Drain plug hole?

[Wurming67]

I'm a fairly new boat owner two years to be exact I'm learning as I go along,lately I noticed I'm taking in water and using my bilge pump to take it out.My question is at drain hole of the hull should there be a plastic gasket or rubber gasket in that tube?The drain plug fits perfect but I think there was some type of gasket there before,could that missing gasket cause me to take in water even though drain plug fits securely?Thanks guys!!

[moguy1973]

What kind of drain plug do you have?

 

The one I have is a t-handle style where you stick it in and twist it until it seals tightly.  There's another that has a lever arm that you flip towards the boat to seal it.  

 

Are you just sticking it in the hole without activating the sealing mechanism?

[Wurming67]

2 minutes ago, moguy1973 said:

What kind of drain plug do you have?

 

The one I have is a t-handle style where you stick it in and twist it until it seals tightly.  There's another that has a lever arm that you flip towards the boat to seal it.  

 

Are you just sticking it in the hole without activating the sealing mechanism?

I've tried both, I loosen them up than stick it in, than turn it ,seems to be getting a tight seal but for some reason I thought there was some plastic gasket in the drain hole tube

[moguy1973]

Mine is an aluminum boat and I don't have anything in my drain tube.

[Wurming67]

Mine is fiberglass and it has brass fitting in the hulls drain plug hole.

[DINK WHISPERER]

Mine has a brass fitting and the plug screws in until tight. Pics of yours would probably help us. 

[Wurming67]

I think this is what's missing that's y I'm taking on some water.Not getting a tight seal without this.I remember just recently I was taking my boat out the water took my drain plug out and saw pieces of this falling apart once I took the drain plug out.

This is what it looks like now

[Jig Man]

On one boat my drain plug had an O ring.  When it went bad I'd get leaking around the plug.  Is yours missing an O ring?

[Wurming67]

7 minutes ago, Jig Man said:

On one boat my drain plug had an O ring.  When it went bad I'd get leaking around the plug.  Is yours missing an O ring?

I think it's missing that plastic drain tube piece

[TOXIC]

On your picture, you can see to outer outline of where the plug housing used to be.  There's probably a thru hull insert that was epoxied in there at one time.  Mine is threaded and the plug unscrews from the housing which is screwed and sealed to the hull.  

 

 

[Wurming67]

8 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

On your picture, you can see to outer outline of where the plug housing used to be.  There's probably a thru hull insert that was epoxied in there at one time.  Mine is threaded and the plug unscrews from the housing which is screwed and sealed to the hull.  

 

 

Thanks for info!

Do you think this would work?

[TOXIC]

Personally, I have not seen that insert but you need to measure the size of the hole in your hull.  I would convert it to the type I showed if you can.  If there is a metal insert in your hull then I would get in touch with your boats manufacturer or google it by brand name to get the proper insert.  All of my glass boats have had the one I showed or one like it.   

[Wurming67]

Or would I be better putting this in?

[TOXIC]

What year and boat do you have?  

[Wurming67]

Shes old, company isn't in business anymore, it's a 1978 Fiberking Bomber

[TOXIC]

Is there a metal insert in your hull or is it just a thru hole?  

[Wurming67]

14 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

Is there a metal insert in your hull or is it just a thru hole?  

Metal

[TOXIC]

Is it threaded or smooth?  

[Wurming67]

8 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

Is it threaded or smooth?  

Smooth

[MickD]

The picture you sent shows an obvious (to me at least) cobble job repairing the drain hole area of the hull by epoxying in a sleeve which would accept a plug.  It is very possible that your leakage is coming between the cobbled-in sleeve and the hull itself, not between the plug and the tube.  If your plug now seats tightly into the hole then the leakage is most likely  the tube and the hull.  It appears to me that the fitting suggested by a poster, which has a housing which is screwed to the hull, will fix it IF its housing is big enough to totally cover the cobbled epoxy AND the surface to which it is applied is smoothed out to allow good, constant, contact between it and the hull.  You would apply a high quality caulk between the housing and the hull.

 

If what I think is going on adding this fitting would not require you to disturb the old cobbled fix; you would be covering it up so its flaws would no longer allow leakage.

