Mounting motor to boat.

[KaiBlaed]

Today I had a mishap, but could have been much worse. I have a 67 14ft starcraft with a 40hp. As I approached the boat ramp I decided to play around a bit, and my motor slipped off the transom while making some very sharp turns. Didn't damage the transom and I had the clamps for the motor tightened down as much as I could with a adjustable wrench. Is there something fairly simple I can purchase or make to stop the motor from slipping off the transom in tight quick turns?

 

[roscoe]

Re: Mounting motor to boat.

Screw a 1/4" thick by 1" wide strip of metal around the area where the screw clamps are.

Or bolt the motor directly to the transom.


Also, a safety chain from the motor to the boat was not uncommon back in the day.

 

[ddrieck]

Re: Mounting motor to boat.

Does your outboard have two holes at the very bottom of the transom clamp? If so, get your outboard exactly where you want it then drill those hole trough the transom and bolt it down.

 

[Numlaar]

Re: Mounting motor to boat.

What you experienced was "Motor walk"... Have had it happen to me once, basically from the same thing... too many tight turns back and forth, "walk" the motor up the transom until it pops off, (grandfather lost a few that way too)...

We always ran a safety chain through the outboard to something fixed on the boat (cleat, bar, etc.), also adds a layer of security to slow down a thief from trying to steal the motor... and saves the motor in the event it pops off.

But I agree with the others above, being a 40hp its rather sizeable, and the best bet would be to get it mounted where it works best for you, then bolt it on with SS bolts/fender washers/Lock nuts, 3M-5200, and your good to go.

 

[KaiBlaed]

Re: Mounting motor to boat.

Well my motor doesnt have holes for bolting the motor onto the transom, so I'm considering some extra fiberglass at the top inside to prevent the motor from slipping off. Not sure if it will work, maybe a plate would be better.

 

[MushCreek]

Re: Mounting motor to boat.

They used to sell little metal plates that went under the clamp screws, and then got attached to the transom. I've looked, but haven't been able to find them- I guess they're obsolete? I'll have to make some, since I have a lot of antique motors, and don't want to lose any!

 

[Captain Caveman]

Re: Mounting motor to boat.

I hit a giant muskie with my old 35hp motor. It was one clamp away from taking a swim! My problem was that I built a motor lift that bolted to the transom, but never thought about creating a little lip at the top to prevent the motor from yanking off.

My solution was to buy a small chain and run around a brace at the back of the boat. Since I kept one of those metal motor locks on the clamps, I just ran the other end of the chain through that. It worked really well although I never hit another muskie to truly test it out!

 

[KaiBlaed]

Re: Mounting motor to boat.

Luckily my old boat has two cables on each side and they are not ran properly. I recently upgrades to some much larger cables and luckily the pulleys didnt come out and the motor was hanging by the cables, didnt even go underwater.

 

[Numlaar]

Re: Mounting motor to boat.

Since you do not have any way to thru bolt the motor, another option you may want to consider...

Had an old 66 merc 9.8hp that was always wanting to walk up the transom... so I had fabricated a special plate for the transom... basically, it was a thin aluminum plate (1/8" thick).. on the plate I had them weld two circles of raised 1/4" aluminum, that were slightly larger than the flat plates for the set screws for the motor...

Set your motor on, position the plate so that it lines up under the motor screws, tighten up the motor screws, then thru bolt the plate itself. This completely solved the problem, as it was near impossible for the motor mount screws to "jump" out of the inside of 1/4" deep dishes.

total fabrication cost was around 50 bucks including materials.

Sorry its really hard to explain... I did a very rough drawing for you (and my drawing skills suck, so I apologize):

The top picture shows you how the "circles" were raised higher than the rest of the plate.

The bottom one kinda shows the plate itself, your motor mount screws would set into the middle of those "rings" where they couldnt move up or down.

Hope that helps!