I blame my best friend, he bought a boat, i fell in love with it, and had to get one myself.
Purchased a 1982 Arrowglass Cheetah, has mercruiser 485 4cyl and 485 outdrive, and as i found, a LOT of work to be done. But the "Arrowglass" hour meter only reads 380 hours on the boat total.
Tore out the carpet and up the decking (marine board) and am about to glue down the new carpet tomorrow, Had a couple soft spots, but the new decking solves that
just got done fiberglassing it over and smoothing the seams.
Motor starts up pretty easy (once you have a battery with enough charge to do so, haha) but i had a few concerns, previous owner had said it has some slight knock in april, and that it had low oil pressure, seeing that the filter was rusted around the lip, i decided to do an oil change. I didn't know that the reason the dipstick was threaded was for an evacuator, and being a manager for a corporate auto lube company, i just went about it with the drain plug in the bilge. I grabbed a plastic gallon ice cream container and proceeded to drain the oil after warming the engine, about a quarter of a quart at a time, making trips to dump it in the waste oil tank in the garage... 22 trips later, exhausted from climbing in and out of her one handed balancing a container of hot oil, i was exhausted. The concern i had, was that the oil that came out was a bit milky looking. My merc 185 has a coolant setup with a heat exchanger (uses glycol based coolant) and the coolant was not low, nor did it even look bad at all, just a little dark from age. Wonder if it'll be okay, or if i'm in for trouble. When i ran it before changing the oil, she had built solid pressure in the cooling system, and it would appear that the upper tank has been replaced rather recently.
Prevoius owner was wonderful to have already updated the alternator to a much newer style, and also at the same time did away with the points and went electronic ignition.
Tracked down the 30weight oil that it calls for in the owners manual, filled her up and fired it up on the muffs, and she purred, no more knock. Wonder if the filter similar to a car, was starving the motor of oil. Though i did notice with oil cap off, that not much oil flows in the upper galley under the valve cover, though pressure reads in the green on the gauge, and it's right on the full mark on the dipstick.
Pretty sure i'm in for replacing the steering cable, as the wheel won't move, nor will the outdrive, though he just had it out 4 months ago and was fine? The helm is free, and you can see where the helm turning flexes the cable, but i also noticed that i have power steering, and am unable to see a lot of fluid flow in the pump (has a gm-saginaw style). But, even without the pump, it should still turn, even with the engine off right? Wondering how hard it's gonna be to replace that steering cable.
Trim down works fine, but trim up doesnt work on the trailer or the trim up buttons on the throttle. I decided much like jump[ing my old ford maverick across the solenoid, i could find out if it was bad? as it wasn't even clicking, that did the trick, put the trim up, gotta get a new trim solenoid, should i replace the trim sensors? (black discs on the sides of the outdrive) while i'm at it?
Still looking for the shop vac to get all those leaves and crap out of the bilge... may end up with a new one from wal-mart this week.
But all in all, i'm excited to have her as a project to restore, i really love the sterndrives. can fish, pull a tube or ski all in once, and enough space for us! (and definitely not as bouncy on the waves as my uncle's pontoon)
Advice, tips, and suggestions are all greatly appreciated.
Purchased a 1982 Arrowglass Cheetah, has mercruiser 485 4cyl and 485 outdrive, and as i found, a LOT of work to be done. But the "Arrowglass" hour meter only reads 380 hours on the boat total.
Tore out the carpet and up the decking (marine board) and am about to glue down the new carpet tomorrow, Had a couple soft spots, but the new decking solves that
just got done fiberglassing it over and smoothing the seams.Motor starts up pretty easy (once you have a battery with enough charge to do so, haha) but i had a few concerns, previous owner had said it has some slight knock in april, and that it had low oil pressure, seeing that the filter was rusted around the lip, i decided to do an oil change. I didn't know that the reason the dipstick was threaded was for an evacuator, and being a manager for a corporate auto lube company, i just went about it with the drain plug in the bilge. I grabbed a plastic gallon ice cream container and proceeded to drain the oil after warming the engine, about a quarter of a quart at a time, making trips to dump it in the waste oil tank in the garage... 22 trips later, exhausted from climbing in and out of her one handed balancing a container of hot oil, i was exhausted. The concern i had, was that the oil that came out was a bit milky looking. My merc 185 has a coolant setup with a heat exchanger (uses glycol based coolant) and the coolant was not low, nor did it even look bad at all, just a little dark from age. Wonder if it'll be okay, or if i'm in for trouble. When i ran it before changing the oil, she had built solid pressure in the cooling system, and it would appear that the upper tank has been replaced rather recently.
Prevoius owner was wonderful to have already updated the alternator to a much newer style, and also at the same time did away with the points and went electronic ignition.
Tracked down the 30weight oil that it calls for in the owners manual, filled her up and fired it up on the muffs, and she purred, no more knock. Wonder if the filter similar to a car, was starving the motor of oil. Though i did notice with oil cap off, that not much oil flows in the upper galley under the valve cover, though pressure reads in the green on the gauge, and it's right on the full mark on the dipstick.
Pretty sure i'm in for replacing the steering cable, as the wheel won't move, nor will the outdrive, though he just had it out 4 months ago and was fine? The helm is free, and you can see where the helm turning flexes the cable, but i also noticed that i have power steering, and am unable to see a lot of fluid flow in the pump (has a gm-saginaw style). But, even without the pump, it should still turn, even with the engine off right? Wondering how hard it's gonna be to replace that steering cable.
Trim down works fine, but trim up doesnt work on the trailer or the trim up buttons on the throttle. I decided much like jump[ing my old ford maverick across the solenoid, i could find out if it was bad? as it wasn't even clicking, that did the trick, put the trim up, gotta get a new trim solenoid, should i replace the trim sensors? (black discs on the sides of the outdrive) while i'm at it?
Still looking for the shop vac to get all those leaves and crap out of the bilge... may end up with a new one from wal-mart this week.
But all in all, i'm excited to have her as a project to restore, i really love the sterndrives. can fish, pull a tube or ski all in once, and enough space for us! (and definitely not as bouncy on the waves as my uncle's pontoon)
Advice, tips, and suggestions are all greatly appreciated.
