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Thanks for the detailed reply, everything you said is true or at least fits with what happened. I only connected the motor battery leads wrong, which is why only the motor blew a fuse. The accessories cable also connects to the cranking battery but since I didn't connect them wrong (or at all) everything was intact. What a relief! For some reason I thought only one wire fed power to all the accessories, gauges, and motor, but thankfully that's not the case. I definitely agree, I wouldn't want to add accessories directly on the main motor wire. Even in these older rangers there's ways to safely add additional accessories should you need it. As far as the shut off issue, turns out my power pack was busted. Makes sense, since I was getting continuity on the white stop motor wire and ground. More details in the update below.

Yep, found the fuse, checked it, and it's busted. Will be ordering a bunch of these. Hopefully the gauges will work as well. Thanks y'all.

Thanks, are the gauges and motor hooked up such that replacing that fuse will fix the gauges? I’ll be calling ranger tmrw to ask their opinion.

Sometimes I astound myself with how stupid I can be. Today I checked the live well and bilge system. I undid most of the hoses and took out two bilge pumps and the rear aerator pump. All but one of the bilge pumps worked and seemed to run robust. It must be a wiring issue that they didn’t run when hooked up to the boat wiring system. However, while checking and rechecking the wires I accidentally reversed polarity on my battery. Now everything is dead. I panicked and called another local mechanic, he told me to relax and not worry, older two strokes are simple and there’s probably a blown fuse in the motor somewhere. If the motor was newer and had a computer I might be screwed. I asked him about the boat wiring and gauges and he told me he would check for me. The fuse blocks were okay for the accessories. I wonder if fixing the motor fuse would fix the gauges or if there are two separate circuit breakers. At any rate....yay for carelessness and stupidity.

Update #2 I finally have a mini update. The boat has been the mechanic for two weeks. I received a call from the mechanic and.... -The fuel system has been refitted with new hoses. Apparently the mechanic couldn't get the tank out himself but he managed to fit everything. -He ran the motor and says it sounds great. Apparently there was something blocking the water flow, he unblocked and the tell-tale pees like it should. This is great news, because for now I don't have to change out the impeller. I bought a new one and a new gasket just in case -He thinks the motor not being able to shutoff is a wiring issue. He suspects a wire near the motor has been broken. I'll check again when I pick up the boat tomorrow. -The left side fuel gauge is not working. This is easily remedied as a fuel indicator system is not that complex. -So before I sent off the boat to the mechanic I managed to tighten the existing trim cap seals. The mechanic said it just needs more fluid, so I ordered more fluid and will be topping that off. All in all, some welcome and relieving news. The most pressing issue now is the motor stop issue. The best case is that it's a broken wire. The worst case is I need to replace the power pack, which of course I would need to send it back again. I'm super stoked to be getting the boat back tomorrow, and I'll be working on it all day weather permitting. I have some exciting things coming in (or already received): -2 group 30 Cabela's deep cycle batteries for the trolling motor -18' x 8' teal colored carpet from boatcarpetbuys.com -Seastar hydraulic fluid (unfortunately the stupid proprietary hose fitting is taking a while to ship). Does anyone know how to fill/bleed without using their proprietary overpriced kit? -Meguiars Fiberglass restoration kit I updated the 1st post with things already finished and more things to be done.

Another ebay user. Unless the big stores have big sales, I order online. Prices are always lower. Make sure the seller is in the US and has very very few negative ratings. Read those negative ratings. Also, Paypal is very favorable towards the buyer.

My Pro Qualifiers lasted me 5-7 years of use before I upgraded. And they were still going strong when I traded them in.

After talking to the mechanic, he said it'll be a little over $500 parts and labor to clean and refit the fuel system. I also asked him to look at the venting too, since the exhaust hose was completely torn up. Because he's so backed up, it'll be about a week before I have any news.

I just want to thank people again for their encouragement and very detailed advice. It's a herculean task to restore a boat, but the journey will be educational and memorable. Sometimes I think of the daunting task of doing all the things I listed and I laugh at myself, "What are you getting yourself into", but again, life's about challenges. I'm only 26, I'm not married and don't have kids, and I have some free time available. If there's a time to restore a boat it's now.

