1982 Sylvan 16 Sport! Transom replacement and other updates!

strokendiesel002

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 15, 2012
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283
Hello! While I've been a lurker for a few years now, I feel it's time I finally start a thread!

My Parents bought this wonderful little memory maker when I was 12 years old, just before our annual family trip to the Wisconsin Northwoods, where we would rent a cabin at I believe the Sand Beach Resort on Crawling Stone Lake. We had been going for a few years by then, my uncle always bringing his 1963 SC Holiday and man what a blast... but now with 2 boats?! Over Joyed! Long story short, by the time I was 18, I was really the only one taking her out, so at 19 I "traded" a truck I bought to my dad for her, as he was driving that truck more than I was, and I was the only one taking the boat out :) SCORE! 19 and my very own boat!

Well, I'm 32 now and after years of enthusiastic stress testing(even dragged her to Lake in the Woods Canada for a week long adventure), it was finally time to give her some real love. Seriously, aside from replacing the hinges on the bench seats with Stainless hinges and a couple of the plywood seat boards, I have replaced nothing but the radios... I spread myself to thin through maintenance of this and other toys to ever afford a quality marine radio, plus, every time a friend wanted me to install a newer/ better one in their ride, I got to keep the old one lol.

Anyhow, Here are a couple of pictures introducing one of the things that has brought myself and many a friend endless fun and adventure! Oh yea, The Admiral too!


Circa 2006 I believe

Lake Delavan, WI just before a wedding, I believe

Dam Lake, WI

Responsible Birthday Party on the Boat

Perching on Lake Michigan

The Admiral piloting us out of the Kenosha Harbor

Next post will reveal some repairs!

Thanks for reading!

Jimmy
 

strokendiesel002

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 15, 2012
Messages
283
Ok, I just remembered, I did replace the throttle and shift cables about 2 years ago, easy peasy though. The real work came this summer, after enjoying her for 20 wonderful years, it was time to replace the 37 year old wires, Stator and Pick-up under the cowl of the 1979 (Mighty) Mariner 80 and replace the transom!

Unfortunately, I broke a phone and didn't really understand how the Verizon Cloud works, and lost most (edit ALL) of the photos I took while replacing the wires. I did however manage to keep most of the transom photos.

For the wiring, I mostly used Merc products, after hours of deliberation and research between factory and CDI. I did use CDI for the "main harness" that connects to the lower cowl, and while the overall product was satisfactory, the time spent reworking it to be proper (cutting, soldering and heatshrinking), I will likely just pony up the extra few $ and go OEM (with 2 little boys, I've been instructed by the admiral to streamline preventative maintenance routines and if there's a faster, reasonably cost effective way to decrease repair times, follow that path). Not knocking the quality of CDI in any way, but I prefer to do a repair to the degree of not knowing a repair has been done (this can be VERY time consuming). I can/ will take photos of the updated wiring if anyone is interested.

For the Transom... well, it came out in 1 piece, but have a look...

at that hook!

Pulling the transom was rather easy for this style boat. Unhook harness, throttle and shift cables, hydraulic lines (TNT motor is under splashwell) loosen the steering cable.


Then don't be a cheap-o like I was and get the flywheel hook and after removing the bolts securing the OB to the transom, lift it off! I used my engine hoist and straps to remove it. Said (#%$* this noise, I want the install to go much smoother and immediately ordered the hook.


I then removed the aft port and starboard corner caps and trim channel that covered the factory transom along with the rear tie-down hoops and about 30 screws attaching the splashwell to the wood part of the transom and probably 15 additional bolts that secured the transom to the inner and out skins.



I again used my engine hoist to pull the transom out, first attempting just to run lag bolts through the ends of a chain and picking it up... wouldn't ya know it, the lag bolts pulled straight out lol. So my father in law crawled under the splashwell and got a small prybar between the "shelf" that the transom rests on and started it moving. It was then a game of finesse between vertical pressure with the picker and leverage from beneath until it popped right out! This was a good fight to strategically win, as we had a pretty decent template to use! that is until we realized just how aggressive the hook picture above was.
 

strokendiesel002

Petty Officer 1st Class
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May 15, 2012
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283
Next we cut the rough shape of the transom, leaving extra width and height, even biscuit cut the two halves to help keep them together!


The keen eyed among us will notic the Gorilla Glue in the background and a spray bottle being used in the above picture, so next is...


followed by expansion and


followed by sanding and a proper wipe down.
 

strokendiesel002

Petty Officer 1st Class
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May 15, 2012
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283
Ultimately, I used the 105 Epoxy Resin to laminate the 2 halves together. worked great! After curing, we started cutting it down to size


and ultimately ended up with


which was treated with mulitple coats of resin, after being pre-drilled, of course :)


Of course there were MANY test fits done along the way, and it was during the final test fitting that the holes were drilled. I also cleaned the bare aluminum that was sandwiched against the old transom, found a little pitting, but nothing major.


