Hi All,
I owned (sold this year) my LS2000 for the last 8 years. I am very meticulous with my items and borderline/ wife diagnosed OCD. Since day 1 my bilge would kick on while underway and would run what seemed to be consistently every 15 seconds for an extended period of time. I knew i had a leak somewhere. I also knew that the bilge should not run that often.
The last 3/3.5 years this really bothered me. I spent a ton of time diagnosing and troubleshooting the problem area. I changed known products to leak (ie. speedo pitot assembly, pump housing seals, resealed and check all through hull items, replaced scupper, replaced the sealing foam on cleanout tray, rebuilt plugs, you name it, i did it.)
I leak tested with it on the trailer and tipped back a bit and filled the bilge with water. NO leaks were detected. Went out on the water, underway, bilge ran the same as it did prior; there was still a leak somewhere. After a year of thinking, i bypassed the cleanout tray and watched while my wife drove. I noticed water was coming up and over the cleanout plugs and spilling into the bilge through the manhole. This explained why i was baffled that it was only leaking under way but not while sitting anchored; because the impeller duct would cause so much pressure that the water would pass the cleanout seal. I replaced and purchased the cleanout repair kits and tested again with the same results.
I tested the plugs by pouring water on top of them while on the trailer; the water would leak through so i knew they were not sealing 100%. Water leaked through quite a bit so i knew the seal was poor.
At the middle of last season, my cleanout plug would not seat properly in the manhole tube. I was forced to purchase a brand new plug ( i purchased it for around $150 so it wasnt a bad deal to have an extra). I purchased a new one to get me through the rest of the reason as the wife wanted to continue boating.
I noticed that the bilge did not kick on as often, the only thing i could relate was a brand new plug. Before spending the money on another one, i stumbled across the below repair. To my astonishment, this solved my "mystery leak".
**Disclaimer, the below steps and photos were not originated by me. Credit to @GlennLindsay via YJB.
First. 1.
Next, take two small Philips head screws out that the dogs rotate on. These are thread locked from the factory and were tough for me to get out. The pin would rotate in the housing even though they weren’t supposed to. I ended up using a pair of channel locks to apply pressure on the pin and that allowed me to turn the screw. See Photo 3.
Second. 2.
Push the pins that the dogs rotate on out of the back. Be careful not to lose the secondary pins on closest to the handle. They are simply sitting in the holes. See Photo 4 and 5.
Third. 3.
As you can see from the below picture, The center pin had backed out a good amount. I’m honestly surprised that it didn’t continue to back all the way out. See Photo 6 and 7.
At this stage, I pulled the pin all the way off, cleaned up the threads, added some red threadlocker, and reinstalled. I then assembled in reverse order, and it fits nice and snug now. I did have to take it back apart once because I am way to OCD and I put the handle upside down so the release lettering was facing toward the stern (normal) but the handle lettering was facing the bow. Functionally it worked just fine, but I wanted it to be right.
After performing the steps, there was very, very little, if any at all, wiggle in the plug when it was seated. When the pin is screwed back all the way into the T Handle, when you go to Lock the Cleanout Plug in place, the dogs on the side of the cleanout will hold more securely and further into the locking slots in the manhole tube.
This solved my "mystery leak" as the water would not come up and over the plug through the manhole and spill into the bilge while underway. Hopefully i can help someone along the way, possibly help save a few bucks into repairing the plugs rather than replacing, and in my case, let my OCD mind rest a bit knowing its fixed.... even though i sold the boat
Hopefully this can be added to FAQ or somewhere to gain visibility.
