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1mainiac

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  1. Yep Ken was installed still working on other problems not very happy with Hall's since they spent all my money and it still does not run right. Has way more power than it ever had however they still did not fix the ignition problem which is a bad ballast resister. They changed my coil my distributor my shift interrupter and a bunch of the boat wiring yet never addressed the reason it gets hot and quits which turns out to be a ballast resister in the wiring harness. If instead of changing all the other parts they had figured out a 13 dollar part was the problem I would not dislike them nearly as much. I would still think they suck because this has been a problem since I bought the boat from them 7 years ago and they never figured it out then either. I too am partly to blame as I never added it up til now I just kept changing parts and going fishing. Several other places have also not been able to figure it out. However Hall's is the Four Winns Dealer they darn sure should know how to service what they sell. Even though the coil clearly states " requires Resister " on it they never thought about the fact it gets full voltage meaning the resister failed shorted. In fact they even used the coil connection to power the new electronic fuel pump they installed so they clearly knew it was getting full voltage. The coil and shift interrupter are only supposed to get around 9vdc at idle not 14.2vdc from my high output alternator. So instead of 6vdc at about 9 amps to the points and shift interrupter the circuit is running over 12vdc and nearly 22 amps thru the points and shift interrupter and coil. This has had it burning up points fouling plugs and ruining condensers for years and also cooking coils and shift interrupters. In 7 years it has had points and condenser changed over 10 times. with the next coil I will be on number 4 plus 3 shift interrupters and soon to be the 4th distributor. All of this to fix a problem they never even found. I hate parts changers they find a bad part and change it and never even try and find out why it failed.

  2. I feel you Ed having been in the RV repair business for 15 years summer is our bread and butter but You still have to use your vacation time and employees with kids only have the summer months to do anything with their family. Myself my kids are grown and gone so instead of a long vacation in the summer I use my days to make a few longer weekends for fishing and family.

  3. Listen to this too: called a mechanic for service in mid-late July, he was on vacation. Another one was in mid-August, for a customer, he too was on vacation. Then another one for another customer in late August, he was in Hawaii on vacation too. Can you believe with our short season, that any of these guys would leave town, and go on a vacation, when they have 6-8 months of sleepy time when boats are stored, to do their vacations? When I asked one owner why the vacation times in the middle of hustle and bustle for fishing, I was told, the employees want good weather vacation time, not during the fall/winter months. Since when do mechanics/employees dictate to their bosses when they get to get off?

    Try and remember we are not slaves we also have a right to enjoy our time off when we want it. Also it is not easy to just pull the kids out of school in winter to have a vacation that works with your schedule.

  4. Well Frank cost is one issue though not a big one the real issue is the OMC shift interrupter system I installed a Pertronix electronic system 2 years ago and it did not fit well but worst of all it would not let the boat shift correctly. They sent instructions on how to make it work but the results were not that good. Right now we are packing to move so money is going to be tight til spring. This means I will likely just make the correct repairs to get it running correct for the first time in many years and save up my money. The end result is I now have a system selected and will convert to fuel injection and electronic ignition next year some time. But in the meantime a 13 dollar part will solve the actual problem along with a change in some wiring.

  5. I should also point out the boat has also been worked at in several other shops in west Michigan and not one found a simple problem. And like I said I also fell into the trap of changing parts without troubleshooting. Even though I know better I never once put the voltage and coil choice to test. I bought the correct OMC parts every time expecting better results. Every tech I talked to said to make sure I had 12v or better to the coil when the fact is the coils should never see much over 9v. The one exception is it should see full voltage during cranking because the starter motor will drop the voltage during cranking and if the lowered cranking voltage went thru the resister you would have weak spark trying to start it.

