Cobaltchat.com

Getting things ran from the back.

New water temp sensor has 3 wires and the old one only has 2. Will have to look into wiring the new one to old gauges.

JL wired remote is small. Maybe 2 1/2" max

How much work is it to get those wood grain plates off? Mine are fading bad.

Hayzuse wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 11:14 pm How much work is it to get those wood grain plates off? Mine are fading bad.

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Hey Hayzuse(that’s fun to say ). Welcome to the Cobaltchat forum. So glad you found us!

Any pics of your 252? Where do you boat?

Feel free to start an intro thread if you have time. We love hearing how folks get into a Cobalt.

Again welcome aboard mate!

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Hayzuse wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 11:14 pm How much work is it to get those wood grain plates off? Mine are fading bad.

Welcome to the site.

They're kind of a PITA.

Heat gun is a must. However, you got to be careful, you can easily damage the vinyl fabric on the dash if you're not paying attention. The wood panels are nothing more than a heavy clear coat over a thin piece of wood veneer. That wood veneer is then double-faced taped to the aluminum panel beneath.

The veneer comes off with a little work. The tape residue left behind is a bit of work. Heat up the residue, then roll it off with your thumbs. (whatever they used is fantastic tape, even after 22 years it's holding EXTREMELY well) My thumbs were very sore after removing just 2 panels.

Plus, if you really want to completely remove the panels, you are going to have to remove the throttle from the side, steering wheel from the center, and the gauges from the dash.

So to answer your question, it's not real hard to do, but is A LOT of work to do it properly.....

Sorry for the lack of updating. I've been working steady on this the whole time. Just been taking my time and doing as much stuff as i can at home while being with the boat basically on week ends only.

Really wanted to do a tutorial after i was completed, but it's taking much longer than I thought and the pics are taking up a lot of space on my phone.

I purchased the ST 16 ATP kit (Sport Tab 16 Auto Trim Pro) at a cost of around $1k.

Let me start out by saying I'm not really impressed with Bennett Marine at this moment of writing this. When I reached out to them inquiring about what tabs to use on the 252 it was suggested to use the Sport Tab 16 due to the speed of the boat and the narrow transom space available for mounting the tabs. The rep told me as long as I had 8" of clearance between the center of the out drive and the edge of the tabs, they will work. Well, in actuality, the instructions say you need a minimum of 10". Pretty sure I have around 11" of clearance, so it's really close to not working.

There are a couple other reasons I will address as I get to them.

The kit as it showed up

The tabs need to be as far out to the sides as possible. 1. so you have the clearance between the out drive and the edge of the tab. 2. so you don't wind up running into parts on the inside of the bilge.

The blue tape represents the build up of the transom support for the out drive on the inside of the hull.

The tabs cannot sit all the way tight to the edge due to the rounded inside corner. So you need to be as far over as you can be with the tabs mount sitting flat against the hull.

This is where the plumbing and wiring are going to come through on the inside. Notice how close the transom build up is to the location?

The kit comes with #14 SS screws for mounting the tabs and they suggest using a 1/8" drill bit as a pilot hole. There is no way I would suggest going with that as I was extremely concerned with the screw snapping inside the gel coat as I was driving them in with an impact screw gun.

Our/my hull has a thin piece of aluminum that runs along the bottom of the transom (most of the way, not all of the way) that created havoc when trying to install the screws. The screw bites into the fiberglass and then starts to push the aluminum plate away as it's driving further into the hull. This puts a lot of stress on the screw and SS is pretty brittle, so it is most likely to snap. Trying to remove a broken SS screw from a fiberglass hull is going to turn into a major fiasco.

So what I ended up doing was finding a #14 self drilling screw we have for installing door closers into steel doors and running that into the holes to 1. drill the fiberglass slightly larger than the suggested pilot size and 2. to start tapping the fiberglass and aluminum to make it easier for the wood screws to run in.

The trick here is to start at 1 end, drill the hole and run the mounting screw in snug. Then use the self drilling screw on the hole next to it, and install the mounting screw snugly into that hole. Continue doing this for all of the holes. This will hold the aluminum backing plate tight against the hull and prevent that tension on the screw of it pushing the plate away.

You don't need the self drilling screw, you can use a slightly larger drill bit to do the same thing, but you will want to drill a hole and run in the mounting screw. then drill a hole and run in the mounting screw until they are all done.

Now i mentioned that the aluminum plate does not run all the way along the bottom. On my hull, it stopped short of the last 3 outermost screws. So the screws are only biting into the 5/16 - 3/8" thick at most fiberglass. DO NOT over torque these screws and strip the fiberglass.

The trim tabs are mounted 3/8 of an inch above the bottom of the hull.

You then use a straight edge along the bottom to set the trim tab height 1 1/4" above the straight edge at the back of the trim tab. This is where you're to set the height of of the tab while locating the holes for the actuators.

Once you get your height figured out, use the template to mark the mounting holes.

Drill the center hole for the brass pipe to go through.

And don't forget the additional hole for the indicator wires to run through

This is my biggest complaint with Bennett Marine and this system. You are to thread this fine thread brass pipe into this plastic actuator. Even though they warn you to be careful to not cross thread them, guess what happened????

2 of them went in just fine. One took a bit of care to get it to go. The last one was a cluster "F".

If you can, use a 1/8 NPT thread die to clean the plastic threads first, before attempting to insert the pipe. Once you realize the pipe is not going in straight, it's too late. The plastic is no match for sharp metal threads.

Fortunately I had the tap on hand and was able to salvage the actuator (I hope)

They state to NOT use teflon tape or any thread sealer. Just run them finger tight, and then 2 full turns. NO MORE.

***NOTE*** This is the biggest concern of mine. These easily strippable threads are what this whole hydraulic system hinges off of. Hey Bennett, how about a brass threaded insert of some sort? Remember this is a $1k system and I'm relying on plastic threads for it all to work.

As you can see in the previous pics, the pipe they supplied is much too long for my application. And once again, really easy to strip those plastic threads with such a long lever sticking out of them.

So I had to purchase new 2" long brass nipples at $4.50 a piece

I kind of felt I could have gone slightly shorter still with the brass pipe, but in the instructions, they want you to put a pair of vice grips onto the pipe while you install the brass 90* fittings. Why is that, you might ask?

So you don't strip the plastic threads in the actuators silly..... (remember, $1k system)