Ready for the winter

Great warm day. Decided to fire up the motor and change the oil. Hooked up the hose to the lower unit and fired up the motor. Took about fifteen minutes for the engine to warm up. Once all good and warm shut her down and sucked out the oil. Once again I love the Mini-Vac for getting oil out through the dip stick. Change the filter and poured in 4 fresh quarts of oil. Fired her back up and checked for leaks. All looked good so off came the flame arrestor. Brought her up to 1500 RPM and then sprayed Sea Foam cleaner and anti corrosion into the carburetor until she stalled. Switch off, flame arrestor cleaned with B12 chemtool and reinstalled. Then opened up all of the trains in the cooling system and let her drain. With all the water out of the cooling system, the shop vac was used to clean up the water that was trapped in the bilge.

Now the cold can come.

October 2011

Very busy month started off with the Heartland Classics boat show at Grand Lake. Check out the photos from the show here. http://www.heartland-classics.org/2011/10/2011-mahogany-and-chrome-show/ and for a written report check out this link http://www.heartland-classics.org/2011/10/201-mc-report/, Weather was beautiful, cool, clear and calm. 50+ classic boats on display.

The Crestliner ran great for the weekend. Did discover that she is leaking a little more oil than I like out the rear main seal. May have to R&R the motor this fall. The drive ran good though. While at the show I learned how to remove the windows to replace the glass. So another fall project will be new glass in the side windows. As well as probably a new horn.

Drain Plug

Many folks have said the drain plug is 3/4" pipe thread.  However mine is not. It turned out to be 15/16-14. I purchased the standard 3/4-14 pipe and a buddy turned it down on the lathe. Works perfect. Not sure if others have had this problem or not. Let me know if you have.

Good news

Tech at Bayer called. Everything is ok in the drive. Preload on the gears was a little tight and causing some noise. Nothing serious. Should be ready next week.

Dropped off at Bayer Marine

Well I have a couple of weeks so I dropped her off at Bayer to het their opinion on the whirring sound from the top of the drive. They said about a week. Hoping they tell me no problems found. Just the way the drive sounds. Have fun and fix your engine oil leak.

One coat of Largo Blue

After the PreKote was dry, I sanded the primer with 220 grit. Once everything was "scratched" I started brushing on Interlux Largo Blue. This seemed to go on nice and smooth. I mixed together two old cans I had on the shelf from a wood canoe project. That was enough for the first coat, but I had to order another can for the second coat. That was last weekend. The second coat was more of a problem. On the port side I brushed it on. It kept sagging bad. Could not figure out why. All I needed was some color as the first coat had done a great job of covering the primer. I finally got something that was acceptable. However, I loaded the sprayer for the starboard side and sprayed it. This worked really well. One thing I did was thin it out with the universal Interlux thinning fluid. So after spraying I went back to the port side and brushed out the sag areas with the really thinned paint. For the most part it all worked out. Here are the pictures after the first coat.

Painting the Blue

Well I could no longer live with the scratches and fading paint and of course the transom being a different blue than the rest of the boat. So, as the weather has been great and sunny and hot I ran out of excuses. Today peeled the numbers off and got out the mineral spirits and cleaned up all of the sticky stuff. Then sanded all of the paint with a 100 grit sanding sponge. Followed by cleaning with water only to remove the dust and then a final wipe with mineral spirits. This was followed by priming all surfaces with Interlux PreKote. Love this stuff it brushes on smooth. A little challenging keeping a wet edge in today's heat. Here is a photo of the final results after priming.

Hopefully get some color on her tomorrow. Going with the Largo Blue.

Lake Oologah

Loaded up the boat and headed out to Lake Oologah in Rogers County. Had a great time. The new shifter and cables worked really good. Smooth shifting, smooth throttle control. Lake Oologah does not have blue green algae right now like some of the other Oklahoma lakes. The water is down, but terribly shallow. All the kids and dad rode on the tube and grandpa got some boat driving time.

While you are at Oologah check out Redbud Marina (http://www.redbudmarina.com/). They have fuel, pizza and ice cream. Quick easy self serve fuel. You can call ahead while you are on the lake, and they will have the pizza waiting for you when you pull up to the dock.

My Review of Teleflex TFXTREME 3600 Mercury Control Cables

Originally submitted at Jamestown Distributors

Teleflex 3600 control cables have an engine end fitting for Mercury engines and a 10-32 threaded end for the controls. The cable is premium TFXTREME for smoothest possible performance. Fits: Mercury products (1965-date); Force (1993-date) using Mercury controls which accept 10-32 threaded ends or u...

