Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Continued working on the transom. All parts are cut and checked. Just need the weather to get up above 50 again so that the glue will work.

Reinstalled the exhaust riser and worked out the exhaust connection. Photos coming once everything is installed.

Scraped the remaining carpet pieces off of the right side of the cockpit area.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Transom Installation and Photos







Well the first round of parts for the new transom went in today. All parts fit as expected. The Gorilla Glue seems to have worked as advertised. The photos show the initial round of parts installed. Also included a photo of the new control console.

Monday, December 8, 2008

12-7-2008 Transom Goes Back In

Well I got all the wood pieces for the transom back up in the boat. All the parts fit and the long piece across the stern I thought would give me fits but it slid right in with no problem. Picked up some stainless screws to put it all back together with. I am going to use a polyurethane based glue to put it all together with. Figure because it is going to be screwed through out that the polyurethane should work good.

Photos coming soon.

Friday, November 7, 2008

11-7-2008 Another Catchup Post

Ok, the new helm is installed with new gages. The wheel is back in and all seems to be working. Started the motor and all the gages come to life and seem to be working just fine. All the parts for the transom are built and in the process of final fitting. Started cleaning up all of the other stuff I had ripped out to see what is usable and what needs to be replaced.

Not much hope that it is going to see water this year. Hopefully in the spring next year.

Friday, October 10, 2008

10-10-2008 Catchup

Spent last weekend working out the motor. She is idling nice now and picks up the prop without stumbling at all. Installed new gaskets in the tilt gear box and have hopefully put that problem to bed for a few years. Started making the parts for the new transom. The port side parts are made. The starboard side parts are this weeks goal.

New engine gauges and cooling hoses are here. This weekends goal is to get the new tach installed so that I can see how fast she is turning to get the idle set a little better and then the oil pressure gauge installed to confirm that is all ok there. I also have the a new water pump hose to install to stop the biggest of the small leaks.

On the down side the bottom of the exhaust manifold is leaking water. I am afraid it may be close to being rusted through. Manifolds are really expensive so I am hoping not.

Found a new trim unit on e-bay. it should be here next week. Once it is here and installed the select trim function will be up and running. At this point I am racing cold weather. I would like to try to get it in the water this year but that is starting to look unlikely.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

9-28-2008 The Engine Runs !!!

The new distributor kit from Michigan Motorz arrived. It installed easy and timed out. After installing fuel systems and a couple of other parts for the fuel system I cranked like crazy and after a little while she actually lit off and cleared a lot of gunk and what not from the system and then settled down and ran smooth. Lots of small water leaks at the various gaskets, but that can be worked out.

After shutting it down. I hooked up the shift wires and then fired it back up. She SHIFTS !! However, only guage that works is the amp meter. Good news the alternator is working.

Before too much more running is done the oil pressure and temperature guages have to get working.

Monday, September 22, 2008

9-22-2008 Floor, Tilt and Carb

Well this past weekend was spent getting the floor panels cut and fit checked. All of the parts fits. Next they will be painted with Gluvit for preservation.

Got the Tilt system sort of working. The new motor runs but it does not tilt the motor up correctly. You have to help it up. Started checking and cleaning and performance was somewhat improved, however, it is not what it should be. Next all the wires are going to be inspected and potentially replaced with new copper along with new tilt solenoids. The housing will be inspected as well and potentially have the parts replaced with a new clutch pack.

The Carb looks ok on the motor however, I think I have figured out that the choke spring is broken. Not sure. need to pull off the automatic choke cover and see. I am thinking about just replacing the carb, however, I would like to actually get the motor running before I put too much more money in it. I have a new distributor and coil on the way as it was determiend to be more cost effective to put in a modern electronic distributor than spend all the money on parts for new points, caps, etc. Plus, the distributor looks like heck and there is a lot corrosion.

In case you are interested you can find lots of useful parts at the following companies.

