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xBabyJesus
08-15-2011, 04:55 PM
Hey guys,

I had two of my gauges pop thru the dash toward the wiring harness. It seems like the holes in the dash are ever so slightly too big, such that when I hit rough water sometimes the gauge bezels aren't big enough to keep the gauges in the dash. Has anybody seen this? Any easy solutions?

Thanks,
John

moombamm11
08-15-2011, 11:29 PM
I'm having the same problem. What is the solution?

myster
08-16-2011, 09:16 AM
I had this with one of mine.....I used a rubber o ring that had a slightly bigger od that I slid over the guage housing. This prevented the " slide thru " and is barely noticable.

phospher
08-16-2011, 09:27 AM
That's crap. Skiers Choice should fix this, clearly a manufacturing defect. And is this happening on a 2008 year boat??

myster
08-16-2011, 12:01 PM
There were LOTS of other nagging defects that I had to fix, For the guage problem, it would need a new dash template with slightly smaller holes, if I lived closer than 4 hrs from the dealer, I would have brought it back for sure. The season is short here in the north and the fix was easy and worked so it was the best option for me!! Good Luck

xBabyJesus
08-16-2011, 12:45 PM
Yeah, mine's an '08. I just updated my sig.

So if you used an o-ring, does that imply that the gauges "stick out" from the dash the thickness of the o-ring? i.e. does it look funny?

I was looking at these as a potential solution: effectively "double up" on bezels:
http://www.livorsi.com/catalog/pc_bezels.htm#stainless_bezels

Maybe we can get Moomba to spring for 'em?

myster
08-16-2011, 02:22 PM
Ya, those will likely work and that's pretty much what the o ring is doing. No it doesn't stick out at all and is barely noticable. I have lots of guests on the boat and it's never been noticed. It's just one guage on mine....so far lol

moombamm11
08-16-2011, 05:53 PM
Thanks for the o ring ideal. I'm going to try this fix. I have had four different guages fall out.

phil_sauve
08-16-2011, 05:56 PM
I have a 2008 outback with the same problem.

One thing I have noticed. The wiring harness behind the dash is pretty heavy and it seems likes the heavy weight is pulling down the gauges. this weight probably increase while hitting waves. What I did, is hold the wiring harness with a tie-wrap so that the harness is OVER the gauge instead of holding down. This really helped.

Another thing is, if you look behind the dash, you will find that the dash is cracking. This makes the gauges to slip through the dash. As the crack opens up, the hole becomes bigger and then the gauge pod goes bye-bye ! So I used a heavy duty glue, and while my gauges were uninstalled, I glued the back of the dash so that the cracks doesn't open up.

Went twice on the water, they never fell off yet !!

xBabyJesus
08-16-2011, 08:24 PM
Crap, I hope the dash doesn't crack. That seems like a mfg. defect.

Where does one find large >2" rubber o-rings?

rc5695
08-17-2011, 11:47 AM
I have the problem of my cup-holders not sticking in tightly. Solution was to put a couple wraps of electrical tape around the cup-holder (or guage) where it sits in the hole. Can't see it at all and it fits nice and snug.

myster
08-17-2011, 02:20 PM
Or just keep Beers in them at all times......:-)

cab13367
08-17-2011, 03:12 PM
I have the problem of my cup-holders not sticking in tightly. Solution was to put a couple wraps of electrical tape around the cup-holder (or guage) where it sits in the hole. Can't see it at all and it fits nice and snug.

Yup, this is the factory's solution as well. When I replaced my plastic cup holders for stainless, some of the plastic ones had electrical tape wrapped around them. Did the same with the stainless ones to get a snug fit.

I personally think that it is inconceivable that the factory drills holes in the dash that are so much bigger than the gauges that the gauges fall through the hole. I mean, really??

rc5695
08-18-2011, 12:15 PM
...I personally think that it is inconceivable that the factory drills holes in the dash that are so much bigger than the gauges that the gauges fall through the hole. I mean, really??

I agree that that is unacceptable from the factory for an '08 boat... Whatever happened tot he guages with the bar bent aroudn the guage that screws onto the back of the guage and holds it tight against the dash? No way those ever moved!

myster
08-18-2011, 12:37 PM
Well guys, it is what it is......I doubt that Mastercraft or Tige or Malibu has these types of problems, but they do cost quite a bit more!!! However something as simple as dash template tolerances shouldn't be that hard to make work properly!! Use the fat black O ring, hardly noticable and actually looks better than the original design anyway

myster
08-18-2011, 12:39 PM
What the heck just went into this forum when I posted my reply????? that's weird!!!!!

myster
08-18-2011, 12:43 PM
It did it again, 2 posts from Preg Symp???? I'm at work in a Gov inst. with state of the art IT, gotta be a hack..... Mods!!!!!!!!

cab13367
08-18-2011, 02:39 PM
I agree that that is unacceptable from the factory for an '08 boat... Whatever happened tot he guages with the bar bent aroudn the guage that screws onto the back of the guage and holds it tight against the dash? No way those ever moved!

