Hello Everyone,
With luck this thread will follow and document my eventual restoration and repair of my newly acquired 1971 21' Chieftain!
This boat followed me home at the beginning of last week soon after I discovered it on Craigslist. I bought the boat as a non-runner in somewhat unknown condition. The boat had been sitting for likely close to 20 years under cover, it had recently replaced fuel tanks and all new fuel lines as the PO had planned to start using the boat again but had never gotten around to it. Beyond that though the boat was in close to the same condition it was in when it was parked in the early 90's.
The seller wanted $950 for the boat and trailer and I happily paid the asking price as I've wanted a Chieftain for years and knew he had other interest in the boat and would have no issues getting his ask.
We filled out the DMV paperwork along with a bill of sale and my brother and I were on our way home, I quickly realized that our truck with a 4.3V6 was not the ideal tow vehicle for a boat this size, we made it home without incident but after seeing our 2 hour drive going to look turn into a 3 1/2 hour drive coming home I realized that I will definitely want more power on tap if I ever plan on going real distances with the boat on trailer.
Over the next week I worked on the boat as time allowed, on the engine I found that the starter and solenoid had been rebuilt shortly before the boat was parked, the entire ignition system less the coil also looked brand new and recently replaced, but the engine wouldn't start, it wouldn't even crank over.
I was worried that the engine had seized from sitting for so long. Thankfully I was wrong, it turned out that the copper plate inside the starter solenoid had become so badly corroded that it was no longer providing continuity between the battery and the starter and as a result I was getting a healthy sounding solenoid click but no power to the starter.
With that problem resolved I moved on to the fuel system. I didn't hit any real snags working through this, I replaced the water separator filter and used a Mity-vac to prime the fuel lines, I then used a fuel pressure vacuum gauge to check the pump on the block, everything checked out fine so I put everything back together and got fuel flowing to the carb.
Next up was the ignition system, this took me the longest as all my previous experience has been on diesel engines and I didn't realize I was looking at the wiring diagram backwards until the third day of playing with test lights and probing around with my Fluke. It turned out my no spark issue was a bad coil, $36 later I had a new one and had a good spark. I rough adjusted the point gap and was back in business.
I turned the key with the outdrive on muffs and the engine started up almost instantly. I forgot to mention previously but I did a compression test and found all six cylinders to be at 120PSI +/- 2PSI
Now with the engine running I did a visual check on the outdrive to verify proper shifting and water flow, everything looked fine so I headed off to the lake for a sea trial, everything worked as it should with the exception of the (up) button for the tilt (it had to be jury rigged by jumping the solenoid on the pump).
Happy with the way everything was working I brought the boat back and now I'm contemplating what to begin work on next.
With luck this thread will follow and document my eventual restoration and repair of my newly acquired 1971 21' Chieftain!
This boat followed me home at the beginning of last week soon after I discovered it on Craigslist. I bought the boat as a non-runner in somewhat unknown condition. The boat had been sitting for likely close to 20 years under cover, it had recently replaced fuel tanks and all new fuel lines as the PO had planned to start using the boat again but had never gotten around to it. Beyond that though the boat was in close to the same condition it was in when it was parked in the early 90's.
The seller wanted $950 for the boat and trailer and I happily paid the asking price as I've wanted a Chieftain for years and knew he had other interest in the boat and would have no issues getting his ask.
We filled out the DMV paperwork along with a bill of sale and my brother and I were on our way home, I quickly realized that our truck with a 4.3V6 was not the ideal tow vehicle for a boat this size, we made it home without incident but after seeing our 2 hour drive going to look turn into a 3 1/2 hour drive coming home I realized that I will definitely want more power on tap if I ever plan on going real distances with the boat on trailer.
Over the next week I worked on the boat as time allowed, on the engine I found that the starter and solenoid had been rebuilt shortly before the boat was parked, the entire ignition system less the coil also looked brand new and recently replaced, but the engine wouldn't start, it wouldn't even crank over.
I was worried that the engine had seized from sitting for so long. Thankfully I was wrong, it turned out that the copper plate inside the starter solenoid had become so badly corroded that it was no longer providing continuity between the battery and the starter and as a result I was getting a healthy sounding solenoid click but no power to the starter.
With that problem resolved I moved on to the fuel system. I didn't hit any real snags working through this, I replaced the water separator filter and used a Mity-vac to prime the fuel lines, I then used a fuel pressure vacuum gauge to check the pump on the block, everything checked out fine so I put everything back together and got fuel flowing to the carb.
Next up was the ignition system, this took me the longest as all my previous experience has been on diesel engines and I didn't realize I was looking at the wiring diagram backwards until the third day of playing with test lights and probing around with my Fluke. It turned out my no spark issue was a bad coil, $36 later I had a new one and had a good spark. I rough adjusted the point gap and was back in business.
I turned the key with the outdrive on muffs and the engine started up almost instantly. I forgot to mention previously but I did a compression test and found all six cylinders to be at 120PSI +/- 2PSI
Now with the engine running I did a visual check on the outdrive to verify proper shifting and water flow, everything looked fine so I headed off to the lake for a sea trial, everything worked as it should with the exception of the (up) button for the tilt (it had to be jury rigged by jumping the solenoid on the pump).
Happy with the way everything was working I brought the boat back and now I'm contemplating what to begin work on next.