Jack plate or transom elevator?

1973Chieftain

1973Chieftain

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Late last fall I purchased a Jet and ended up with a '94 40 HP Force long shaft to repower it with. However, the Jet has a short shaft. I've been looking at my options and reading how several other folks on here removed the old transom and put a new one in that is taller, also how some folks used either a jack plate or a transom elevator to raise the engine up. Has anyone used either on a small Starcraft? It seems to me that either would be much simpler then removing the transom, and has the benefit of reversibility should the need arise. My main concern is that it seems that they both add extra stress to the transom which worries me a bit. I'd appreciate any thoughts!
 
1973Chieftain

1973Chieftain

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Re: Jack plate or transom elevator?

I think I discovered a problem with either a jack plate or transom for my hull.... the transom is mostly rotten! I pulled the caps and the aluminum trip piece to find over 25% of the visible portion of the transom reduced to powder... I see a new transom in my future! Now to get 46 years of paint and corrosion off the bolts in order to remove them :(
 
Gibbles

Gibbles

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Re: Jack plate or transom elevator?

Install a taller transom while your at it. :)

I made the conversion to a 20in transom on my jet star as did lakelover
lakelover has some good info in his restore thread, and I have a little in my thread (65hp on jetstar)...

its a pretty easy thing to do, but I did more than I needed to on mine. :)
 
1973Chieftain

1973Chieftain

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Re: Jack plate or transom elevator?

Thanks Gibbles, I have read and reread both your thread and that of LakeLover's and both of you did amazing jobs! I'm not quite that handy with tools, but I have all winter before me. I am finding that all of the through hull bolts are corroded and painted to the point that they will not budge, and the flat head slots are stripping. Did you have this problem?
 
barato2

barato2

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Re: Jack plate or transom elevator?

sounds like time for a cutting wheel on the Dremel or an air die grinder

fear not, you don't need to be especially handy with tools....just go slow and keep referring to other threads where people have done the same thing.
 
Gibbles

Gibbles

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Re: Jack plate or transom elevator?

The bolts holding my transom in were aluminum

They were all stuck...

I told my wife to buy me a "stinking" die grinder for christmas (she asked me what I wanted while I was trying to pull the transom lol & She did :) )...

Then the bolts started breaking, me thinking "OH NO!" but then it became OH YES!!

I started shooting for broken bolts, and if they would not go, hammer and chisel :D

The ones in the upper right & left hand corners were the worst since I did not have any help.. but I managed to get them all out.
 
Gibbles

Gibbles

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Re: Jack plate or transom elevator?

I almost forgot,

Some of the bolts on the inside had paint on the threads making it very hard to unbolt, and if they would not break, I had to resort to a dremel cutting tool just to take off enough of the threaded end to get the nut off.


Also my cordless drill with the best fitting slotted bit was my best friend.

Most of them I was able to get a socket on the inside so it would bind up somewhere in the boat, then from the outside I used the drill.

make sure the bit fits really well and as wide as you can get
some of the slots I stripped and had to cut a new one using my dremel ;)
 
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