Newbie PLEASE help on my vintage Johnson hieght

[disturbthepeace]

Hello everyone,
My name is Joe and I have been lurking around here ever since I bought my first boat last month. Its a montgomery ward sea king with a 35hp 1958 johnson super sea king on the back.

I toke her out last week and I notice that the prop was pulling air and it would not plane out at all. So basically I found out by reading and seaching here that the cav plate needs to be lined up with the bottom of the transom and i have a couple of questions..

I measured the transom depth and its at an odd 17.5in and i have a short shaft motor putting me at an aprox 2.5 in to high..

I was wondering if I could make a jack plate like this one work for my app?

http://www.magemarinestore.com/512inse2pima.html


I have cable steering and plenty of slack in all the connections so I dont think that will be an issue. And I dont want to cut the boat since I want to do some inshore fishing with it plus I love the looks of this outboard so I really dont want to change it either..

what can I do?
Please help me out



Love the forum it has been a great help

Joe

 

[freddyray21]

Re: Newbie PLEASE help on my vintage Johnson hieght

we need a pic of the motor in the down postion on the trailer to answer that. btw that is a super sea horse not a sea king

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Newbie PLEASE help on my vintage Johnson hieght

I would think that jackplate would work. You might want to bolt a piece of 5/4 X 6 PT lumber to it. The transom clamps on your Johnny are not designed to attach to metal. Alternatively, you could cut the transom down a couple of inches. Make the cut out just the width of the transom clamp, and glass the raw wood to seal it.

Another idea is to make a jacplate out of a wood sandwich and thru bolt to the transom. You would need to prototype it to make sure it works. I would think 2 pieces of 1X6 bolted fashioned to hold the transom clamp to a piece of 2X8 (as a spacer) might work.

 

[tmcalavy]

Re: Newbie PLEASE help on my vintage Johnson hieght

Your choices are:
Cut the transom down an inch or so...alters the look of the boat and may affect resale unless you plan to keep it for many years...upside is this is cheapest solution.
Troll for an extension kit (driveshaft, shift connector, housing, water tube) and lenghten the leg on the outboard...should be do-able for less than $200.
Put a jack plate on the transom to lower the outboard...will change how the boat handles a little...have to bolt that puppy through the transom...steering may be affected since you are putting the motor lower than the top of the transom.
Nice rig. My Texas Maid has a 20-inch transom, so I lengthened two OMC 35 hp Big Twins to fit so I wouldn't have to cut or drill the transom. They are now a little deep, so I'm gonna try to shim them up an inch or 1.5 inches this spring before I hit the water. Extending the motor leg will solve your problem without making any irreversable changes to the motor or the boat.

 

[stevenj]

Re: Newbie PLEASE help on my vintage Johnson hieght

I was able to get the necessary parts to lengthen my 1957 35 big twin
for $50.00. All I did was post a want ad on www.aomci.org webertize
section. I received numerous calls and E-Mails within 24 hours and had motor
extended in 48 hours.

 

[tmcalavy]

Re: Newbie PLEASE help on my vintage Johnson hieght

Yep...that's why lengthening the motor leg is often preferable...no boat surgery and the motor can always be changed back.

 

[disturbthepeace]

Re: Newbie PLEASE help on my vintage Johnson hieght

Thanks for the replies, I contacted mage marine and they said that I should use there 4in setback jack plate. For $165 shipped it looks like a good deal..

I agree that cutting the boat would be cheaper but I really dont want to, and I really dont feel like hunting down more vintage parts for this OB..

I think Ill go with the jack plate, but does it effect the boat handling negitively? Im just try to get this thing in worthy shape to hit up some of the local inshore kelp patties in so. CA..


Thanks
Joe