1989 bass tracker pro 17 rebuild - livewell question

Hello all new to the forum here and working on a big project as I have recently bought a 1989 bass tracker pro 17. The boat was in decent condition however I am completely re doing all the outdated pumps, water logged floatation foam along with new floors. I currently have the boat empty and working on replacing the factory aerator pump and bilge pump. My question is concerning the operation of the livewell on this old boat (noobie boat owner please forgive me). I removed my drain hose from the livewell and the thru hull fitting and I have removed the old aerator. When the livewell is installed and hooked up completely does it fill only to the water line of the boat or is it necessary to plug the bottom of the livewell once it fills with the pump? I obviously don't want to get a nasty surprise when I drop it in the water with no livewell plug and fill the boat completely with water....looks to me like the aerator would supply fresh water into the well however I don't know if the pvc hose on the livewell is designed to keep from over filling the well/ flooding the boat. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

I have the same boat and the way the livewell is made in mine it has an aluminum tube welded in the bottom of the tank that is connected to a drain hose that runs out the left rear of the boat. There is a small hose that attaches to this tube on the inside and goes behind a hook that is riveted on the inside of the tank putting it in a vertical position. The hose coming from the aerator pump going into the sprayhead in the top of the livewell fills it with fresh water and once it reaches the top of the drain tube it flows out. I bought this rig used and basically had to figure this screwed up set up out on my own. I've owned several boats but had never seen this set up before and will have to say it is a pretty piss poor way of doing such. This boat was a basket case and I have totally gutted and disassembled it. When I did I found that the bolt in the hose clamp connecting the drain tube on the outside of the livewell had rusted out basically allowing any water coming into the livewell to slowly leak out into the boat.(Not all hose clamps have stainless bolts even though they are advertised as stainless) And the bad thing is you couldn't tell that it was doing it because that hose ran right thru the flotation foam in the left side. So basically the foam was soaking up the water. That's just one of the cheap azz stunts Tracker boats does. When I start my rebuild I'm going to list every crappy thing that they did in this old boat and how to correct it I hope.

I see what you mean and had ran across the idea in my mind however I wasn't totally sure that the water wouldn't over fill the livewell. I have also disassembled mine past the point of taking that drain hose out of the old floatation foam so I know very well what you mean about how crazy the set up was. Thank you for clarifying this for me I couldn't quite wrap my head around the design. I plan on completely re doing all the interior and double checking the rivets as well. I bought the boat at a fairly good deal and as I mentioned its my first one and I just want it right before it hits the water, trying to minimize repair time once its up and running and all repairs made the right way. Thanks again!

You won't find any brand of 25 year old boat that doesn't have water intrusion of some sort, nor can you buy one of the cheapest brands of boats and expect it to be hand crafted like a bently.

They're good boats, you'll be very happy with it. Good luck on the build, buy some good drill bits!

Here's an image of the setup in my Pro17:



I've been thinking about replacing the hose with a tube and 90 angle. when I want to drain it, I'd just remove the tube from the aluminum spout.

Good luck!

Yep that's the same set up im running man thanks for the pic! And I agree for the price its no Cadillac but hey im no pro fisher either, just looking to get out and enjoy my time on the water with a rod without worrying about sinking constantly. Ive got my whole rear deck out now and im most definitely doing my own revisions to better the original set up and all that good stuff. Im actually a service technician for a dealership so im at an advantage with a good supply of reliable tools so I don't have to run out and buy everything plus pay for the build at the same time thank goodness! Ill go back with new foam in the floors and deck ( which ive actually already made molds and poured my sheets of floor foam). Currently im trying to get my hands on a new thru hull for that livewell drain and doing some research on getting the right new bilge and aerator pumps back in and sealed up water tight. Once I get that buttoned up im gonna put her in the water and inspect for any leaks before she goes back together and hopefully get this old gal on the water asap. Ill try my luck at posting a few pics on here, im not the most computer savvy person around but maybe ill be able to get a few tips or what not along the way. im more than open to any suggestions that's for sure!

Same as mine. Except I have the top cap of the transom cut off. My transom board was rotten also. Suggest you check yours as well. Also I se the pry bar in the floor. Did you use it to poke the flotation foam out from under the ribs in the floor? I cleaned all of mine out so that water will be able to run all the way back to the bilge area instead of staying in the boat. What did you use for a form to pour your floor flotation foam in? Would like to see a pic. I was just going to use the foam board from Lowe's or Home Depot. I'll be starting the rebuild on mine in a few weeks. Hopefully the weather will warm up some by then.

