Hello! I'm new to this forum and boating in general, and hope to share a bit of my (admittedly limited) experience, and maybe gain some knowledge from those with more experience in the process!
(P.S. Please bear with me on some of my boating terms, I'm not yet familiar with all of the terms and names for parts and pieces, but hope to remedy that situation in the near future...)
A little about myself- I am a 26 year old native Kansan who lives in Edgerton, Kansas.
I have a wife and 6 year old son, and have been an avid fisherman/ outdoors man since I was about his age, and hope to instill as strong a love of the natural world in him. My usual water is the Hillsdale Reservoir, although I spent a year living 200 yards from Table Rock Lake in Missouri, and still visit family there from time to time. I spent 8 years in the Army reserves as a 63B (Wheeled vehicle mechanic), and served 1 tour in Iraq.
Now, on to the interesting stuff!
I recently acquired a 1978 Ranger 178V, with a 1978 115 hp Johnson outboard, a 1993 Motorguide Magnum trolling motor, and trailer.
I lucked upon the vessel when my employer bought it from a family member, and decided he didn't want to take on the project, and he would rather have the money back that he invested. So, after a bit of discussion, and him allowing me to make payments in the amount of $50 weekly, and an agreement on my part that I remove the boat from his property, it was mine for what I believe to be a too good to pass up $600... (This is still to be determined...)
In addition to the boat, trailer, and trolling motor, the deal also included registration until 2015, a fish finder with an extra head unit, bow and stern lights, new trailer straps, about 6 qts of two stroke oil, various rope, three different anchors, an assortment of water plugs, and various other odds and ends
Now, I was aware of some of the problems with the boat, the major ones being that the engine didn't pump water, and the trailer was in rough shape, and set about taking my prize back to my home. That very night, I discovered the reason the water pump wouldn't deliver water to the engine, and repaired it. ( It turned out to be the waterline from the top of the water pump to the engine block was bent and in no way connected to the top of the pump, due to an attempted replacement of the pump impeller.) My fix was to straighten the tube as well as I could, and connect it to the top of the pump housing with a piece of silicone heater hose I had lying around...
With that problem solved, I planned to take the boat to the lake the following morning and give it a test run.
Bright and early the following morning, I grabbed a buddy of mine, and we headed out. Once we got to the lake, I backed towards the boat launch, got out of the truck and gave the boat a once over, installed the drain plug and removed the straps and trail prop from the engine, and backed the trailer into the lake. I then trimmed the motor down, and attempted to fire her up.
After just a bit of the engine being finicky, (and finding out the engine had a manual choke under the cowl, and an electric one when you pushed in the key) it settled into an idle, and I drifted off the trailer and headed to the dock to allow my friend to board. While tied up at the dock, I decided to test the response a bit by working the warm up lever back and forth, and decided it seemed to be working fine, and there was a steady stream of water coming from the tale tell, so we set off towards open water...
Once we puttered past the buoys that marked the no wake zone, I opened her up to see what she'd do, and to my surprise she wouldn't plane!
I did everything that my limited experience knew to do, which was basically adjust the trim, check the fuel supply, check to see if we were taking on water, and drain the live wells (I hadn't yet figured out how to work the valves for the live wells), All to no avail... So, we turned around and puttered back to the dock. Defeated for the day, I decided to go home and do some research on the subject - which is how I found this website coincidentally...
After some hours of research, a few days of tinkering, a bunch of trips back and forth to the water, still more trial and error, and even more mishaps (which I may or may not share at a later date due to embarrassment), I finally think I have the issues narrowed down, and have begun to formulate a plan of attack, the list of which follows;
1. The captain of the vessel is still too green.
2. There is fuel spitting from the bottom carb, and misting from the top. (2 stroke, lead me to believe it was a problem with the reed valves, which subsequent removal and inspection has verified.)
3. A wire was broken on one of the coil packs, causing the engine to run on only 3 cylinders. (this has been repaired)
4. The engine is not currently charging the battery. (still checking into this)
5. The starter seems to drag when attempting to start the engine. (have removed, and will be tearing down to rebuild soon)
Now, seeing as I already have this much work to do, it seems to me to be a good time to completely disassemble the boat, and restore her to her former glory! A project I'm calling Project Lake Monster... I welcome any and all to follow along with my enterprise, and share any tips, tricks, tidbits, tales, experience, and general knowledge that they see fit, and to glean what they can from my happenings and mishappenings. Thank you for taking the time to share in this epic rebirth of what I hope to be a fine freshwater vessel dubbed Lake Monster.
