Where's my fuel tank?

hey C · 01-20-2008, 11:03 AM

My boat: 1996 Mariah Shabah 180.
I've removed my back to back "lounge" seat and am replacing it with another pilot seat. I've located it directly across from the original pilot seat for symetry and balance. While drilling through the deck to mount the pedestal I hit metal directly under the plywood in 4 of the 6 holes I drilled. (All toward the port side of the drilling pattern.) Having no visual or manual access to the underside of the deck I can't tell what it was. Somebody please tell me it wasn't the fuel tank.

***mikeyt*** · 01-20-2008, 02:30 PM

uh boy...i'm pretty sure the tank doesnt extend up past the rear of the ski locker but i'm not absolutely postive. Perhaps Mariah Trooper can measure the location of his front buckets & post them here. I wonder if it was also possible that Mariah had a practice of installing a metal plate in that location on all of their 180 Shabahs (and probably most/all of their other models) for mounting the bucket seat , whether or not they used buckets in that particular boat. It might help to post a pic here of your installation / layout.

I've got the same intent to replace my back to back drivers seat with a bucket so i'm interested in this one....

Z 202 · 01-20-2008, 02:38 PM

On my Shabah, the fuel tank is between the center stingers just forward of the engine bay. If you flip over the rear seat there is a little hatch that you can open to access the filler/vent tube connections, and the gauge sender.

On mine the fuel tank is *not* metal...

I'm with Mikey, I don't think the tank extends beyond the aft side of the ski locker.

hey C · 01-20-2008, 03:28 PM

I'm goin' out now to examine everything more closely...the weather is nasty though, only 62 degrees F, soggy and cloudy!!

I'll keep ya posted.

Z 202 · 01-20-2008, 03:59 PM

No, the weather here is nasty: It's -13°C and -24°C with the windchill.

That would be 9° and -11° for those that use that other temp scale...

***ShabahZ280*** · 01-20-2008, 05:05 PM

What you have hit is the metal mounting support for the seat. Mariah put a metal backing plate under all of the fittings that go through the fiberglass for a stronger mounting point. See the attached image. This is from one of the brochures we have here on the site.

hey C · 01-20-2008, 09:05 PM

you guys are awesome....yes the fuel tank is immediately forward of the engine with a cutout in the deck that you can fold back if you have to. The tank is plastic.
I've taken off the entire moulded fiberglass engine cover and rear seating structure so now I have full access to my engine and all the other stuff mounted back there. I'm checking all connections, replacing iffy parts (got a new blower) and generally cleaning it all out. Wish I'd seen that diagram of the metal plate a week ago...I'd have slept much better all week! I'll take some pics before I put everything back together. Still waiting for most of my upholstery to come back from the shop. Thanks again guys....this site is the best.

***300sflyer*** · 01-22-2008, 01:14 PM

One other thing you might want to check, is the hinged floor flap that covers the rear end of the gas tank. You won’t believe what I found out about mine...

Every time I was in the boat I could smell a hint of gas. After much investigation around the engine itself which turned up nothing, I started digging further and decided to lift the floor flap. There are two screws which hold it down. I removed the first screw and it came out of the plywood just as it should. The second screw, was quite loose and did not feel solid at all on the way out...

Yup... You guessed it... It was screwed right into the fill line for the tank!

My guess is this was done at the factory right from day one, as there were no other holes in the wood where the screw could have been previously.

I cut the hose completely at the hole, and installed 4 hose clamps after I put a 5" piece of 1-1/2" aluminum pipe reconnecting the two ends.. No more gas smell.