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Need a little help as I think this is a minor issue. Hydrasports 24 Vector, 200+ hours brand new 04. Just today while out I look down and find the fuel gauge flashing the last bar. Pick up to head in and as usual coming on plane it goes to 2-3 bars before leveling back down to 1 solid, then 1 flashing. Made it in, hit the station and put in about 80 gallons. Gauge is still flashing...I believe I'm just about full at 180 gallons.
I've checked the obvious and see no loose wires. I have good access to the fuel tank, I see a ground wire which is secure and sealed with the electrochemical tape. I see the sending unit I believe in the tank which is secured by 4-5 screws. I'm assuming it's just stuck? It was SUPER rough on the way in last trip, maybe 4 footers and I was zooming, I'm wondering if it just bounced and got jammed in the trip but am not sure how the unit is designed/works.
FWIW, no fuel leak or anything like that, bilge is clean/clear, no smell of fuel anywhere, vent is working fine. What do I have to do to pop the sending unit without detonating the boat?
I don't have an answer for you, but did you reset the guages after your trip.* Just thinking that might reset the guage that's causing you problems.* I reset mine after every fill and haven't had a problem yet.* With 100 glas in the tank, I wouldn't think it should flash.
If it is anything like the one on my Hydra Sports it is an easy fix, basically a bobber on the end of a metal arm just remove the screws and replace with the new one. I had to drill mine out because the screw heads were wasted, talk about scary
Quickly found the problem...my Christmas wiring job from Hydrasports crack staff is still getting me. Pulled the hatch and looked more closely tracing back the wires. And...of course much like my bilge the wiring was half assed at best. Wires fell apart in my hands on a brand new 3 month old boat Problem was the heat sealed connections looked great but there was one problem....no heat seal was done so water had just eaten away at the wires.
It's the first little issue at 200 hours, but again never should have happened. No part failed, and a connection at 3 months shouldn't have failed if done right on a 70k boat. Every single issue I've had with this boat was assembly error or neglect and it's frustrating.
Just following it further, the pink wire from the sender is 18 awg which ties into a 14 awg harness wire. They used a 14-16AWG butt connector with no sealant of any type, so the wire eventually just pulled/corroded away. There was actually no signs of a heat seal at all, it was just a bare butt connector
The black to yellow is done the same way and I will replace it shortly. Anyone with a later model vector may want to take the 1 minute to give this a lookover...pull your back hatch hole, check inside the tubing to see the state of the wires. From now on I'm going to actually seal the hole shut with some silicon instead of relying on an inadequate gasket.
I replaced the butts with snap bullet connectors, heat sealed them, then used the liquid tape on the ends...will let that dry and will wrap some 3m tape around the whole conflaguration just in case
while they tell you hydrasports have a special line in the factory, you can bet that the same guys that assemble the wellcraft's and such. "Hey, Joe....we need someone to fill in on the HS line today.....how about helping out"
Do you think they check out the build instructions for the HS?
Just my view of why I want a boat that comes from a factory designed to build that boat...where everyone cares about that boat. If HS were built in a separate factory with workers who had some pride in them, I'd feel alot better if I were buying one.
__________________ The views and/or opinions stated by the author in this post are only the views and opinions of the author
Think Tweis...exactly. I have no doubt what happened to my boat completed around 12/19/03 was the "holiday" rush out the door. FWIW my entire boat is stamped with "Wellcraft" QC tags, not Hydrasport...so the lines might be seperate but the people doing the work aren't. The boat is good overall don't get me wrong, but it's just pissing me off that these little rinky dink things are costing me days. Look at it this way, if I was the average Joe Boater that does nothing himself I'd have lost in my first season with this very expensive Hydrasport.
1. Memorial Day Weekend
2. July 4th Weekend
3. Labor Day weekend
Most guys with a family wouldn't dick around with a boat in the fuel tank area like I did today to find the problem and would have had to drop it off and wait their turn at the local shop. All because some schmuck at the factory thought it a good idea to use a butt connector of the wrong size, without sealing it, in a semi-wet area just below a crappy hatch (not an armstrong let's put it that way).
So far in this new boat, I've found bilge wires left unsealed, hi amp battery to motor lines without caps, wires shorting in the dash etc and almost to the last connection it was all crap work at the factory, then crap QA. Whoever did the wiring and the checks for this boat did such a poor job it's probably cost Hydrasport a grand in warranty work to date.
I went through what I could up underneath, found the front navigation light was corroded to the point of failure - again no heat seal, no adhesive seal, nothing, just a loose butt connector.
Long and short of it was the connectors were corroded because they'd never been sealed and had rotted to the point the last strand let go and with it went the sender. I had to cut back about 2" on either side it had rotted the cable so bad, spliced in 16-14awg bullet connectors, crimped them precisely, sealed the ends with liquid electrical tape, used regular 3m electrical to tape the male/female together, slid the 12 awg heat seal over it, used a match (carefully) to seal the ends and squeezed it tight with my fingers, shrunk the middle and let it sit. Hit it with the liquid tape on all 4 ends 3 times, taped the whole shooting match together, used the corrugated tube as before, resealed the hatch this time with 3m caulking, placed the hatch cover on and actually sealed it to the deck again with 3m marine caulking. Short of a torpedo hit I'm in good shape for years to come I think.
All in all about 2-3 hours work and drying time to cure a problem of one worker on the floor not taking 1-2 minutes to seek out a heat gun to do the job right last December. (All on my dime again).
Yamaha Fuel Gauge..flashing 1 bar when full 
Problem was the heat sealed connections looked great but there was one problem....no heat seal was done so water had just eaten away at the wires.