To answer the original question, if the drain is open you will have water in the live well to the water line, it will enter through the drain hose and will exit quickly under outboard motion. To fill live well insert the plug and turn on pump, pumps can out fill the upper drain so don't forget about it. Good luck on the rebuild and spring is around the corner so best hurry!!

:lol:

I made a custom mold out of wood....pain in the neck kind of process but I have uniform sheets to put in place in the bottom of the boat now. I bought my materials from illstreet composites for the floor foam....I chose the 2lb foam as it had the highest rate of expansion and it does not need to support any weight...I suppose the rear deck areas should be poured using at least 4 lb foam although it will cost an arm and a leg the answer to your question about under those ribs in the bottom is yes I absolutely cleared those of the foam as to achieve maximum flow area for the water to reach the bilge I thought that was a pretty good idea as well haha the website for the foam I purchased is www.carbonfiberglass.com that was the cheapest deal I could find on pour in and I chose that bc I trust that it is true closed cell foam resistant to water if it may enter....its a costly project so might as well do it right I believe. I would be more than glad to share the demensions on my mold and give you some pointers to make it easier on you if you would like...I can guide you past my trial and error haha I do have the correct amounts of foam to mix to achieve the best results at roughly 70 degrees f. ill post a pic of my mold to give you an idea of what is involved. Its nice having the forum to look to for pointers so please any info is more than welcome and I appreciate it!

Appreciate the pic of the mold. I can build that no problem. What did you use as a release agent to get the foam out or did it just pry out no problem? Also did you check the plywood in your transom to make sure it's not soft or rotten? The folks at Tracker did not put a coating of anything on these and mine was rotten. I plan to coat my new transom board with epoxy resin and then do one layer of fiberglass cloth wrapped around to waterproof it. Then seal all mounting bolts with 3m 5200 sealant. The 4lb foam or maybe the 6lb foam for the flotation blocks under the rear deck area are a must because they support the floor as well as the sides of the boat. I'm also going to put a 4' wide pc. of 1/8" thick aluminum in the bilge area which runs up to and underneath the livewell area not only for added strength but to prevent any foam I pour into those rear blocks from running down under and plugging up the drainways I cleaned out. I'm going to rivet some aluminum angle down on this floor in the bilge area for the sidewalls of the 2 back boxes to rivet into. This is going to make that area stronger plus the weight of the batteries and gas tank won't bend and warp the 1/8" stuff like it did the flimsy set-up Tracker had in there. I've got a complete list of stuff I plan to do I just have to wait on the weather to warm up here and my soon to happen 4 week vacation period that runs into my retirement to come around. Then I'll have all kinds of time to finish my project.
PS: Almost forgot what did you coat the under side of the lids with? Looks like bedliner or something of that sorts.

honestly I couldn't find anything good to use as a release agent...best I could come up with is coating the sides of the wood with wax paper and even then it stuck like no ones business. tried coating the wax paper with something like Crisco as well to make it even slicker and even that seemed to work like glue making the paper stick more. the worst part of that mold is that I had to completely dis assemble each time and prep again to do another pour. I put the mold together with wood screws so it came apart no fuss however I spent more time prepping the mold than I did actually pouring my foam. my transom feels dry the best I can tell and yes I do fully appreciate the importance of a sound transom however it looked like a lot of aluminum grinding and I do not have access to a tig welder to put it back together with and even less experience using a tig even if I could get my hands on one. The underside of my lids are coated with something called plasti dip found at any local lowes home improvement at around 6 dollars a can here in NC...its basically a spray rubber that ive found to hold up pretty well if coated relatively thick and it dries to a nice uniform finish with relatively no regard to if the coats go down a lil heavy. if you could point me in the right direction with the transom I would love to do that as well I just feel at a dis advantage when it comes to grinding all those welds off. I have found that 3m 5200 mighty handy here lately myself! good stuff no doubt

Great idea on the plasti-dip for underneath the lids. I've used it on cars and trucks and it's pretty good stuff. Also understand on taking the mold apart. Figured it was screwed together but was hoping you had some magic tip for getting the foam out. :lol: :lol: As far as taking the top cap off the transom I cut the welds with a sawzall and some hack saw blades. I'm fortunate there's a great weld shop close to me and they don't charge to much for jobs like this. I could tell my transom board was rotten just from the flex that was there when rocking the motor as well as previous owners had tightened the motor mount bolts and you could see the wood had compressed quite a bit. Not to mention I could see black streaks at the bottom of the lower motor mount holes and some of the smaller screws running through the bottom of the transom board. That's a dead give away of leaking areas and rotten wood on a glass boat so figured the same held true for a tinboat. I was going to pour a solid glass transom with some stuff called Seacast you can find it on-line but it was to expensive. So I decided to use some solid oak laminate that is used for trailer flooring like is used on flat bed over the road trailers and it's also used in the floors of enclosed box trailers. I've drove tractor-trailer for 32 years and have seen floors last for 10-14 years in some trailers with no added protection at all. So I figure if I make a transom board out of this stuff and epoxy it, wrap it in glass and seal it up right it should out last the boat and me also. This trailer flooring is the same thickness as the transom board and I was able to purchase it locally from a trailer repair shop that's close to me. Hope this helps some. Maybe you'll be luckier than me and your board will be OK, I hope so. I'd still look at pulling the bolts and cleaning the holes with a drill bit and then reseal them with the 3m5200 though just to be on the safe side.

