bertram31.com

Does anyone know where I can get a replacement for this fuel pickup plate. This is what I found when I took my deck up. I guess I could fabricate one if necessary, but I was hoping to avoid that if possible.

Thanks,
Vince

That plate should be bronze, remove the rusted out sending unit, clean up the plate and should be as good as new. I blasted mine with walnut shells, chased the threads and re-assembled.

Ditto on that. Get rid of those gate valves. I put ball valves in mine. The plate looks good with exception of the sender and the valves.

I know that the valves have to go. But, the plate is corroded clear through. The pictures don't show it well, but trust me, there are holes thru to the tank.

Vince,

I doubt seriously that the bronze manifold plate is corroded, other than surface oxidation. I can see that the steel sender plate is shot...

Once you get the manifold plate off, stripped down of valves and such, it'll clean right up. You can use muriatic acid to clean the surface. Paint it on, let it sit, rinse it off. Do as many times as necessary. Finished acid clean up will leave it copper pink as the surface tin will be etched away. Left this way, it'll eventually turn green & stop further oxidation.

A small stainless steel wire brush will also help through out the process.

If, and I doubt it, there actually is a pit that goes all the way through in the bronze plate, it can be brazed, silver soldered, or even lead soldered....

That plate assembly is, by the way, totally unavailable as a new item, but is probably the one item on the boat that will out last every other part.

Br,

Patrick

Capt Pat,
I might have the first one that doesn't outlast every other part. I definately have holes in mine. I found them when I power washed everything at demo time. I can put a screwdriver thru them. The first picture probably shows them best. It is the dark area. The plate unfortunately fell right on the edge of one of my hatches. It was subjected to alot of leakage from the deck. The return plate is in excellent condition.

I'm sorry to hear that the plate assembly is not available. Does anybody who's getting new tanks want to sell me one of their old ones?

Vince: The "dark area" in your photos is the sending unit mounting plate, held to the "fuel pick-up plate" by 5 screws. If it was the old swing arm with a float type, it is trash anyway. You need a capacitance type fuel level sender anyway, no moving parts. Made by Centriod products, Edgewater, Fl. 386-423-3574 they will need info re; tank size and configuration, but only sell to dealers, but will give you name of dealer you can buy from. These units are the only way to go, mines been in service 14 years, old swing arm mech style would corrode away in less than a year!! Plus centroid now has a computerized fuel gauge that computes fuel burn/hr. Their sender is compatible with older style gauges.
Ted

Vince,

I have one you can have. Send me a PM.

Vince: Take it off and drop it in a bucket of 50/50 muriatic acid and let it cook for a while. Or if you like the bronze color, take it to the local auto shop and have it bead blasted. It will probably be perfect. If not, get back with me and I may be able to fix you up. Worst case, any good machine shop can duplicate it for not too much money.

Vince,
Like everyone else, that hole you see is the fuel guage sender, that is a seperate unit from the main plate. There is a 1 1/2" hole in the fuel plate that the float from the sender goes down into. If you remove that old sender, you'll see the nice round hole.

Remove the screws around, disconnect or cut the wire and pull the unit out.
Chase the holes and install a new sender that matches the guage resistance you have and depth of tank. You can go by the brand of guage.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I got it now! The plate is OK but the fuel gauge sender is bad. My bad for not looking closer.

Scot thanks for the offer, but I think I am going to install a new fuel sender. It sounds like that's preferred over the old type.

Vince,

I'm stickin' to my guns... In the photo part of the above image, am I pointing, (white arrows), at your hole(s)? If so, then the holes are being poked through the rusted out steel sender flange. There is a fair sized hole directly below those points that the swing arm sender mechanisim goes down through, as diagramed to right...

Br,

Patrick

Vince,

Glad you finally saw the forest instead of the tree... lol

Here's what the unit looks like off of the tank & without the sender. Be sure to collect any crap that's fallen into your tank from the old sender...

Br,

Patrick

Sorry for my confusion. (I'm sure you guys all knew that I was confused!)

Capt Pat, I guess I have no options but to empty my tank to collect all the loose debris (crap).

Vince,

Just be carefull about it... Even better yet, get a professional to clean & filter your fuel. DON'T be tempted to use a shop vac! Or any other pump that's not ignition protected...

Br,

Patrick

Capt. Pat
What engines in that project? Can you use the existing 3/8 stuff from factory. Or do you have to break out the taps.

JP,

Installing Yanmar 4LHA 240's... They will draw less than 454 big blocks that came out, so oversizing necessary. I can tap off of the existing center plug for a gen pickup & have 2 ports in the factory fill plate to send the returns to.

Br,

Patrick

hey guys have you ever had a problem with the pickup tube cracking? Mine had a crack running lengthwise so that when i was up on plane i had fuel but when i slowed down like to start fishing the engines would die like i ran outa gas. Since it started sucking air anyways i picked up a new brass tube and silver soldered it in the distribution block. Just thought i'd give you all a heads up, that it can happen if it hasn't already to you guys.

We been talking about that problem for close to 10 years here. The original fuel pickup tube was rolled copper soldered up a seam.......do a reverse search and you will see our thinking on this, and how we solved the problem 8 years ago.

UV

haha you just can't get enough i guess its my fault i never read the vicroy's guide to b31.com

by the way i know you think you know it all but on my boat it was a brass tube and solid no soldered seams.

Better to have a separate pickup tube for each engine, in my opinion, and there are lots of parts replaced with other than original in these boats over the years. It would be a shame if we stopped listening to each other and sharing ideas, just argued instead.

I with you Mike!!

As far as I can see, the advice on this board is priceless. So much better than having some half ass boat mechanic guessing at the situation.

Thank you, Capt Patrick!

When I posted last week about my clogged fuel pick-up screen, I noticed the solder balls along the sides of the p/u tube. Now I know that that's the way it was originally constructed and not a batch job by a former steward!

make that a botched up job

I had the same copper screen soldered on mine. just that the tube was brass and a solid piece. It looked original but i could be wrong. I also had the cracks kinda wrapping around the tube and not going perfectly vertical. I just wanted to keep this fresh since i know how aggravating it could be if this happened to a newbie who didn't know about this problem. Since a cracked pickup tube is one of the last things i would be checking for if i had the problem. Also i made a ring out of aluminum and put heli-coils in it to make a nutplate if you will, so i don't have to fool with nuts or anything going inside the tank it really did a nice job.

Good idea! How did you hold the ring in place? Epoxy or something else?

actually i didn't fasten it to the tank. one because i didn't know if i'd like it and two because the bolts themselves hold it up i just held it in place by hand, sticking my arm through the oval hole and starting my bolts. Its a lot easier worrying about holding a ring then some little nuts. I know i took pics i'll try to dig em up if i can.

So much better than having some half ass boat mechanic guessing at the situation.

I'll have you know that I'm considered a full ass in some circles. So there.