Carver Owners Forum

Trying to fish from the drain plug back into the boat so I can wire in this underwater LED drain plug light. I can not seem to access from the aft cabin, any point where I can see the fish wire. It's like there's another level below everything I can see from all of the aft cabin access panels. I can see the aft bilge pump and float, the ruder control arm and the starboard ruder stuffing box and it appears I should be in the right area, but no fish wire? Going to go back with my flexible scope and look into he drain hole and see if I can see anything remotely familiar. Thought maybe someone's been that far down in the boat the\at they may have idea why I can't seem to find the fish. Come to think of it how would one get to the trim tabs at the back of the boat if they needed to be replaced? Is there an access point I'm missing?

Sometimes aft wall panels behind the bed are removable, sometimes access is under the mattress, some models have drawers and a counter beside the bed that are easily removed for access.

Thanks Viper, I have tried them all and couldn't see what I was looking for, going back with my scope and look up the drain plug hole, think I might be hitting something that is deflecting the fish wire. Where there's a will there's a way.

Wonder if you're hitting a bilge pump

No Viper, I'm below the aft bilge pump, which is on another level above the drain plug, FYI, but was able to insert the scope and found a conduit hole up the center with a pretty good size green wire running in it headed toward the bow, tried the regular fish wire, to flimsy, going to have to get a stiffer fish at Lowes and I think I will be able to run to a point where I can grab the new wire for the lights. How would you ever get to the Tim Tabs? Thanks for replying.
Mike

On the curious side, I've installed a couple of these lights and found one design flaw that would drive me nuts. I haven't done one for a while so I'm talking what was likely first generation release but the power cable was not independent of the casing. If that's the way they still produce them, the problem is that when you unthread the light to use the drain hole for what it was designed to do, you end up twisting the hell out of the power cable. Check if your cable is like that too. If the housing doesn't spin independently of the cable, don't fasten down the cable close to the drain. You may want the last fastener to be a couple of feet away from the light and perhaps leave some extra cable lying there to account for winding and unwinding when you remove or install the light. Not good wiring practice but in this case you have little choice.

Yea, I am concerned about this aspect too. In this install I believe I am going to leave the cable loose and hopefully remember to disconnect it before I pull it out so it can drain if need be, hopefully the cable won't twist up to bad. Thanks again Viper.

Ok, I have installed conventional underwater lights on a 96 355 and can tell you it's a pain in the ass. There is a 1/2 bulkhead behind the aft wall that will be your issue.

I was able to do it with a coat hanger and a buddy outside under the platform. Tape the wires to the end of an opened coat hanger and feed the coat hanger thru using an upward twist. On the jnside you will eventually see the end of the coat hanger and the wires.

You may need to extend the wires from the drain plug light.

Fyi, the 355 I put the conventional lights on had a drain plug light that we removed due to lack of performance.

I knew someone had been there and done that, it was you Lyndon! I put a bore scope in the drain plug, there's a couple 2" conduit holes thru the bulk heads that has a pretty good size green wire running toward the bow. Tried a normal fish wire and that was too hard to maneuver where I wanted it to go, going back with the stackable fiberglass fish poles, I'm going to get there yet. Thanks Lyndon I hope this cluster of three lights in the drain plug will perform? Won't know unless I try.
Mike

I think the drain plug light idea is a sound one Mike, it just takes some more development. The problem with the beam is that there is a very limited spread. We have super clear water up here and even here you don't get much spread - much like dropping a flashlight into the water. If they changed the lens to a 180 degree fisheye type lens, it would probably work better.