well I have been reduced to baby steps now but at least I made a wee little progress.... I have rebuilt one of the carbs.... I have new choke thermostats and choke pulloff solenoids coming and I drilled out and tapped two seized bolts that hold down the choke thermostats.
Gonna change up the battery cables so that the batt 1/2 switch selects whether the engines and gen start from a single start batt or the house batts and a simple on/off switch turns off the house circuit.
batt cables done...... I SWEAR it has been raining here for a month this week lol need to scotch guard the canvas so it stops raining INSIDE the boat LOL
got the other carb rebuilt and installed.... went to start it and starter solenoid took a dump.... It cranked fine last week lol...... oh well.... one engine is running great but it has a noisy starter so I'll be pulling both of them to swap starters.... no biggy.... 30 minutes out and back in for each one
UGH this dang rain!! The yard is too wet to move the boat so I had to move my home made gantry by myself to where the boat was..... ugh that thing is heavy
got the problem starter on the port engine swapped out with a good used one I had on another engine..... cranks great and fired right up ..... petered off and died..... carb flooding.... float valve leaking... OOPS my bad.... I'll pull the top off the carb and fix whatever I goofed on lol
ok carb fixed... just got float valve in a bind..... both engines aligned one outdrive re sealed... the other turned out to be full of rust so it'll get rebuilt later on. Grabbed my spare drive (from the parts boat I got the trailer with) Both drives mounted and both engines bolted down... Got one of the trim pumps wired today and will wire the other tomorrow..... Flushed the fresh water system today and fired up the water heater. Also loosened the mounting screws on the shower sump pump.... WOW it was soooo loud before and now it's almost silent.... soon I'll do the same with the fresh water pump but have to re mount it because it is on a wall instead of a floor.
how about a few pics? Sounds like you are moving along again! Hopefully you will dry out some, we had a drought, then flood! But then again our weather is always weird.
Well I haven't really done anything pic friendly.... cept maybe the bellows today but not touching the iphone with grease and bellows adhesive on my hands lol
Pulled both drives back off today and put new driveshaft and shifter bellows on the starboard side and also put the gasket/oring in.... I put new trim sender/limit switches on the starboard side too..... Got the limit switch hooked up but can't find anywhere to hook up the trim sender... I think the donor boat I got the engines from had hook ups before the engines and this boat had it in the engine harnesses.... I'll most likely just have to find the wire in the boat side of the harness and cut it out.... not a biggy.
ok well I looked at it with fresh eyes today..... trim sender hooks up on front starboard of each engine same as many of that vintage.... what threw me was that the wires connect on the mercathode unit instead of the usual little junction block I was used to.
sooooooo now I have power steering hooked up and bled and i FINALLY found the right belt after several trips to the parts store
forgot to mention new gimbal bearing on starboard side....
I now have both drives on and shifters hooked up and adjusted....
I haven't done the gimbal bearing or bellows on the port side yet...
I have to order another trim sender set and I'll do them at the same time....
I MAY back her in the water tomorrow for some on trailer testing....
My test area is the ohio river so it won't come off the trailer yet but I'll spend a couple hours floating over the trailer and look for any problems
I put prop to water today.... boat stayed on the trailer BUT everything was good with the exception of a small bellows leak on the port drive.... NOT a biggy... will be swapping those bellows with new ones when I get another trim sender set.... REALLY exciting..... I gotta admit that I was really temped to back off the trailer and go for it but with the ragged bellows and the fact that the river still has logs and stumps the size of VW's floating in it along with the current being quite strong.... If anything went majorly wrong there would be no help..
Good to hear your making progress. I agree with you making the smart choice, had something gone wrong in that situation, it would have been quite the trip. How long until you figure you will have the boat in the water and using it?
I also ran the genset for quite a while at the river.... I turned on the water heater and both electric elements on the stove... That drew 20 amps... then I turned on everything else... lights fans power converter etc and ran the microwave.... 23 amps 120 volts rock solid.... I don't have the air conditioner installed yet but should be no problem running it and cooking at the same time as it should draw no more than 10 amps.
Yesterday I rewired the trailer and put LED taillights on it... will be getting new LED markers asap.
I just posted some night b4 last.... I couldn't really take pics of the bellows swap since my hands were to dirty to touch my camera (iphone) what would you like to see a pic of?
