't work cheap.

After it's done and works, I'd be very hesitant to turn on that Mac Pump!

[vettnman]

well, I crawled back into the bilge today to tackle those hoses. Alan, once again, you came through. The hair dryer worked like a charm to get those hoses off. Once we(my wife helped me )got the hoses off, we tried shooting some water in the pump to see if it would work. Nada. So we took it apart. We found a bait spring, a piece of plastic, fishing line, a push pin, and a key that works on my fish boxes that I never knew I had! lol All that was jammed up in there preventing the blades from turning. Put it all back together and it all works. Pump looks pretty rusty, and it probally won't last too much longer, but she's working hard. I would have gone ahead and changed it out, but it's never given me any trouble and if it could work with all that crap in it, it deserved a second chance. Besides, those pumps aren't cheap! I'll reattach the hoses tomorrow night and put my floor back in. Here's a couple of pics of the infloor bige access and a shot of the crap that was removed minus the key. Key still worked too!!

[Prodigal Son]

Finding the key is awesome. I found a pair of Ray Ban's in my bilge 8 months after I bought my boat...no clue where they were hiding for the first 7+ months, but something must have knocked them loose and they were just laying down there one day.