Removing Lower Station - what's involved?

[ohiohatteras]

Last season I had my front windows glassed in on my 76 36C. Now my lower station looks ridiculous!
I would like to remove it and all the gauges etc....but what do I do with all the wires, steering lines, shift cables etc? Do I remove wires all back to the engine or is there a master electrical block that both the upper and lower go to? Should I just cap off the steering? Pull out the extra shift cables?
Need some direction and or $.02....cuz I don't want to screw anything up.
Thanks!

 

[Maynard Rupp]

Our 86 36C, which surely is a different boat, has an inside helm. I would get rid of the boat before I took that helm out. It is simple however, as all switches, gages, and all other electrical wires go direectly to the main terminal strip in the flybridge. Water temp sensor, for example, goes from the inside helm to the flybridge. Here it shares a post on the terminal strip with the same wire from the flybridge gage. The wire on the other screw on that strip goes to the engine room and to the temp sender. All wires go to the flybridge terminal strip. Throttle and shift cables just make the little run from the helm to their respective engines and should be very easy to remove. I don't have a clue what you need to do with the steering hoses. My guess would be to join them together with brass fittings.

 

[egaito]

I think Maynard is on the right track with the guages.

For the steering, I would remove the lines completely at the block, and put pipe plugs in it to avoid future leaks.

Most of the switches (blowers, nav lights, etc) are duplicated at the fly-bridge as well. I'm away from the boat, but I believe there is a terminal strip in my lower helm that consolidates the wiring from upstairs to down. If that is the case, you could remove the wires to the lower switches to the terminal block, and just leave the block in place rather than chase all the wires up to the bridge.

 

[Scott Mather]

We did this to our 1978 37' hat couple of years back. Was one of the best upgrades to do to these boats, the inside helm was a major waste of space.
I kept all of the gauges and wiring, relocated them all to a lower location, did not have to disconnect any wires and still have the second set of gauges and starters for working on the motors down below. Removed all of the hydraulic lines, this was easy just follow them back to were they "tee" into the other lines, remove the tees and take out the lower lines.
Was able to install a breakfast counter with a couple of bar stools in this area.

 

[Jaxfishgyd]

Scott,
That looks super... How long did it take you to do that ?

 

[Avenger]

On a Series I there are two terminal strips on the forward ER bulkhead where the two stations are spliced together. You should be able to do a clean removal of all the wiring from there. Removing the control cables should make your bridge controls easier to operate. On the steering, there are caps available for the "tee"s so you could just remove the lines to the lower helm and cap them instead of re-plumbing the connections.

One monkey wrench in the plan is that the gauge senders are probably for two stations. If you remove all of the instruments you will have to change the senders. I too would set up the gauges somewhere so you can monitor them from the salon or ER. Another problem is that you will have big holes in the woodwork to fill in or hide when you remove the station.

 

[Maynard Rupp]

On a Series I there are two terminal strips on the forward ER bulkhead where the two stations are spliced together. You should be able to do a clean removal of all the wiring from there. Removing the control cables should make your bridge controls easier to operate. On the steering, there are caps available for the "tee"s so you could just remove the lines to the lower helm and cap them instead of re-plumbing the connections.

One monkey wrench in the plan is that the gauge senders are probably for two stations. If you remove all of the instruments you will have to change the senders. I too would set up the gauges somewhere so you can monitor them from the salon or ER. Another problem is that you will have big holes in the woodwork to fill in or hide when you remove the station.

I think those 2 gage senders work OK with one gage. The other way does not,(trying to run 2 gages from a 1 gage sender).

 

[the kuz]

On our 1977 36C the shift and throttle cables run from the flybridge to the inside station, and then separate cables run from there to the engines/trans. So, you will most likely need to run new cables from the bridge to the engines/trans (or move the inside controls somewhere else to keep things tied together). Lift up your inside helm station and you should see cables running both to and from the Morse controls. Not a big deal to re-run, but you will need 4 new (longer) cables. Don't know if there is a good way to splice the two existing cable sets together. You might be able to just remove the levers from the existing inside controls and use those to make the splice, but I would run new cables directly from the bridge to the engines/trans unless all your cables are new already. Keeping a second set of insruments active is also a good idea. I'm always happier when both sets read the same. OBTW I only use my inside station when trolling/fishing alone - You know when the fish is so big you have to stop/back down the boat to budge it! I have thought about moving the inside Morse controls to the cockpit. I rarely use the sink on the tackle locker, and that would make a handy location for shifts/throttles. Our flybridge ladder is on the starboard side of the cockpit, with the tackle locker under the ladder below the window in the salon bulkhead. Good Luck.

Regards, Bob K

 

[akintosyali]

What color & brand are your gauges? I need some new gauges,a nd would not mind buying yours..

 

[Traveler 45C]

OhioHatt,

Sent ya' a PM.

 

[egaito]

Hey, if they're the old aqua faced guages, I've been looking for some of those forever....

I'd like to get my lower station to look as original as possible. The guages don't even have to function....just looking for the original appearance.

 

[Avenger]

I think those 2 gage senders work OK with one gage. The other way does not,(trying to run 2 gages from a 1 gage sender).

I should have been more specific: You MAY have to change the senders. This probably varies by manufacturer. I just looked at Stewart-Warner's website (mine has S-W gauges) and they say no good. YMMV.