Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

I am fairly new to older outboards (30's 40's 50's 60's). However, I now have the ones mentioned in my signature.

My 1st concern, and it applies to all of them is no kill switch. If something happens the boat is just going to keep going until either the engine runs out of gas or it hits something. I was trying to figure out how to hook up a modern tether switch. I have some ideas but was hoping someone else already did it and can help me out with this.

My 2nd is with the 2 53 Sea Kings and the 1939 Elto. The 39 is more of a novelty and I don?t really plan on doing anything other than maybe taking it to a show/meet once in a while and maybe running it to show it off. Anyway, with the 3 of these, the fuel in the carb bowl is somewhat exposed. In fact if you ?prime? them, fuel comes out the top (as designed). Also, the carb venturi (air horn) on the 53 Sea King is wide open. I was trying to think of a way to make an air silencer or flame arrestor for the carb. I was also starting to think of a way to trim the needle valve stem and seal off the bowl but I would be concerned with causing a vacuum lock and would need some sort of guide for the stem inside the bowl. Any ideas on either of these?

On the plus side, all the fittings and fuel lines are metal and compression fitted. So chances are any fires would be limited to the carburetor area and somewhat easy to extinguish if acted on quickly.

Am I right to be concerned or are these issues really unheard of with these older motors?

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

I have a 1956 Fastwin that I hooked up a Sierra cord switch to. Bring 2 wires out of the magneto plate (had to drill a hole) that run to the primary side of the coils (points). When shorted together they kill the engine. I ran the cord out of the bottom of the cowl to a coiled cord and mounted the switch on the transom. It works great. If I pull the cord it stops immediately. I got the idea from here:
http://duckworksmagazine.com/05/columns/max/3/free.cfm

Rick

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

Jason, I suppose your concerns are valid, especially the kill switch. I saw a guy get ran over by his boat when he got pitched out. Killed him dead. Well, no I didn't actually see it happen, but was in the area at the time. Point is, it was only a 5hp Johnson on a flat bottom wooden fishing boat. You don't have to be going 50 mph to die.

Anyway, enough for the gruesome. Yes those old motors were downright sloppy. Except for a few like the Martins, they seldom caught fire though. Just lucky, I guess. I don't think your Sea King will run if you seal the float bowl. Neither do I think a backfire is a real hazard, because the reed valves stop the fire before it gets to the carburetor. Motors that have a rotary valve may be a bit more of a danger.

Remember our old cars that had no seat belts, no air bags, no side impact protection, and the steering column would impale your chest in a crash? My, how things have changed.

Speaking of danger, did you see Mr Wallenda walk that high wire here today? Something like 20 stories up and 600 ft long with no net and windy? He got out in the middle of it and laid down!!!

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

Thanks for the reponses.

I will definately be doing the tether switch. I am a little concerned about the method described in that article. Grounding each primary lead would make sense but, connecting the 2 primary coil leads when the switch is closed does not make sense to me. I will have to read it again.

I probably will not mess with the carbs at all. I notice if I flick the mixture knob to prime a few times fuel sprays up through the main jet, enough to get it to start up when cold. I will just get used to doing that instead of holding for 10 seconds (instructions) and causing fuel to overflow out. I was thinking the same thing about the reed valves.

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

JasonAych said:

Thanks for the reponses.

I will definately be doing the tether switch. I am a little concerned about the method described in that article. Grounding each primary lead would make sense but, connecting the 2 primary coil leads when the switch is closed does not make sense to me. I will have to read it again.

I probably will not mess with the carbs at all. I notice if I flick the mixture knob to prime a few times fuel sprays up through the main jet, enough to get it to start up when cold. I will just get used to doing that instead of holding for 10 seconds (instructions) and causing fuel to overflow out. I was thinking the same thing about the reed valves.

Click to expand...

Connecting the two primary leads together is the way the factory does it on virtually all twin cylinder magneto motors. Think about it: when one set of points opens, the other set is closed (grounded). So when you connect them together with the kill switch, the set that is opening is connected to the set that is grounded--defeating the opening operation.

EDIT: I knew that was a wacko explanation as soon as I posted it. Well, actually only half wacko. In addition to the grounded circuit through the non-functioning points set, it also grounds the opening set of points through the other coil's primary winding. Since one side of the magneto is producing a spark while the other side is "dead", connecting them together shorts out the functioning side through the dead side.