I believe I gave a final wipedown with WD-40 prior to sliding the finished transom into place.
 

strokendiesel002

Petty Officer 1st Class
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May 15, 2012
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283
I decided to paint the bare aluminum shown here, along with the exposed transom (again, future alterations in the works)


followed by painting the splashwell side


and hanging the Mighty Mariner!
 

strokendiesel002

Petty Officer 1st Class
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May 15, 2012
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283
Every Screw/ Bolt that went into/through the transom was coated in 3M 4000 and I replaced the smaller pad on the outside of the transom skin with 5 ply 1/4" sub-flooring that I had left over (again, coated in epoxy, then painted) I chose to go with the 1/4" rather than the 1/2" originally included as I wanted some additional clearance for the steering bracket (planning ahead for the future).

While replacing the Stator and Pick-up coil, I also did full rebuild kits for the carbs and fuel pump


I still need to fine tune them, but wow what a difference! Sadly, her maiden voyage with the new transom was a recovery mission...


^ Meet "Half-Off" went in on her with a buddy and had a flawless first season... ran out of time last fall and had a local boat shop winterize it. Struggled all year with it, some parts directly related to their winterizing, others just luck of the draw, but that may be a different thread. I believe I have it all solved and had it out twice with no issues... a week prior to winterizing her myself lol.

Luckily for the recovery mission, my first mate was willing to lend a helping hand!


How does one get 2 boats home with a 2 year old as a first mate?



Anyhow, thanks for reading so far! I'll be checking in on this and updating as I go. This week though, I'll be helping my F.I.L. replace the original rotted deck of my Admirals' Grandpa's (his father in law lol) 17' Tin Tracker... using Aluminum! I'll try to do a better job following that one with pics and probably start a thread about it. Haven't really seen much in the way of replacing rotted wood decking with aluminum, regarding pro's con's other than the cost of aluminum, which really isn't that different from the cost of wood decking, if using proper wood and sealing with epoxy, so what the heck, we'll give it a whirl! I really enjoy working with him, as he is probably a little pickier than I am with certain things, not to mention it gives us an excuse to haul as many toys to the lake for family time as humanly possible!

Thanks again!

Jimmy
 

proshadetree

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Jul 19, 2008
Messages
1,887
Wow triple towing in Tenessee will get you a very long painful conversation with a boy in blue. My situation was a bit diffrent a wrecker,pulling a wrecker, pulling a car. Still 1.5 hours out of my life to get a warning on a law they couldn't identify. Cool boats by the way.
 

strokendiesel002

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 15, 2012
Messages
283
Holy smokes Pro! I have the little section printed out that notes the rules for this occasion. As you can imagine, the verall lengths very depending upon how they're attached, bumper/ tag or 5th wheel/ goose :)

Thank you for checking it out and the compliment!
 

Watermann

Starmada Splash of the Year 2014
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Jan 12, 2013
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13,747
The Sylvan version of the SC SS is identical except for then name of course, very nice and she looks to be in great shape right down to the paint :thumb:
 

strokendiesel002

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 15, 2012
Messages
283
Thank you Watermann! Years ago, I came very close to stripping it and painting it red to match my vehicle, but didn't have the $ to redo the interior. I'm really glad I didn't! I just can't decide if I want to update it with a modern color scheme or keep it original. I am leaning toward original, as for a little old tinner, she does draw attention :) I think I may like to go with a lighter seat color and darker accents, rather than all dark, as they do get quite warm under the sun!
 

MILKWEED

Petty Officer 3rd Class
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Oct 7, 2016
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Nice looking boat, I will keep an eye out for you on the big Lake as I live just up the shore in Caledonia, providing I get mine splashed this summer.
 

strokendiesel002

Petty Officer 1st Class
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May 15, 2012
Messages
283
Thank you and Sounds good Milkweed! I'm going to try and find your thread! Where do you launch normally?
 

MILKWEED

Petty Officer 3rd Class
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Oct 7, 2016
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The Glastron I'm redoing is my first powerboat, For Lake Michigan I will probably launch at Bender Park since it closest to me. Until now Ive fished from a little 5 person paddle boat that I use on the Root river by Horlick Dam, I also had it out on Lake Andrea in Pleasant Prairie a couple of times. I decided to get a bigger boat so I could stand and move around, 3 hours sitting in a little plastic boat is killing my back, especially after driving a truck all day.
 

strokendiesel002

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 15, 2012
Messages
283
I think I've heard nice things about Bender, though I've never been. Milwaukee River is a blast though, if you like to socialize, there are quite a few bar/restaurant accessable by water. You can launch right into the river, if it's a nice day, you can either head out to open water, or just sight see/pub crawl!
 
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