UPDATE #1 02/28/2018 Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I have the first update. Well I solved the issue temporarily of draining the bilge. I bought a farm hi jack and jacked it up and put it on a saw horse rated for 1000lbs. The problem is, getting it down was dicey. The trailer kind of dropped a little bit when I tried to winch it down. Crappy farm jack was supposed to take it down notch by notch but that didn't go right near the bottom. Good thing I gave the bilge a decent cleaning. I'll be looking at paying for storage. I think this is the right move regardless because our driveway is pretty crowded. And I don't want to jack it up again. Cleaning When I got the boat, it was pretty freaking dirty. So the first thing I did was clean. The bilge was filthy. Oil residue everywhere. I tooked out all the batteries and I scrubbed the battery tray and the tanks the best I could. I dumped bilge cleaner in the bilge and just scrubbed and scrubbed. The result is a lot better. After cleaning: Fuel Tank Issues So one issue I had right out the bat was replacing fuel lines. To do so I wanted to take out the fuel tanks. I started with the port side one (right in the picture). I could not get the SOB out. I disconnected all the hoses (had to cut them, were pretty much sealed on the fittings and I'm replacing all those hoses anyway) and I tried to pry out the tanks but no dice. Without prying out the tanks, it makes it super hard to access the fuel tank select valve. Another question I had was, why do the fuel tanks have 3 fittings? One is fuel output to valve then to engine. One is the gas cap filling input. What's the third one for?? With these issues, I'm going to take it to a mechanic on Saturday and get a quote. I could try and brute force the tanks, but I'm afraid of possibly breaking something. I want to get the mechanic's opinion on how much a fuel refitting would be. The only parts really would be fuel lines, maybe some cleaning, and adding fuel. I bought two yamaha fuel line assemblies. I'll also ask the mechanic what I need to do for the livewell pumps and possibly bilge pumps. Any idea what that cost will be? Yes maybe I can do this myself, but if there's one thing I don't want to screw up, it's fuel lines in the boat. At the very least I can try and figure out the livewells, but getting fuel operational is #1 for sure. Trim Seals The next thing I tried to address were the leaky trim seals. I noticed that they were very loose. I bought an adjustable pin wrench because the yamaha tool is $67-140 dollars depending on where you get it from. Yeah screw that. I inspected the outer o-ring and it seemed fine. Dumped more jack fluid in there and tightened it up. I didn't see jack fluid leaking but I could hear air. So maybe the inner o rings are damaged. Regardless I bought some caps and o rings and will be trying to fix that. Cost So Far With the coming California rain I won't have an update until after the mechanic visit on Saturday. I am currently $3,333 dollars into this project, including the cost of the boat. I have $611 dollars in actual boat parts (trailer wheels, battery, fuel lines end caps), $347 dollars in tools (Building up a nice tool collection lol), and $374 dollars in accessories (boat cover, tarp, adjustable hitch ball etc.).

Question regarding the steering. There's a little bit of play at the wheel. There's also side to side play at the motor. I can turn the motor a little bit before it stops. Anyone have this issue before? I'm not sure it's an issue at the helm. I can feel the steering cable as soon as I turn the wheel. It's just takes some time before the motor starts turning.

Haha, yeah I'll be giving up a lot of weekends for this. But I've wanted a bass boat all my life. And I think doing this will be a valuable education for me. Already in the past 5 days I've learned so much. And I haven't even really started in earnest.

Yep, the transom checks out, I did that first when I was inspecting the boat before purchase. I'll take a picture of the deck and seats when there's better weather. Out of all the times San Jose decides to rain (never) it decides the entirety of this week Trolling motor tray is a good idea, I'll consider that seriously when it's time to do the carpet. Nice, is that ~4500 including the price of the boat? Like I said, ~1000 to get it fishable, and ~1000 to make it look pretty but not too stressed if it goes over by a bit. I'm including the cost of tools like jacks, orbital buffer, etc. which is inflating the cost.