Michigan Motorz
E-Basic Power

Saturday, September 13, 2008

9-13-2008 Installed Console

Well, the new console is installed. A couple of pieces still need to be marked and drilled. Also picked up the ply wood for the new deck and some Gluvit epoxy sealer. All of the deck material will get a coat of epoxy prior to installing. Ordered the fuel tank today and picked up some oil for the tilt gear case.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

9-6-2008 New Tilt Motor

The new tilt motor came in along with a manual. Motor was installed and now the lower unit can be raised and lowered. Using the manual the wiring was sorted out and all of the junk that has been added over the years was removed. The weird thing is that the manual says there should be a Blue connector at the motor, however, the diagram for the V8 says there should be a yellow and black connector at the motor. My motor has the yellow and black connector and seems to follow the V8 diagram. Who knows.

The control panel rebuild is coming along. A polyurethane stain is being used over the seal ply wood. Results are looking pretty good.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Needs 8-31-2008

Looking for a sales brochure from 1974. If anyone has one please drop me an e-mail.

The Interior 8-23 thru 8-31



Ok, the work in the back has indicated that the deck is rotten in some places. Also, all of the fake "wood" vinyl is coming off the real wood so something has to be done about this. In addition, a piece of carpet was put down over the original carpet. All of it is worn and not worth keeping so the past two weekends have been spent removing interior details and pulling the floor. The good news is the floor came out easily revealing that the under lying structure is in good shape.


I also pulled the control console and the cabin door. I decided to make a new console using the old one as a pattern. The door is getting sanded, sealed and finished with a new polyurethane coating. Imagine, real wood looking like well real wood. The photo shows the start of the cabin door refinishing. The other photos show what was left of the control console.

The Tilt Motor 8-17-2008

With all of the port hardware out of the way, removal of the tilt motor was easy. It looked pretty bad beat up which is not unexpecte for its age. A call to the local OMC dealer indicated it was $300 for a new one or $200 for a refurbished one. However, off to Ebay again and I found one for $88. Hopefully it will work great when it gets here. not sure why it is so much less expensive than the OMC dealer.

With the trim motor removed I took a look at the select trim. With a couple of taps the motor started turning again. However the jack screw only goes a couple of turns. After further investigation I think something is binding at the top of the screw. For now I am waiting for a manual to come in that I ordered. Hopefully it will lend some light on the problem.

The Port Side Aft 8-16-2008


Well I got the fuel tank out today. The port side transom is pretty bad as well. I decided that the transom plate has to come out. Good news, with an aluminum hull boat the wood in the transom is just a plate bolted to the back of the hull to stiffen the aft aluminum hull plate. I pulled all the bolts out and removed screws. Then I came in with a reciprocating saw and cut the plate up so it could be taken out in piecess. It came out pretty easy.

The Transom Plate 8-10-2008

Well cleaned up the interior and threw away all of the rotted life jackets and stuff that were up in the cabin. Removed the aft seats and started working my way back to the transom to see what I would find. The transom plate was rotted severly on the starboard side. The port side could not be accesed due to the fuel tank. The starboard transom plate litterally came out in crumbs and flakes from the hull to a point about 10" inboard from the hull.

Just to find out what else is wrong I decided to hook up a battery. Some of the lights worked. The engine cranked !! I did not try to get it to fire though due to old gas in the tank and no water to the lower unit. I then tried the trims. Of course neither motor worked. Oh well, I will get the tank out in a couple of days and see what the starboard side looks like.

Welcome Home 8-9-2008


My latest project comes home. A 1974 Norseman DC Cuddy Cabin. She is a find off of Ebay. Brought her from Nebraska down to Tulsa, OK. She is 19 ft long with a 140 HP OMC Stringer. There are the usual types of problems. Rotten wood in the transom plate. Carpet is worn out. Electrical is slightly better than a rats nest. However, the hull is sound and the 3.0L GM, though not currently running does turn over and is reported to have run a couple of years back. Basically it looks like she was parked in about 2004 and just left to sit.