    Remember insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

  6. A update the boat has made a few fishing trips now and of course died on the last trip again. However I learned a few things in the last few days. 1st thing I learned was Halls never put my boat together correctly or fixed it once in the 12 times it has been in their shop since I bought it from them. I have located the cause of nearly every issue I have had for the last 7 years to the fact the ballast resister was by passed in the wiring harness. Perhaps the previous owner did that as a repair and switched coils to run without one I don't know. However Halls put the correct coil on it which requires a resister. This has caused issues since the day I brought it home as the coil heats up which causes it to miss badly after running a while. Then it begins to eat the points and condenser which makes it run even worse then it dies. The result is every time it died I would take it back in and they would tell me this or that was bad and replace it then the boat would run fine for a fishing trip or 2 and the cycle would start again. If I had a fresh tune up and only made short evening fishing trips I would have no problems. But to fish a long day nearly always ended badly often with the boat barely making it back to the dock or being towed in 8 times. I have fished the big lake since a kid in the 60's and have only ever been towed 8 times all in this boat not happy. The idea that all of my problems are the result of a 13 dollar part the dealer did not install is making me even more un happy. This has cost me 2 carb rebuilds 3 shift interrupters 4 coils and several sets of points and condensers and plugs oh and 2 distributors because when they could not figure it out they decided it had to be the distributor was worn out.

    Have I mentioned I hate parts changers had any of them bothered to read the parts they installed they would of seen clearly printed on the coil the words requires external resistor. Those words mean you can't have full voltage at the coil. With my also replaced high output alternator I was getting 14.2 v to the coil which means I was running roughly 22 amps thru the points and shift interrupter and coil. they should be running around 9 amps max with around 6 v at the points and they were running more than double the amps and volts which explains why the thing has been so unreliable. The sad part is I know this stuff but because I don't work on boats I let them tell me what was wrong so many times I just replaced points and plugs myself. I would come in with a miss and sure enough the plugs were fouled so I change them and it runs good. The next time it would do it I would check the points and sure enough they were bad so I replaced them. When the coil would no longer fire I replaced it as well. However all of this was the result of a boat dealer that never did the repair right to begin with. This is why I hate parts changers they never fix the actual problem and I let them drag me into their web of BS. In that I am also to blame and I should know better. However this will be fixed this winter and expect a much better running boat in the spring sorry for the long rant.

  7. Ok we decided to go out one last time I was going to put it in storage this afternoon when a friend asked me if we could fish one more time. Since I had the day off anyhow the answer was yes. Made a late morning start left the dock around 9am and ran out to 200 south and set lines had first fish in the box 10 min later a nice 2 yr old King then another shortly after that. Blue and green was the preferred colors 3rd fish came about 3 min later and we picked away til 1pm going 8 for 8 decided to pull lines and run in found two shaker lakers which went back making it 10 for 10 with 2 throwbacks. Then the motor began misbehaving and quit. So yep I got towed in again. No big deal the coil died and took out the points with it. I am replacing the engine wiring harness this winter and converting it to a Mercruiser system. I have had it with the OMC issues I like the drive but the electrical problems have to go.

  8. Most likely last trip as well as boat is headed for storage soon. Finally got the boat running again so went fishing yesterday. Fished out of Muskegon left the dock around 3:30pm ran out to 170 and set lines. We were 3 for 4 in first hour with a small Coho a medium king and a decent Steelhead. So a nice start then we went over a hour with no hits. Then took another Steelhead on the 115. With sunset approaching we pulled and setup our sunset plan. I set our course back to where we would be out front again at dark and as the sun set we went 2 for 4 with one breaking off my 150 copper. I have no idea what hit the 150 but it nearly spooled it in the rod holder, twice I set it back in a rod holder to help Steve and net fish as it was just the 2 of us. So while I battled with the 150 Steve got one on the 115 and another on the port rigger. Then he lost one on the starboard rigger that got into my 150 and broke me off. Whatever was on the 150 was big I mean real big I fought it for nearly 45 min and managed to get the board within a 100ft of the boat twice before it ran back off. I should of slowed the boat down but we were catching fish so my plan was to drag it til we got the fish in from the starboard rigger until it fouled me and broke it off. 6 for 9 first trip out in my boat if nothing else makes a good way to end the season.

  9. I have just finished doing upgrades to the site and reopened registration. I think I now have it pretty much spammer proof but time will tell. The website has been read only for quite a while with nearly no traffic I would welcome any who fish our events or out of Muskegon to join up and use the site it has no adds, no one begging for money it is just info on our events and local reports. If anyone has trouble signing up PM me with your email and user name and I will setup a temp password for you so you can join. My only goal for the site is for us to share info and keep people up to date on the events I am sorry I let it slide for so long but if people start using it again I promise to keep it up to date. www.mscst.com

    Thanks

    Jim

  10. As for Walleye boards and TX22's I don't use them so no mods for them. My walleye boards went in the wife's yard sale after 4 or 5 trips and I have never tried a TX22 but I have over 20 different boards for my boat each has a purpose and is set for what I pull with it. The idea is to balance the weight of the line and lure with the board so it pulls clean and wide.