Teleflex TFXTREME 3600 Mercury Control Cables

Great Cable

By Aircraft and Boats from Tulsa, OK on 7/29/2011

 

5out of 5

Pros: Works great

Cons: expensive

Best Uses: Throttle Control, Shift Control

Describe Yourself: Advanced

Was this a gift?: No

Repalced aging controls on my 1973 Mercruiser MC1. Thought my old cables were ok, but when I got these I realized that my cables were shot. She shifts smooth as silk now. They are expensive, but good cables are essential to smooth operation.

(legalese)

My Review of Teleflex Universal Outboard Side Mount Control

Originally submitted at Jamestown Distributors

Teleflex heavy-duty, single lever/dual action universal controls are excellent replacements for both outboard and sterndrive systems using universal pull-type cables. Controls feature push button for disengage during starting or warm-up and adjustable friction for throttle. An optional neutral saf...

Teleflex Universal Outboard Side Mount Control

Good Control

By Aircraft and Boats from Tulsa, OK on 7/29/2011

 

4out of 5

Pros: Clear Directions

Best Uses: Engine

Describe Yourself: Advanced

Was this a gift?: No

Product comes with clear directions is very well built. Some what bland plastic exterior cover, is offset by an EXCELLENT interior mechanisim that works as advertised. I am using the control to run a 1973 Mercruiser MC-1 stern drive with a 3.0L Chevy motor. I also installed new shift and throttle cables teleflex 630XX series with fittings for my motor. Everything went together as advertised following the instructions. Only problem I had was the handle stuck out further than my old shifter and hit my steering wheel. After studing the handle, I was able to remove the grip and rebuild it with the handle turned towards the control instead of away from it. This worked well but it would be nice if they gave instructions on how to rebuild the handle to the reverse configuration in the instructions. The only complaint I have is the shift interlock is a piece that lifts up on the top of the handle. This piece seems very flimisy and is not as intitive to use as the traditional squeeze trigger on the front of the handle. My opinion may change with practice and time. Overall, this is a good control that can be setup to work with a number of motors. I did spend a lot of time getting my shift travel adjusted with respect to the control, the shift throw, and the Mercruiser shift interrupt assembly. Take your time and you will get it setup.

(legalese)

Sunday Afternoon at Keystone

Loaded up the family and headed to Keystone lake yesterday. Boat ran great. Got the oldest on the inner tube for the first time this year and the first time with the Mercruiser drive installed. The 14.75 x 19 prop seemed to work pretty good with the typical load on board. Keystone was a lot smoother with only a light ripple compared to the white caps and 3 foot waves from Memorial Day weekend.

Reverse gear works now. Well it was always going into gear just killing itself due to a shift interrupt switch miss adjustment. Now it is properly adjusted and it is working correctly. Drive shifts nice and easy.

Memorial Day at Keystone Lake

Loaded up the family and headed to the lake. This was the first trip with the family and the new "old" out drive. Did not need to be worried. She fired up and ran well. Water was very rough due to winds topping 30+ mph. Was a good check out for everything, if it worked well today, it should work well pretty much anytime. Hope to get out again maybe next Sunday afternoon.

Oil Change

Well it is the time of year again. Time to change the engine oil. Last year I borrowed a friends electric oil changer. This year I wanted to get my own. I did the research and none of the electric units that were under $100 got good reviews. However the manual Mityvac http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JFJM14 got good reviews so I purchased one.

Today I hooked up the water line to the out drive and fired her up. She started right up like she always does. After the idle smoothed out, I let her run for about 30 minutes. Until the tatle tale water was nice and hot. Then I shut her down, setup the Mityvac and followed its instructions. The oil came right out with no mess, no fuss, worked GREAT.

Four quarts of fresh Amsoil 5w-30 and a new Amsoil marine duty filter. Everything buttoned up, turned the water back on and fired her up again. No leaks. Next stop the lake.

Engine and Shiftcheck

Fired it up and checked the shifting. Works nice and smooth. Freezing temperatures are coming so did not get it take it to the water. Hopefully soon.

MerControl Update

Ok, decided that I want an old style MerControl that was age appropriate for the engine. Ended up purchasing 3 of them off of E-Bay to get working parts. Finally found a combination of parts that produced a working unit with parts that were not too worn out. Hooked up the cables and nothing worked !!!! ARG !!! Discovered I had the cables backwards. Swapped them around and now things worked better. Throttle still bound up though and found that the plunger that holds the warm up lever down was missing. Found a control back that still had the plunger. Put everything back together and now the throttle works a little better. Took it all apart again and liberally lubricated with silicon spray. Pulled cable core out and lubricated cable, put it all back together and things worked pretty well. But, it does not shift the lower unit !!!

Now to the shift plate behind the engine. Adjusted the cable attach points on the lever arms to get more throw. Reverse engages, but not forward. But got a clue. The rocker switch for ignition cut out is engaging. Turn prop by hand and it still engaged. Adjusted the upper shift cable and everything engages. Couple more checks. Now we are ready for engine run. Still below freezing temps so not going to fire it up yet.