www.iFourWinns.com

Does anyone sell the original style blade (has an acorn nut) or does the arm need to be replaced ?
Thanks !

Richard!!! This is real irony...

Last night I sit on my laptop searching abroad, as the 14" stainless steel wiper on my 91 Sundowner looks like it gave up the ghost (rubber almost completely disentegrated) and I couldnt find information on the correct refills for the wiper blade ANYWHERE!! It sounds like we have the same wiper - its attached to the arm with an acorn nut on a little bracket that attaches to the wiper blade itself, allowing for slight movement.

I found the blade on summit racings website for $9.95 - which is good because they are $20+ everywhere else! http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ANC-52-14/

Good Luck

_________________
1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Hey Tech,
Good find ! They are a special order part so we'll see how it goes, and I have to pay TAX !
Thank You !

Rich

No problem. I had to pay tax too, but I think it was free shipping? Kinda a wash, but still a much better deal than Worst (west) Marine!!

_________________
1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Tech,
New subject, I had to replace the forward bilge pump last year. The float switch was broken. I believe it was brittle from aging and probably broke when bouncing on some rough water.
Have you looked into replacing any bulbs with LED's ?

Rich

I will have to keep an eye on my forward bilge pump! Thanks for the tip...

I have replaced 100% of my cabin lights with warm LED's from ebay. It makes overnighting so much nicer, because Im not worried about draining the battery.

I have also replaced the all-around festoon bulbs with USCG 2 mile requirement festoon LED's. I have gotten a lot of compliments on them! They are much much brighter than the old bulbs and use 10% of the power! Also picked those up on ebay.

Richard, there is a boating closeout warehouse right by my house - they are known nationally. I was poking around in there yesterday and found BIN AFTER BIN of our gauges (if you have the white backed "millenium" gauges like I do) and the grey rocker switches with the little orange LED... they have bin after bin after bin of them! So let me know if you'd like me to pick anything up for you. They wanted $12 per rocker switch, Im sure I can get them down to $10/ea or maybe even $8/ea. Everything is new - they buyout parts departments and dealers of their obsolete parts.

_________________
1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

The verdict is in!! The new 14" SS wiper arrived today... You can see WHY I needed a new wiper, when you see the pictures of my old wiper blade...lol

The old one, presumably original from '91:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/850/imag0189y.jpg/

The new & old, side by side:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/12/imag0191h.jpg/

The new & old, top view:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/545/imag0192f.jpg/

I had to take the bracket off the old blade and transfer it to the new. Took a small crescent wrench and a standard screwdriver with a small blade.

For the record, the wiper cost $9.95 at summit racings website + shipping ($4.95). It is ANCO, just like the original, same exact part, same design...yet West Marine wanted $34 for it?? Talk about mark-up!

_________________
1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Tech,
Right on ! Ragged edged blade to the dumpster. I think Summit could save some money if they bought smaller boxes. Could have fit 500
wipers in the box I received.
Thanks for the offer on the gauges but mine are black background.
A couple years back I replaced the motor box, the shelf had been replaced with a piece of pine which warped and allowed water to
accumulate rotting the box. It was a good winter project. I fiber-glassed the whole package and covered the new shelf with Formica. I think the box will be there when the boat is dust.
Had to go to next size screws for the port side vent wing gizmo, they were stripped by a over zealous helper.
Do you have a water separator filter on your gas line ? Do you have to preload the new filter before installation or just let the fuel pump
fill it ? Yes I probably should have replaced it long ago but if it ain't broke......
Mooring cover, which I believe is original needs some help. Stitching is giving up, I'll probably have it resewn this winter. Previous owner had some of the snaps replaced with non original snaps. Too tight and actually caused the male portion to break loose. I think I'll try using a small plastic screw anchor in the over sized holes and see if they'll hold. Any ideas ?
Added a 2 bank battery charger and battery charge indicator in the port side pocket above the batteries. I've got both 12V and 120V receptacles on the back wall of the pocket. The charger actually lays in the pocket under the tuna door.

Rich

Haha.. I noticed the same thing too... One lonely ol' wiper in a 3' long box that was 12" wide...LOL.

Can you post a picture - Im curious now. All of the 90-91-92 Sundowners I have seen have had the white backed Millenium branded gauges. Let me know if you ever need a replacement gauge of any kind - like I said, Im right down the street from a very large boating liquidator warehouse. They have 'everything' for pretty cheap.


I do. It uses the very common OMC #502905 water seperator. I change it 2x yearly because I use street gas (with E-10) and Im always nervous about the ethanol attracting moisture. To date, I havent drained anymore than 1/2 teaspoon of water from the water seperator, so either people over-exaggerate the moisture issue with ethanol... I could be wrong.

Ive never pre-loaded it with gas... I just put the new filter on, and crank the engine, letting the fuel pump fill it. Ive heard of people getting an air lock but Ive never had an issue doing it that way. Its cheap insurance to replace it often - but I dont think they really go bad over time. After all, when I bought my boat last April 2010, it had the original fuel filter on it!!! Was a bear getting off and was starting to rust on the inside. Somebody, either from OMC or FW wrote the date on the side of the filter and it was dated 1991 Wish I had taken some pictures...

Restitching those covers are pretty common with any local canvas shop. My local shop said they'd charge me $90 to restitch the mooring cover, although mine doesnt need it (yet).

If you get a chance, post some pictures of that too!! I installed a Marine Guest 2 bank battery charger last year. I like it because its the kind you can hardwire into your shorepower (of which my Sundowner doesnt have, I assume yours doesnt either), or you can just use the 110 grounded 3-prong to plug it in to an extension cord. I installed it onto the wood bulkhead on the port side in front of the batteries.

_________________
1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Tech,
Picture from the net. My sonar is mounted to the left of the door. Remote for radio (am/fm) is under the sonar that is in the picture.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/8/dashkc.jpg/

Interesting...it looks like you had the 'black' option and the older style Four Winns steering wheel... didnt think there were many differences between 90-91-92, but I guess I was wrong!

Heres my dash panel/gauges.





On the bright side, we appear to have the same switches, and like I mentioned before, I have a source of those switches that are brand new for reasonable. Im going to replace a few of mine that dont look good anymore (dry rot?) and add one to the "ACC" spot for some extra blue LED lighting that I plan on installing under the sidewells.

_________________
1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21