  11. I made some changes to my TX44 boards this year and I like the improvements. I have fished them in a variety of conditions and they worked well. So here you go I am calling this project done and you can have the results.

    1st remove the front release and discard it replace with a OR16 and split ring.

    2nd on the bottom edge draw a line between the screws that hold the front and rear weight. Measure from the back of the board 6 and 3/8 in and mark the line there. Then mark 3 spots in front of that mark and 3 spots behind it 3/8 of a in apart. Drill each mark out with a 1/16 bit. Now either trim the foam or just jam both weights on top of each other so the center screw hole lines up with the center hole in the 7 holes you just drilled. You now have a very neutral board that will track very well and pulls in nicely. And tows a 300 copper like it is not there for a 450 move the weights ahead one hole if you want but it will track a 450 pretty good without changing it. For a 600 move one or 2 holes forward I use one but you might like 2 better.

    The OR16 with split ring adds about 3/4 in to the overall arm length for the release which makes it dig better and run much wider. On a calm day your board will actually run along side the boat up to 50ft off to the side not behind it at a angle.

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  12. Personally I don't care for the Church boards in that I may be the odd man out. On the other hand My planer board spreads consistently run wider and look better. Second there is not one out of the package board that really works well on a variety of setups. That may change in the future. For many the clip it on and run it simplicity of the Church Walleye board is good enough so you will hear lots of people say they are great. Those same people will drag them around like a flock of ducks behind their boats all day long. To me the purpose of a planer board is to gain width in your spread. So I have spent years doing that and have gotten pretty good at it. What I have found is there is no big gain between the Church Walleye Board and the Off Shore OR12 until you begin making changes to them or go fast. I can't get a Walleye Board to not dive at higher speeds.

    You will also have to decide if you want them to trip or not for me most of my setups do not trip this means you have to fight the board and the fish till you get the board in and remove it. Having it not trip allows me to run much more aggressive angles and setups to gain width without false releases.

    So what would I recommend my first choice is Off Shore OR12 with some minor mods done to it. 2nd would be the Yellow Birds not as easy to tune but once you learn them they will run better.

  13. Sadly this can be a very expensive addictive sport it is not hard to collect thousands of lures and dozens of rod and reel setups. Heck most days my fishing tackle is worth more than my boat. Get some planer boards or Slide divers you can add them pretty cheap or find someone like me and take them fishing as long as they bring extra gear LOL. While my boat is down I have done most of my fishing with friends and I always show up with too much gear. Will be fishing with a friend tonight I am bringing 8 rods and a 48qt cooler full of lures and gear plus he has 8 of my planer boards and 4 boxes of lures of mine on the boat already and he is using my track system and rod holders 8 Berts ratcheting rod holders and 2 4ft tracks he will be sad when the shop has my boat running soon and I have to take my gear back LOL.

  14. Your not covering much water with 4 riggers you have to drive right over the fish. And you need a bait they can't pass up because your limited. I dropped to 2 riggers years ago. And frankly there are days I would not even fish the 2 riggers. I can get my wire divers as deep as my riggers if I want and they will be off to the side. Other than harbor patrol which I hate and fishing the mud out front I would just as soon not have riggers any more.

  15. Many questions so here goes the cable between the antenna and the head is just a RCA to RCA shielded cable I make my own and make them to the correct length to not have excess rolled up. Quality cable and ends reduces signal loss and improves the depth it will work to. My best setup was to actually bolt the probe to the cable and seal it completely. Doing this I have had it down over 300 and working. On coated cable I used shrink tube and a bead to stop my blacks release which was mounted above the probe The shrink tube would not let the bead slid up the cable and the blacks was allowed to spin free on the cable this keep my release and fishing gear about a ft above the probe. This setup had to be replaced every year so I stopped using the probe a few years ago however it worked very well when I used it I may try the torpedo wire and hook it back up after I get the boat running again. Frankly when I was fishing 3 or 4 times a week I did not need the probe at all I knew where the fish were and simply had to adjust my pattern for the wind and weather changes.

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