Thanks for the info! im trying to be thorough and get everything back to original if not better than original condition. The transom on my boat has no flex and I havnt seen any streaking other than just bilge dirt and build up over the course of 25 years id say that's to be expected. I already planned on re doing those mount bolts as theyre somewhat rusted and not very nice to look at but also for the purpose of re sealing as well. I will further inspect when I remove those. I am a little confused on my outboard mount when the motor swings down after you remove the transom saver it doesn't lock into place on anything which would leave the motor free to swing up when in reverse wouldn't it? looks like the thrust on the engine would pull the engine up away from the transom in reverse if it doesn't lock into place....just an idea as I have plenty of other things to be working on as well but I figured I might as well ask why were on the subject lol

Since the motor doesn't have power trim then it should have a reverse lock. There should be a pin that you can put in different positions to adjust the tilt/trim position of the motor when you're running forward. When you shift into reverse a latch should drop and hook to that adjustable pin and keep the engine from bucking up. Also if your going to replace the motor mount bolts it's best to use a stainless fine thread bolt with a brass nyloc nut. They're a little bit more expensive and you'll probably have to find them on-line or from a local marine dealer. They're worth every penny though because the fine thread bolt will not stretch or vibrate loose like the coarse thread will and the brass nut will not gauld like the stainless nut on stainless bolt will. I learned these lessons the hard way a long time ago. It's not a good thing to have a jackplate work loose on a 20' boat runnin a 250hp outboard at close to 80 mph believe me. It'll make you put a stain in your shorts. :lol: :lol:

haha wow I can only imagine what you mean there. my mount does have the adjustable pin that is capable of being adjusted but nothing seems to stop it from bucking up as you say ....or at least I don't have to release a latch in order to swing the motor back up off the pin once I let it down. idk if this makes any sense without pictures ill try to upload one or two sometime soon and get some more ideas bc im not sure if I need to buy a new mount or not. ill do my research on those bolts and once again thanks for the tips lol its nice to avoid any trial and error when possible course im not pushing 250 hp on my lil 17 footer but hey that's nice to know!

would like to add about that reverse lock....maybe the motor under power has enough force to lock the outboard in tight under load in reverse and me simply "freely" moving the motor up and down doesn't engage a lock. Im not entirely sure....that would make sense but just from observing what I see I havnt seen any sort of locking mechanism

The lock will not latch until the motor is shifted into reverse. It may have to be running in order for this to happen I don't remember. Make sure your shifter/motor is in neutral then lower the engine. Then shift it into reverse and check to see if it locked. It should do so other wise when you give it some gas in reverse the motor will raise up on ya. That 250 I was talkin about was on my cousins 21' Bullet Bass boat. I used to have a 21' Ranger with a 225 Merc but sold it a few years ago and may get another big boat but I'm going to fix up my tin boats and fish out of them for awhile.

I shifted the outboard into reverse earlier today to see if it would lock in and its a no go...the latch is there and it lowers onto the center rod but does not lock in while in reverse...I can however put pressure on the latch with my finger and it wont raise up sooo....all I see is a spring on that latch that could be weak and not holding im not really sure at this point. However I did make some progress today and got my new aerator in and did some more cleaning in the bilge area to get things ready to go back in...im going to post a pic of that outboard mount near the latch and a pic of todays progress! every little bit counts right lol

I meant to ask as you as well if you don't mind me stealing your idea for that 1/8th inch aluminum sheet to replace in the bilge area where the gas tank and battery sits....where might I find a sheet of aluminum like this? I know lowes sells the aluminum angle pieces that's no problem but I really like your idea here and it makes a lot of sense bc my old thin sheet from the factor has seen its better days. was hoping I could make this little change without killing the wallet here....wouldn't think it would be all that expensive but any help is appreciated im gonna go take me some measurements for that sheet of aluminum before it gets dark on me here