The killswitch does interrupt continuity to the motor by grounding it. Inside the killswitch for Yamaha motors there's a white wire (For other brands it's usually black with yellow stripe) and a black ground wire. When the lanyard is in the white wire and black wire are disconnected. When you pull the lanyard there's a conducting metal plate on a spring that is pushed onto the white wire and black wire end. This grounds the engine and shuts it off. The white wire leads to a terminal on the CDI, as does the black ground wire. I verified that the switch works by checking the wires and the conducting plate. I'll probably have to double check. So now I have to check the CDI on the engine. It's as simple as running the engine and then connecting the white CDI terminal to the groud CDI terminal. If that doesn't work I need to take it to the mechanic. The motor runs fine, it's just turning it off is a problem lol. The trailer is fine too, before I bought it we greased the bearing buddies and I replaced the trailer tires. Brake lights and turn lights work. I just need to replace the clearance lights but those should be easy. We also replaced the fuel separating filter. I'm definitely taking it to the mechanic as soon as I can, the problem is the mechanic I want to take it to is on vacation until the 27th. I just remembered the steering cables probably need to be replaced. There's play at the steering and I can move the motor side to side a little bit before hitting resistance.

So right off the bat I have a few questions. Regarding the fuel port fuel tank. It's been empty for a while. What's the best way to clean it? Should I just fill it up and put some sea foam in there? For fuel, would car gas with sta-bil work? What's the best way to get fuel?

Click here for latest update (03/15/2019) Early spring 2018 I purchased a 1987 Ranger 375v for 2k. It was in rough condition BUT the motor and hull were sound. Since then I've done a lot of work on the boat. When I first bought it, I was terrified at what I was getting myself into. I wondered if I threw 2k down the toilet. I'm very glad to say that it turned out nicely. This is has been an incredible learning experience for me. I definitely leveled up my DIY and mechanical skills. Looking back, I can laugh at myself for forgetting the drain plug, being nervous backing down a ramp, and worrying up things I know how to do now. Original Post I recently made the decision to purchase a 1987 Ranger 375v for $2000. I did as best inspection as I could and everything seems good. You can follow that here: https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/202045-trying-to-buy-a-used-ranger-375-for-incredibly-cheap/ There's a laundry list of things that need to get done. Here's the order: Rust needs to be cleaned off. Particularly at the coupler. Steel wool and rust remover should do the trick. The coupler and the hitch ball sieze, its a pain. Done Winch needs to be cleaned or replace. I might just replace it. Done It needs to be cleaned. The compartments and bilge are filthy. Everything must be taken out and scrubbed with mold cleaner and bilge cleaner Done The port fuel tank might need to be cleaned. I need to see how much varnish is in there. Dunno how well adding gas and seafoam will work Done The fuel lines need to be switched out. I ordered ordered a pair. Fuel line connecting tanks needs to be repaired. Done Batteries need to replaced. Already have one for crank. The trolling motor batteries will be replaced later, not important now. Done Surprisingly, the important gauges seem to work. Verified tach and trim. Fuel gauge doesn'ts seem to work...need to inspect that Right side works. left side doesn't but should be easy to fix That being said the wires need to be cleaned and the terminals need to be cleaned of corrosion and rust. Done Need to check the kill wire at the engine to figure out why the engine doesn't shut off. Worst case scenario is a busted power back. Done, had to replace CDI The trim jack seals are leaky, I need to replace those. Parts already ordered. The tool to do it is $150. You can get it for ~$70 online. Sort of ridiculous Done Transom screw holes and keel chips need to be plugged. The hook eye at the front of the keel is a little loose. Need to fix that. Fiberglass restore and polish Re-carpet with 18'x8' teal carpet Need to test livewells and possibly replace some pumps Need to test bilge pump Seastar steering seal needs to be replaced Install Ultrex Install Fish Finders Bow ring needs tightening or reinforcing plate. My goal is to make it fishable for ~$1000. Add cosmetics and upholstery for another ~$1000. If I go over, that's fine, a tournament ready boat for $5000 is still an astounding deal for this area. Spreadsheet detailing total cost as of 3/16/2018

Thanks guys, looks like a trip to home depot is in order

Hi, I recently purchased a bass boat to restore and my driveway declines such that the bow sits lower than the stern. Parking it reverse is impossible. The jack on the trailer only goes up so high. How would I get the bow higher than the stern? I would need the bow higher to drain the water, but I suppose I don't necessarily need to store it long term like that. I have a single axle trailer. I haven't measured the decline, but it's not much, maybe 5 degrees?

