Gas Tank Removal

[ghebert1111]

2014 Mojo, I'm trying to remove my gas tank to access my center ballast tank, which I'm 99% has a leak. I'm having trouble with 2 of the brackets holding the tank in place, see red arrows in the picture. I've unscrewed those brackets from the gas tank, but they don't seem to want to move. Should they be completely removable?

29149

[parrothd]

2014 Mojo, I'm trying to remove my gas tank to access my center ballast tank, which I'm 99% has a leak. I'm having trouble with 2 of the brackets holding the tank in place, see red arrows in the picture. I've unscrewed those brackets from the gas tank, but they don't seem to want to move. Should they be completely removable?

29149

I bent them out of the way on my Craz, it's hard to tell from the pic but I think the brackets are screwed into the hull before the top hull is attached so there's no way to remove them.

[ghebert1111]

That's what I was thinking, thanks for the input.

[bergermaister]

If you can and have access, maybe try filling the ballast with water colored with food coloring. Test your theory before completely tearing it apart...

[ghebert1111]

If you can and have access, maybe try filling the ballast with water colored with food coloring. Test your theory before completely tearing it apart...

Yeah that is what I was thinking. I've got the Gas tank out and realized I have the same lip issue as in the link below. So while I was confident that my leak is in the center ballast I decided to confirm it 100%. I cleaned out the bilge and filled up the center ballast tank and will let is sit over night and see what happens. If it is not leaking I'm at a loss as when ever we surf I see the bilge come on repeatedly and it doesn't seem to be the rear ballast bags that are leaking. When we rap up a surf session, I have water up to the top of the center drain plug.

https://forum.moomba.com/showthread.php?26912-2014-LSV-Cracked-Center-Ballast-Tank/page8

[Tommy2slow]

Yeah that is what I was thinking. I've got the Gas tank out and realized I have the same lip issue as in the link below. So while I was confident that my leak is in the center ballast I decided to confirm it 100%. I cleaned out the bilge and filled up the center ballast tank and will let is sit over night and see what happens. If it is not leaking I'm at a loss as when ever we surf I see the bilge come on repeatedly and it doesn't seem to be the rear ballast bags that are leaking. When we rap up a surf session, I have water up to the top of the center drain plug.

https://forum.moomba.com/showthread.php?26912-2014-LSV-Cracked-Center-Ballast-Tank/page8
Please update on what you find. My 2020 Mojo also has a mystery leak that neither dealer or myself can track down. Bilge comes on every time we slow down to return to the fallen rider.

[parrothd]

Did you check the shaft seal, they leak more over time. My bilge is on every 5-10 minutes before I replaced it. You can test it only with a water test and watching it.

[ghebert1111]

So my initial testing is I have no leak in the center tank.

Here is that I have done. Boat is on trailer and at home for the winter, BTW.
I disconnected my IBS and put the fill line that was connected to the IBS into a five gallon bucket. I then used my fake-a-lake to fill the center tank until water started coming out of the fill line in the 5 gallon bucket, so I am relatively sure that the center tank is full. =I left the boat in this condition overnight and there was no water in the bilge after 18 hours. My next test and what I should have done in the first place, is to put the IBS back in and fill the center tanks and IBS and see if I get any leak, maybe water is flowing from the IBS into the center tank and making the water level reach a leak in the top of the center tank, hell I don't know. Wont' be able to do this til the weekend.

Regarding the shaft leak or any other leak not related to ballast. I've ruled that out because whenever we go out without ballast, I check the bilge and there is no water in the bilge. As I typed that I just thought, maybe with the ballast full and the boat lower in the water there is a leak somewhere I hadn't thought of.

Update coming.

[parrothd]

So my initial testing is I have no leak in the center tank.

Here is that I have done. Boat is on trailer and at home for the winter, BTW.
I disconnected my IBS and put the fill line that was connected to the IBS into a five gallon bucket. I then used my fake-a-lake to fill the center tank until water started coming out of the fill line in the 5 gallon bucket, so I am relatively sure that the center tank is full. =I left the boat in this condition overnight and there was no water in the bilge after 18 hours. My next test and what I should have done in the first place, is to put the IBS back in and fill the center tanks and IBS and see if I get any leak, maybe water is flowing from the IBS into the center tank and making the water level reach a leak in the top of the center tank, hell I don't know. Wont' be able to do this til the weekend.

Regarding the shaft leak or any other leak not related to ballast. I've ruled that out because whenever we go out without ballast, I check the bilge and there is no water in the bilge. As I typed that I just thought, maybe with the ballast full and the boat lower in the water there is a leak somewhere I hadn't thought of.

Update coming.

Try filling the bilge with water and see if it comes out, also fill the center and bow and raise the bow to see if it drains.

[ghebert1111]

I was able to get the IBS in the boat and filled using a fake-a-lake. It's been sitting for an hour and I've noticed 2 things:
1. The ballast intake(under the boat) is and continues to leak water in pretty large amounts, it is keeping my driveway wet and it is sunny and 68 out. Is this a bad impeller in my ballast pump? What else can cause this?
2. Water is filling the bilge and it seems to be coming from the center tank/IBS. It isn't leaking at the rate it would need to, to fill my bilge to what I'm seeing after a couple of hours surfing, but it is definitely leaking.

[ghebert1111]

So after waiting 5 hours I checked everything and
1. The leak from the ballast intake had stopped.
2. My IBS was almost empty. I checked for any leaks at the ballast bag fittings and there were none. The weird thing is there was not an IBS bag-full of water in the bilge. I wet-vacced the bilge dry and filled up the center tank/IBS again noticed that the only water entering the bilge area from the front was from a seam in the fiberglass floor of the bilge (I will post a picture tomorrow). I am only getting the front of the boat up a few degrees from the horizontal btw so my working theory: The center tank is leaking and there is a void in the front where the water is settling. When I am surfing and the front of the boat is way up in the air, the water is moving from the void to the bilge. Anyway, looks like I need to pull the center tank after all.

[parrothd]

I was able to get the IBS in the boat and filled using a fake-a-lake. It's been sitting for an hour and I've noticed 2 things:
1. The ballast intake(under the boat) is and continues to leak water in pretty large amounts, it is keeping my driveway wet and it is sunny and 68 out. Is this a bad impeller in my ballast pump? What else can cause this?
2. Water is filling the bilge and it seems to be coming from the center tank/IBS. It isn't leaking at the rate it would need to, to fill my bilge to what I'm seeing after a couple of hours surfing, but it is definitely leaking.
As the ballast impellor wears it starts to leak out. Usually the center ballast drains the most for me requiring me to bump the pump on every now and to keep the front ballast full. The bilge coming on is completely normal, especially when surfing and extra ballast. On continuously is bad, on every 5 or more minutes isn't.