I have an 84 Chris Craft Scorpion 210 Deep V open bow boat with mercruiser 5.7 with thunderbolt ignition.
Boat has a little over 500 hours. I have been int he process of restoring it, and have refinished the entier interior, replaced all the gauges, rebuilt the floor and the left side main rail for the motor as it was rotted. That was quite a project, but fun and came out pretty darn nice, completely repaired it and beefed it up at the same time.
I removed the lower part of the stern drive and replaced the impeller, installed a skeg guard (lower part of skeg fin was broken off), replaced the trim tabs for both side to get the trim to recognize its positions and adjusted them. I also flushed the hydraulic rams, replaced the lines to the rams and the distribution block and anode, and changed the gear oil of course. I have to replace the exhaust cover that connects it to the stern drive, which looks to be a bit of a pain in the butt to do, and lubricated all the pivot points. stern drive moves up and down great (prior it would not hold the motor up when trying to reverse it would shoot upwards)
On the motor, I cleaned it up, changed all the filters (oil and water fuel seperator), spark plugs, distributor, coil, wires, oil, removed the risers and cleaned them and installed new valve covers. I have had the alternator rebuilt, carb is rebuilt, and repainted the motor. It looks great. I recharged the battery, cranked it a few times but battery was weak, so I put on a jumper pack and cranked it some more and it finally fired up and ran great. I tried reconditioning the battery but it would not hold enough voltage to get the motor running. I tried a new battery and it was cranking and starting good. cold crank always took a little while to get the motor going but once it started it would be able to restart right away when warmed up.
Since I still had some other things to do and not much time, Fast forward a few months and here we are, same battery, voltage is good, tested battery in my car and it cranks with plenty of juice, but on the boat, it cranks slowly a few times then stops and the negative battery cable is getting red hot (literally it will burn the flesh on your fingers if you touch it.) ( have not checked voltage getting to the starter yet to see if there is a drop in voltage)
I did some research and have decided as a starting point, to replace the main starter power wire to the battery, the main negative wire to the battery, the alternator wire and the trim pump wire since I will be in there anyway and will clean up all the connections. (i suspect high resistance in the wires) I have not yet pulled any plugs to see if somehow water got in the engine hydrolocking it, but will if replacing the cables does not work. I am fine with replacing the starter as well if need be though taking it out looks like it might be a bit of a pain.
I still need to finish a few other things on it, like redo the teak on the wood, and a few other minor things, but I do know I need to fix the power steering, it is leaking, not sure if it is the pump or one of the lines, but the steering box in the back does appear to be moist. I figure if it is leaking and i have to top it up from time to time no big deal but would like to take care of it at some point.
Boat has a little over 500 hours. I have been int he process of restoring it, and have refinished the entier interior, replaced all the gauges, rebuilt the floor and the left side main rail for the motor as it was rotted. That was quite a project, but fun and came out pretty darn nice, completely repaired it and beefed it up at the same time.
I removed the lower part of the stern drive and replaced the impeller, installed a skeg guard (lower part of skeg fin was broken off), replaced the trim tabs for both side to get the trim to recognize its positions and adjusted them. I also flushed the hydraulic rams, replaced the lines to the rams and the distribution block and anode, and changed the gear oil of course. I have to replace the exhaust cover that connects it to the stern drive, which looks to be a bit of a pain in the butt to do, and lubricated all the pivot points. stern drive moves up and down great (prior it would not hold the motor up when trying to reverse it would shoot upwards)
On the motor, I cleaned it up, changed all the filters (oil and water fuel seperator), spark plugs, distributor, coil, wires, oil, removed the risers and cleaned them and installed new valve covers. I have had the alternator rebuilt, carb is rebuilt, and repainted the motor. It looks great. I recharged the battery, cranked it a few times but battery was weak, so I put on a jumper pack and cranked it some more and it finally fired up and ran great. I tried reconditioning the battery but it would not hold enough voltage to get the motor running. I tried a new battery and it was cranking and starting good. cold crank always took a little while to get the motor going but once it started it would be able to restart right away when warmed up.
Since I still had some other things to do and not much time, Fast forward a few months and here we are, same battery, voltage is good, tested battery in my car and it cranks with plenty of juice, but on the boat, it cranks slowly a few times then stops and the negative battery cable is getting red hot (literally it will burn the flesh on your fingers if you touch it.) ( have not checked voltage getting to the starter yet to see if there is a drop in voltage)
I did some research and have decided as a starting point, to replace the main starter power wire to the battery, the main negative wire to the battery, the alternator wire and the trim pump wire since I will be in there anyway and will clean up all the connections. (i suspect high resistance in the wires) I have not yet pulled any plugs to see if somehow water got in the engine hydrolocking it, but will if replacing the cables does not work. I am fine with replacing the starter as well if need be though taking it out looks like it might be a bit of a pain.
I still need to finish a few other things on it, like redo the teak on the wood, and a few other minor things, but I do know I need to fix the power steering, it is leaking, not sure if it is the pump or one of the lines, but the steering box in the back does appear to be moist. I figure if it is leaking and i have to top it up from time to time no big deal but would like to take care of it at some point.