(P.S. Please bear with me on some of my boating terms, I'm not yet familiar with all of the terms and names for parts and pieces, but hope to remedy that situation in the near future...)
A little about myself- I am a 26 year old native Kansan who lives in Edgerton, Kansas.
I have a wife and 6 year old son, and have been an avid fisherman/ outdoors man since I was about his age, and hope to instill as strong a love of the natural world in him. My usual water is the Hillsdale Reservoir, although I spent a year living 200 yards from Table Rock Lake in Missouri, and still visit family there from time to time. I spent 8 years in the Army reserves as a 63B (Wheeled vehicle mechanic), and served 1 tour in Iraq.
Now, on to the interesting stuff!
I recently acquired a 1978 Ranger 178V, with a 1978 115 hp Johnson outboard, a 1993 Motorguide Magnum trolling motor, and trailer.
I lucked upon the vessel when my employer bought it from a family member, and decided he didn't want to take on the project, and he would rather have the money back that he invested. So, after a bit of discussion, and him allowing me to make payments in the amount of $50 weekly, and an agreement on my part that I remove the boat from his property, it was mine for what I believe to be a too good to pass up $600... (This is still to be determined...)
In addition to the boat, trailer, and trolling motor, the deal also included registration until 2015, a fish finder with an extra head unit, bow and stern lights, new trailer straps, about 6 qts of two stroke oil, various rope, three different anchors, an assortment of water plugs, and various other odds and ends
Now, I was aware of some of the problems with the boat, the major ones being that the engine didn't pump water, and the trailer was in rough shape, and set about taking my prize back to my home. That very night, I discovered the reason the water pump wouldn't deliver water to the engine, and repaired it. ( It turned out to be the waterline from the top of the water pump to the engine block was bent and in no way connected to the top of the pump, due to an attempted replacement of the pump impeller.) My fix was to straighten the tube as well as I could, and connect it to the top of the pump housing with a piece of silicone heater hose I had lying around...
With that problem solved, I planned to take the boat to the lake the following morning and give it a test run.
Bright and early the following morning, I grabbed a buddy of mine, and we headed out. Once we got to the lake, I backed towards the boat launch, got out of the truck and gave the boat a once over, installed the drain plug and removed the straps and trail prop from the engine, and backed the trailer into the lake. I then trimmed the motor down, and attempted to fire her up.
After just a bit of the engine being finicky, (and finding out the engine had a manual choke under the cowl, and an electric one when you pushed in the key) it settled into an idle, and I drifted off the trailer and headed to the dock to allow my friend to board. While tied up at the dock, I decided to test the response a bit by working the warm up lever back and forth, and decided it seemed to be working fine, and there was a steady stream of water coming from the tale tell, so we set off towards open water...
Once we puttered past the buoys that marked the no wake zone, I opened her up to see what she'd do, and to my surprise she wouldn't plane!
I did everything that my limited experience knew to do, which was basically adjust the trim, check the fuel supply, check to see if we were taking on water, and drain the live wells (I hadn't yet figured out how to work the valves for the live wells), All to no avail... So, we turned around and puttered back to the dock. Defeated for the day, I decided to go home and do some research on the subject - which is how I found this website coincidentally...
After some hours of research, a few days of tinkering, a bunch of trips back and forth to the water, still more trial and error, and even more mishaps (which I may or may not share at a later date due to embarrassment), I finally think I have the issues narrowed down, and have begun to formulate a plan of attack, the list of which follows;
1. The captain of the vessel is still too green.
2. There is fuel spitting from the bottom carb, and misting from the top. (2 stroke, lead me to believe it was a problem with the reed valves, which subsequent removal and inspection has verified.)
3. A wire was broken on one of the coil packs, causing the engine to run on only 3 cylinders. (this has been repaired)
4. The engine is not currently charging the battery. (still checking into this)
5. The starter seems to drag when attempting to start the engine. (have removed, and will be tearing down to rebuild soon)
Now, seeing as I already have this much work to do, it seems to me to be a good time to completely disassemble the boat, and restore her to her former glory! A project I'm calling Project Lake Monster... I welcome any and all to follow along with my enterprise, and share any tips, tricks, tidbits, tales, experience, and general knowledge that they see fit, and to glean what they can from my happenings and mishappenings. Thank you for taking the time to share in this epic rebirth of what I hope to be a fine freshwater vessel dubbed Lake Monster.