Well folks, I pulled the trigger. Ran a compression test on it. All 6 readings were within less than 5 psi of each other. The spark plugs were a little dark, but I'd rather have it run rich than lean. We had to bypass the fuel lines anyway since they were shot to ****, I'm sure we were pumping harder than we needed to. The previous owner also screwed in transducers directly in the transom. I took out a couple screws and it was all dry, no wetness or wood rot detectable. The compressions read about 110 across the board. I was unable to open the throttle to do the test, didn't know how as when we opened it the engine won't turn on. In my research, I heard that this matters in getting a peak compression reading, but for checking tolerances between cylinders it shouldn't matter. I'm above 100 anyways so I think I'm in a good place. Here she is: Cleaned up just a little bit, but still needs a lot of work. I'm very excited though, I'm ready to take it apart and give it new life. Redoing the pumps and fuel lines intimidates me a little, but if I can't figure it out a mechanic can.

Honestly I'm very surprised to see that besides cosmetic issues the hull looks very good. Couldn't find a single stress crack. No indications the water in the bilge seeped into the insulation. According to another member if it had the water would be discolored. When I drained it, it was clear. The transom looks solid, I'm going to hammer test and bounce test it for the third time today but I would just need to fill the screws with epoxy and hardener. Cleaning is going to be a lot of work....but imagining the finished product is getting me excited. Toxic is right about checking the fuel. The owner just replaced the fuel filter. The lines definitely need to go. Hopefully the fuel tank hasn't varnished, he said he drained it but I'm going to double check...

Judging by the answers here the boat needs a lot of work, but it's doable work. I still think ~2000 is reasonable especially if the motor and boat are in good condition beneath the yuck. I bought a compression tester and I'll be doing that today hopefully. I'm also going to buy new trailer tires and grease the bearing buddies. Transom looks good and the keel looks good especially for 30 years. If everything checks out I'm taking that sumbitch home!

This is really good to know. The boat definitely has some mold in the comparments. When I drained the water it was clear, but I'm guessing putting in a mold remover will change that. Is it worth it even cleaning the bilge? Won't it get water in it constantly?

Thanks, I went back over to check it out today. -I did my best to do a thorough check for soft spots. Couldn't find any. -The boat has vents on the floor to drain water, I'm assuming to the bilge or somewhere in the boat It was tilted forward, when we tilted the boat back, water came out of the drain. Is this concerning? The water is from rain I'm assuming (the boat cover is a piece of ****). So the water has just been sitting in the bilge, when it came out it was clean and didn't seem to leak anywhere to the outside. -The transom seems solid. We both leaned on the lower unit and didn't see any flex at all. The entire boat responded to our leaning -I also did a "hammer test" I'm no professional but it seemed good. Definitely a "clack" and not a "thud", especially at the bottom it seemed good. -Motor oil looked good. No signs of water. No milky ness, uniform copperish/brownish oil color. -Some small chips on the keel. Seems to be okay considering it's 30 years old. I can see fiberglass through the chip. So essentially all the water seems like it's coming from the top (rain). I couldn't find any soft spots or stress cracks, or evidence of wood rot. Here's some pictures.

It's in the father's name so should be good to go on that front.

Thanks, a working boat for 3k ain't too bad. In some ways I'd rather just do it myself. I know exactly what I'm getting and I'll learn how to take care of a boat. It'll be like an education. I think for me it's better than buying a boat advertised as in good condition but maybe has underlying issues not advertised. Building it up like this will give me confidence and save me money in the long run. All the things you said are fixable. I'm more nervous about a cracked transom and leaks. I'll be taking pictures tmrw and posting them on here.