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

Jason,
you raised a good point. I never thought about outboard fires until I saw this video. It wasn't even an old motor and no doubt he didn't have a fire extinguisher.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVzJBpmAfd4&NR=1

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

There is a gent who calls himself Mr.Greentank who restores Merc's in Ontario, he does amazing work. Every motor he restores get's a kill circuit. He uses the 4 pole trailer wiring , I suspect he has a box in the boat with a lanyard which connects to any motor he wants to run using this 4 pole harness, they are cheap and practical to use for such a purpose. When you want to bring the motor in you simply disconnect the hardness and lift the motor off the back. I plan on doing it for all of my motors.

Here is his KH7 with the wiring harness installed.

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn347/mrgreentank/Mercury KH7 Cruiser/IMG_0819.jpg

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

jasper60103 said:

Jason,
you raised a good point. I never thought about outboard fires until I saw this video. It wasn't even an old motor and no doubt he didn't have a fire extinguisher.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVzJBpmAfd4&NR=1

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No extinguisher, no bail bucket , no F all, some people shouldn't own a boat let alone a motor. Wonder if it ended up on fleabay

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

I recall a time I was out with a friend (at the time) on his boat. I noticed he had no extinguisher. I asked him and he said "Needed it for my shop, no big deal". Not much longer after that I asked him to drive me back to the dock. Turns out he was missing just about everything safety related.

It is funny (not really) how many people I have encountered bitching and complaining about how they just got fined for no throw pillow, no extinguisher, no sounding device ... etc and are actually upset with the officer for giving them the fine. The one officer I know actually makes you leave the water as well. Will follow you back to the dock and watch you load up. I say good for him!!

He pulled me over a long time ago and went through the list. I had everything. He said that was rare and that about 3/4 of the people he goes through the list with are missing something.

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

bktheking said:

No extinguisher, no bail bucket , no F all, some people shouldn't own a boat let alone a motor. Wonder if it ended up on fleabay

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He could have at least tried pissing on it. Everyone in the area would have been hurling off the sides of their boats from the smell but, the fire would probably have been out.

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

What an idiot!He is surrounded by water and yet he uses the water out of his water bottle to try and put it out!I think I could have splashed enough water on it to put it out

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

If you click on the first image, you will see it is a Johnson service bulletin, shorting the primaries together. Rick

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

It's all choice JBJ, I understand what you are saying, it's one of those things with the "all it takes is once" factor, coulda woulda shoulda. I've ridden the motorcycles with shorts on!

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

bktheking said:

It's all choice JBJ, I understand what you are saying, it's one of those things with the "all it takes is once" factor, coulda woulda shoulda. I've ridden the motorcycles with shorts on!

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Heh, heh, yeh, I ride with shorts on too. But I Do wear a helmet--only because I need the face shield to see anything at over 30 mph. Old eyes, y'know.

Hey, there was more to the story than I told. The guy was fishing with an anchor out, tied to the bow of the boat. He cranked up the motor, forgetting about the anchor. It went till the anchor grabbed and snatched the boat around in a 180, tossing him out. But wait, there is more. Now he is in the water, 30 feet from shore--no problem, right? Oops, here comes the boat tethered by the anchor and going around in circles. Every time it came back around, well you get the picture.

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

So the moral of the story is: Only stupid people need to put kill switches on small outboards

I once observed a guy riding a motor cycle, and here is the key, on a 90+ degree day. He was fully armored in heavy leather from his feet to shoulders. He had no helmet on. Now I am all about feedom to choose but, there is something really wrong here and I hope I don't need to explain what that is

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

I don't have an extinguisher in my jet ski, figured if it caught fire, I would just sink it; and maybe come back for it later.

Also, I have never had a whistle/horn in any of my boats.

and a 14' alum with my 93 20hp was just down right scary. always had the lanyard on while in that boat. always.

Re: Old outboard safety concerns - are there any?

JasonAych said:

So the moral of the story is: Only stupid people need to put kill switches on small outboards

I once observed a guy riding a motor cycle, and here is the key, on a 90+ degree day. He was fully armored in heavy leather from his feet to shoulders. He had no helmet on. Now I am all about feedom to choose but, there is something really wrong here and I hope I don't need to explain what that is

Click to expand...

Sometimes no helmet helps them achieve their final goal, becoming brain dead. I've never understood some states that don't have a helmet law and allow lane splitting, down right dangerous.