Resurected SS 194

Ram50V8

Recruit
Joined
Aug 20, 2011
Messages
2
My brother picked this up at a garage sale last fall for $300. Previous owner had replaced the cylinder head with a reman then lost interest and let it sit outside uncovered.. When brother drug it to my shop I just shook my head, it was avacado green right down to the seats. It was also in deplorable condition, moss growing inside, wood rotten, all the usual things one expects. Well, we decided to see what we had as far as mechanical was concerned. As it turned out it had faired better than expected mechanically except for the lower end. The lower had cracked from impact damage from something getting caught in the prop. Our local prop doc sold us a lower for $200 he had rebuilt many years ago and wanted it off his shelf. So now it came down to replacing some rotten wood, new seats and some wiring repairs. We finally got it to the lake yesterday for a shake down test.

The shake down test.........

Well, I knew it was going to be a bad day when we started out with flat tires on the trailer and truck and a fuel tank that was refusing to fill at anything faster than eye dropper speed. We fixed the flats, cleared the fuel vent and off we headed to CLinton Lake. Now by the time we made it to the lake it was late after noon on a sunday. The ramp at our favorite launch was busy so the ramp was wet. Now my brother is know for being cheap and a procrastinator. So as I backed the boat into the water with his truck I discoverd that he had no rear brakes. How I discoverd this was when the trucks front wheels hit the wet ramp the truck quickly started slidding into the lake. I grabbed first and nailed the gas just as the cab was about to get very wet. I shot back up the ramp and of course with the boat in tow. Thankfully as was well as I stopped the truck, unhooked the winch and pushed him off. As I parked the truck and walked back I noticed that he was still sitting in the ramp area not moving. Hmmmmmm, boat wont crank. I jumpin the water, make my way to the boat, climb in and discover he had frogot to tighten the battery cables. Ok, that solves it.

Now the boat is running and we discover the next problem. Seems the shifter does not want to shift into forward. So we back our way to the dock grab the toold and adjust the shifter. Now it's time for the test. We head out onto the lake and slowly open it up while monitoring for any strange noises etc. All goes well, until about 5 miles into the lake when the boat suddenly dies. A quick check reveals a blown fuse from a wire that rubbed a screw. So now we start head back and discover we have lost forward again. I manually shift it into gear off we go. This time we make a loop around the lake of about 15 miles at various speeds to see how it handles. I was impressed by several things, first being how well it handles choppy water. The ride is quite nice. Second was how responsive it was to helm input. and lastly how powerfull it is with the 165 Hp engine. This boat really hauls!

Finally back at the launch area, we put in at the dock while we fixed a few things on the trailer. (we had a few rollers that were bad and had planned in advance to replace them at the launch parking lot while the boat was off) WE backed the trailer in and I jumped in the boat to briing it around, Guess what! Now we have neither forward nor reverse. A wuick check at the transom revaeals that the cable is not moving so we either failed the shift cable or the control died. Had to rope the boat to the loading area and load byhand. That boat is the easiest boat I have ever had to load with a dead drive. We decided it was a keeper and after some repairs we plan on going back out soon.

Darren M
 

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