How do you get to the spark plugs on a Marastar?

[bill-d-c]

I have a 98 Marastar 225, V-drive. I recently bought the boat so I want to start fresh with all the maintenance. Problem is, getting to the spark plugs on the passengers side. The partition on the drivers side folds down easily, plugs right there. The passengers side has the sun deck hyd. cylinder that's in the way. The only way I see to get it down is to remove the cylinder, then it looks like it's hinged at the bottom. Is that pretty much what I need to do? Is there any trick to removing the cylinder or is it pretty straight forward?
Also, is the hose to the raw pick up 1 1/4" I.D.? I was looking for a size on the hose and couldn't find one.
All of my MC boats up to now have been ProStars. Man, they're so easy to work on...it's like the engine is on a stand for you. Just sitting there right out in the open, nothing hard to get to. This Marastar might take some getting used to. Nice boat though, just not as maintenance friendly.
Thanks in advance,
Bill

[JimN]

Originally Posted by bill-d-c

I have a 98 Marastar 225, V-drive. I recently bought the boat so I want to start fresh with all the maintenance. Problem is, getting to the spark plugs on the passengers side. The partition on the drivers side folds down easily, plugs right there. The passengers side has the sun deck hyd. cylinder that's in the way. The only way I see to get it down is to remove the cylinder, then it looks like it's hinged at the bottom. Is that pretty much what I need to do? Is there any trick to removing the cylinder or is it pretty straight forward?
Also, is the hose to the raw pick up 1 1/4" I.D.? I was looking for a size on the hose and couldn't find one.
All of my MC boats up to now have been ProStars. Man, they're so easy to work on...it's like the engine is on a stand for you. Just sitting there right out in the open, nothing hard to get to. This Marastar might take some getting used to. Nice boat though, just not as maintenance friendly.
Thanks in advance,
Bill

I used to tie a rope with a clip on it to the pylon, then attach the rope to the sun deck, so I could lay it back toward the stern- you don't want to let it flop back all the way because the hinges will put too much stress on the fiberglass and it will crack. I clipped the rope to the bracket for the cylinder where the pin goes through. If you want to use a caribiner, that's fine but I used the kind with a spring-loaded clip like this but I had a clip on each end of the rope so I could loop the end around the ball on the pylon and it would cinch tight:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Multi-Colore...item3375291885

Using that lets you open the sun deck a lot more than it will normally and EVERYTHING is easier to do when there's more room. Remove the vertical panels that attach with wing nuts and you shouldn't have any problem getting to anything in the bilge. You'll want to remove everything in the side compartments because that's where you'll be kneeling. I'm 6'-2" and had no problem going back there.

[bill-d-c]

The sundeck has two small cylinders (one on each side) that I assume help the large cylinder raise the deck. Would these hold up the deck with the main cylinder removed? Or would it be easier to just remove the sundeck all together?
Bill

[JimN]

Originally Posted by bill-d-c

The sundeck has two small cylinders (one on each side) that I assume help the large cylinder raise the deck. Would these hold up the deck with the main cylinder removed? Or would it be easier to just remove the sundeck all together?
Bill

Removing the sun deck is a PITA and one person doing this doesn't work well. Just pay it back and you'll have plenty of room. I disconnected the gas shocks before removing the pin, then clipped the rope onto the bracket before slowly letting it go past vertical- make sure you have a good hold of the rope. I un-clipped the shocks from the bottom, then let them pay on the back of the pad. Once it's laying back past vertical, unplug the harness from the cylinder and pull the lower pin, then move the cylinder out of the way- I used to slide it past the forward panel in the engine compartment, to the side- if you look at where the panel meets the side of the hull, you'll see plenty of space.

The shocks may hold the sun deck up without the cylinder, but why would you want to limit your headroom? It's much better for working back there with the ability to stand straight up instead of going through all kinds of contortions.

[bill-d-c]

Thanks Jim, you've been a great help. I'm going to tackle it Monday. I at least know what I'm in for now.
Bill