 

One way to test is to cobble a cork or rubber plug into the sleeve you now have to temporarily seal to the I.D. of the sleeve that is cobbled in.  If you do a good job on that temporary plug, and the leakage continues, then the leakage is between the cobbled-in sleeve and the hull.

[Wurming67]

13 minutes ago, MickD said:

The picture you sent shows an obvious (to me at least) cobble job repairing the drain hole area of the hull by epoxying in a sleeve which would accept a plug.  It is very possible that your leakage is coming between the cobbled-in sleeve and the hull itself, not between the plug and the tube.  If your plug now seats tightly into the hole then the leakage is most likely  the tube and the hull.  It appears to me that the fitting suggested by a poster, which has a housing which is screwed to the hull, will fix it IF its housing is big enough to totally cover the cobbled epoxy AND the surface to which it is applied is smoothed out to allow good, constant, contact between it and the hull.  You would apply a high quality caulk between the housing and the hull.

 

If what I think is going on adding this fitting would not require you to disturb the old cobbled fix; you would be covering it up so its flaws would no longer allow leakage.

 

One way to test is to cobble a cork or rubber plug into the sleeve you now have to temporarily seal to the I.D. of the sleeve that is cobbled in.  If you do a good job on that temporary plug, and the leakage continues, then the leakage is between the cobbled-in sleeve and the hull.

Wow!Thank you sooooooo much for all that great info!!!Should  I use brass sleeve or plastic sleeve?

[Fishingmickey]

3 hours ago, Wurming67 said:

Or would I be better putting this in?

     From your picture Wurming It looks like you already have the brass insert. It has discolored/darkened with age. The brass insert works with the "T" handle or lever style plugs. On those type of plugs you can screw the "T" or the lever and it should cause the rubber portion of the plug to expand. I'd do this out of the boat first then insert it in the sleeve/tube and try screwing it tight. It should  tighten/expand as you turn the "T" or lever with the plug inserted.

     If all that is fine. Then a close inspection of the tube is in order. If it leaks at the tube then replacing the insert is in order. that is another "fun" job.

Good luck and hope the above helps.

Fishingmickey

[MickD]

3 hours ago, Wurming67 said:

Wow!Thank you sooooooo much for all that great info!!!Should  I use brass sleeve or plastic sleeve?

You say you have a smooth hole.  If you have that you already have the sleeve, I believe.  The 64 dollar question is Does your expandable plug, the kind that someone earlier described as a "lever on it", fit tightly into the smooth hole when the lever is operated.  The answer to this is either yes or no.  If the answer is yes, then your leak is somewhere else, not through the plug or its mating to the existing sleeve and you do not need to add another sleeve.  If the answer is no, then you have mismatch between your plug and the existing sleeve.  The mismatch can be a plug too small or a sleeve OD too large.  

 

The expandable plugs are designed to be shoved into the right diameter smooth hole, and when the lever is operated, will expand to seal from water entry.  They don't screw in.  They are cheap, and all are the same size as far as I know, at least for fresh water outboard sized hulls.

 

If it does fit tightly you don't need a sleeve at all.  But if it fits tightly and the boat still leaks, then the leak must be coming between the OD of the sleeve that is already in there and the boat hull, through gaps in the cobbled epoxy job, most likely.  (or have you considered it's coming in somewhere else having nothing to do with the drain hole?)  If the leak is between the existing sleeve and the hull, then the black fitting shown above, with the proper prep I mentioned before, should work. It utilized a threaded plug with an O ring, you can see that in the picture.  It's housing must be water tight to the hull, which is what I tried to say before.

 

To repeat, the first question you have to answer before going any further is:  Does your plug fit tightly into the existing sleeve?  You cannot sidestep this - it has to be answered.  Yes, or No.  If unclear, come on back and we'll work on it some more.

[Wurming67]

Thanks so much for all the responses!When I get home from work I'm gonna double check the drain plug how loose or tight it fits.Might be just the drain plug.But I do remember some type of plastic oring came apart when I took the drain plug out that why when I saw that pic from west Marine with that plastic tube looked like the old piece,that's  why I thought that's what I needed to buy to put in hole to get a better seal.

[MickD]

What you saw may have been pieces of a deteriorated plug.  I had one crumble once.  You've got to answer the question Does the plug fit snugly?