If I understand the OP correctly, the gauges are falling thru the dash "towards the wiring harness" as the OP put it so the bent bar around the gauges is not going to help if the hole is bigger than the gauge bezel.


However something as simple as dash template tolerances shouldn't be that hard to make work properly!!

Exactly. This is basic stuff that any boat manufacturer should be able to do right. I hate to bash Moomba but below is another example of their poor craftsmanship. The first pic is the port swim platform bracket on my boat and the second is the starboard bracket. One is flush with the platform and the other is a good 3/8" out from flush. I mean come on, how hard is it to flush mount a bracket so the platform sits uniformly?? And no, the screw holes are not slotted so there is no way to adjust this.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg276/cab13367/2f81f2f1.jpg

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg276/cab13367/5cc4f87d.jpg

rc5695
08-18-2011, 05:34 PM
If I understand the OP correctly, the gauges are falling thru the dash "towards the wiring harness" as the OP put it so the bent bar around the gauges is not going to help if the hole is bigger than the gauge bezel.

Oh. My bad. Now THAT is messed up!!! I don't care if our boats are cheaper than others, there's no excuse for something like that...Cheaper mat'ls and stuff, not quite as good of fit and finish, fine... Understandable, that's how you can make stuff cheaper. But bad design and non-functionional stuff is unacceptable...

phospher
08-18-2011, 11:32 PM
Wow, I've never seen anything like that swim bracket! I also checked under my dash and it looks good. Gauges seem tight, no cracks in the fiberglass or anything. Seems pretty sturdy....

kaneboats
08-19-2011, 09:01 AM
Hmmmm. Supras and Moombas come down the same line. I wonder if in that particular year the Supra gauges were bigger or something. Either wrong tool or wrong bit for the model being drilled. Or maybe different size gauge from Outback to LSV? Sounds like a human error to me.

bzubke1
08-19-2011, 11:52 AM
My volt gauge falls through. I guess I'm gonna have to get some of the bezels or something.

rdlangston13
08-19-2011, 06:57 PM
as for cracks in the dash fiberglass, the bottom left side where the switches are on my dash, back on the inside across the bottom there is a thin piece of fiber glass that goes across from the one side of the switch panel to the other where the steering wheel is. that side that goes to the steering wheel is completely seperated. ive been meaning to gorilla glue it back.

ffmcdou
08-23-2011, 02:36 AM
I agree with the "crap" statement. I have an 08 LSV and it's one thing after another. Geez, this isn't a bayliner. Most of my smaller gauges have fallen back into the dash because the gauge housing has cracked just behind the bezels........this in addition to torsion axle failure, wakeplate doesn't work, amps kick on and off, had to replace the perfect pass computer, swimplatform surface was shit, replaced it with a seadek. Anyway, I'll shut up.

trayson
05-08-2016, 12:41 PM
I know this is a really old thread, but it popped up with activity lately (although the new post isn't showing up).

I had the problem with a couple of my gauges getting pulled through the dash openings on my XLV and I fixed it. I found that what was the problem on mine was that the dash openings would get a crack in the circular cutout that made it so the dash could "bend" enough for the gauge to get pulled through the opening. the wires from the back would pull the gauges through (gravity and wire tension). Think of if you had a hold cut in cardboard and then bent the cardboard--the diameter along that axis where it's bent would be able to increase just enough for that gauge to fall through.

What I did to fix is was to reinforce the dash opening again so it didn't have any cracks. I used a product called "liquid steel". It's basically a playdoh like putty that you mold like clay and then it hardens and adheres to the dash. Not only was I able to fix the cracked parts of the dash, but I was able to "build out" the holes a smidge so that it absorbed some of the surface area that people were complaining about with "cutouts too big". After this fix, I haven't had any more issues with my gauges getting pulled through.

MoombaMaster
05-08-2016, 08:50 PM
I have the same issue on my 2008 Moomba Outback. I will look at some of the solutions provided here but wanted to let others know they should look at doing some preventative maintenance if this has not happened yet because my gauges actually ended up breaking when they popped out. https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=24019&d=1462672623 https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=24020&d=1462754983