1992 280 sedan window question

[Phrancus]

Found the ventilation possibilties a bit minimal for our boat. And there was some dripping here and there when the winds are strong. In the past the windows had leaked considerably, judging from the traces and damage.

Thought I had to replace the narrow brushes in the frame as some are all but gone.

Had a closer look at the windows today and found out that there is a bottom part caulked where I think is not a logical place.

Are the rear windows supposed to slide forward? The middle windows slide to the back at the moment.

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Any information welcome.

[Phrancus]

No one on the rear window?

directly under the front window corner I have a small puddle at the bottom floor. On one side of the board (that also forms the back rest to the dinette bench) it's visible and on the other side there is 'false floor' as the area under the bench has a floor that is higher than the floor on the other side.

So I can't look under that false floor to see what rotten horror there may be down there. However: first the source and so I taped off all ridges and caulked connections. We've had rain fo a month untill now so a good test. Today, however, a bit of fresh water. Now I'm hoping that this is water dripping out of the foamed wall covering and not new water from outside.

To increase suspense: there's also rainwater in my bilge and I see no direct route into it from the cockpit (engine room panel sides) so this could come from further up front.
Unfortunately I can't see much of the bilge areas up front in the living area.

So it's going to be trying to plug it from the top and drying the boat as much as possible untill next winter when I can take the window frames out and larger parts of the interior when the boat is inside in a dry area.


not to worry, there's still work on the port engine: I found a leaking gastket between turbo and block. Replaced it with quite some nervousness in advance and great satisfaction afterwards. All dry and running afterwards.

The moment the thermostats open however, the temperature does not stabilize and the alarm goes off. The dials don't show much detail so I'm not perfectly sure if it's the coolant temp or oil pressure/temp that is causing an alarm. The laser-temperature meter shows some cooling work by the heat exchanger but perhaps not enough.
Strangely, we ran the boat on full power without a problem for a while (15 minutes or so, after warming up) and it was all fine. But not every time. Once the alarm went off without full power at all, so just after reaching operating temperature. And another time temp was good during the fast runs but alarm went off when turning back on lower rpm.

So I suspect the exchanger (lots of water pushing through = just enough cooling power but when push pressure drops (lower rpm) it doesn't do its job). I have the O rings and such so next job is the opening and inspection/cleaning.
I will also rewire the oil sensors as these are crimped only. I'll solder them waterproof for better connection.
the water pump may be in trouble too, and the oil cooler may not be up to spec but those need parts (gaskets, o rings) when removing and remounting so that's moving down the priority list for the moment.

The good news? Well, sun is here plus I just got a 3D printed part that is mounted in the engine room cover which receives the leg of the foldable seat. I found one of the missing two in the bilge and someone was kind enough to make a copy for me.

[bud37]

Heh there....one thing caught my eye in your post. You mentioned about using solder, that may not be the best, actually a proper crimp with quality fittings is the way to go. Solder and vibration in boats don't play nice, sometimes the connections may crack and fail.

[km1125]

You mentioned "Thought I had to replace the narrow brushes in the frame as some are all but gone." On my boat those little brushes were badly degraded and my windows would leak when there was a big storm. When I took out the old ones there was a ton of crap down in the track that would prevent water from quickly draining out the drains in the track. I cleaned all that out and replaced the brush strips and no more leak. The brush strips stop a lot of water from even getting in there and what does can easily get out the drain. After I was done you could spray a hose right on that part of the window and nothing would get inside the boat.

[Phrancus]

Thanks for the replies.

I've washed down the windows and the drains seem to work. Although something is clearly wrong as there is water on the inside up front. I suspect the wood behind the woolly tapestry to be rotten but dried out mostly (crispy) but I don't feel like taking that upholstery off as I can't get it back on and don't have such material yet. It's not structurally very important I suppose as it's been like this for a long time judging from the rotten floor that I replaced earlier (the water there came from the anchor locker too).

But indeed, with a side wind the water splashes around the glass where the brushes should be. I'll replace them but don't know how yet. Better said: need to get ready for a lot of cleaning and the fiddly work to get that strip in.

Agree with the soldering in vibrating wires but the solder I'm referring to is the shrink wrap tube with a little ring of solder in the middle. Heat it up and the solder melts and the tube shrinks watertight around it. Providing waterproof and strain relief on the joint itself. I've found 3 out of 5 crimped butt connections to be faulty due to corrosion and getting loose in this boat and verious in cars in the past. So I'm ready to try this method and see how it holds.



Any ideas on the rear part of the window? Is that supposed to be able to move forward too? So the open the window in the galley or the head. There's no handle on them like on the middle ones but that may have been ommitted at some point in time when the rear ones were caulked at the bottom to the frame.

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[km1125]

The "brushes" you're talking about are called "pile weather stripping". There's a few threads on here that have some links to sources. I still had mine but they were in bad shape. My drains were working so I thought I was OK too. After I completed the project it was a night-and-day difference. I think the pile weather stripping eliminates 90% of the water that tries to get in there, so the drains don't have to deal with as much and can evacuate the water before any gets inside.

If yours was like mine, replacing that stuff was actually pretty easy. There is a tiny track in the aluminum and I just had to get the old stuff out and snap the new stuff in place. I think I posted pics in a thread here... I'll see if I can find them.

[Phrancus]

Well, had a choice today: pump and clean the oily/water bilge and get on with the heat-exchanger inspection/removal or replace those pile weather striping.

So in the kind sunshine I got to work with two 'dentist hooks' to fiddle the dirt, striping, more dirt and more dust, dirt and striping remnants. FFWD and got the old stuff out, lots of sand/dust/sticky stuff removed. Only where the middle window moves though, I can't reacht enough of it all to get the rear window completely free. Surprising how much muck get's into that profile!

Then picked up the cheap chinese 5mm gluebacked striping and to my great surprise it fit perfectly! slide it into the groove on one (long) side, and push/click/wriggle the other side in. Some damages were done to the groove over time but taking that into consideration i was able to slide the striping into position.

Happy to have completed this excercise for the moment (the complete overhaul involves removal of the window frame ) and maybe I'll be brave enough to point a hose on it some day next week.

thanks for the comments, one other ToDo off the list!