2-28-2009 Seat Stands

Spend yesterday and today making new ply wood boxes for the aft passenger seats. They are all built up and ready to be final sanded and painted. Then its time to mount the seats back to them. Think I am going to make a ply wood top to mount the seats to instead of mounting the hinges directly to the box. This should provide some additional strength. Not sure if I am going to hard mount the boxes to the floor or just let them float there.

2-27-2009 More from the mechanic

Well it turns our that the ball gears were lose on the drive shaft in the intermediate housing so all of that had to come apart. Turned out that the shafts were ok, but the bearings are shot. So as it is all apart already the bearings and the gears going to be replaced. Only thing left will be the shafts. The good news is the water pump is ok as well as the spline shaft that it rides on.

Good news is when it is all back together I should not have to worry about the stern drive.

2-26-2009 Update From Mechanic

Well, the word from the shop is that the alternator may not be working, the thermostat needs to be replaced, and the exhaust manifold is cracked. The good news the crack is on the outside of the unit and can be repaired with a little JB Weld we hope. He is taking a look under at the stern drive now. Hopefully the word tomorrow will be good. Oh yeah, the Carb needed to be rebuilt.

2-21-2009 Took it to the Mechanic

Well it trailered out to the shop today with no issues. Amazing the tires were even ok after sitting for 6 months. Should be out there for about 10 days. Pickup put the numbers on it put the interior back in and then its time to hit the water. Goal is to have it in the water by April.

2-20-2009 Misc Update

Been working on all of the wood for the seats, foot wells, etc. Most of it is complete. Attempted to change the oil using a suck plunger through the dip stick using a Wal-Mart special suck pump. Well that was disaster. It did not work. Type C oil showed up. Tomorrow taking the boat to mechanic tomorrow to have him go over the lower unit and complete that oil change.