Glen- I look forward to seeing that rebuild
And this weekend I managed to lower the engine using the wooden dowel trick worked great.
I picked up another quart of west system epoxy, I put off ordering the other stuff and decided I needed it for the lowering, so I bought local.
I let the epoxy thicken, then cut some spirals in the dowel, drilled the old hole out to clean the sealant as much as I could, recoated the hold, and inserted the dowel.
Then with a fresh batch of epoxy I thickened with sawdust, allowing it to soak in, then let it sit till it got nice and thick, and capped the top of the hole off holding it in with tape.
Then I lowered the engine, centered as perfectly as I could and drilled the new holes.
Then with a fresh mtdew can cut in half I mixed another batch, while nice and runny I used a dowel with groves cut in it to spread the epoxy around in the hole.
and repeated a few times while the epoxy got nice and thick, finishing off with a nice thick coat inside of the new hole.
Following day once everything cured I raised the engine via floor jack, took a drill bit to clean off the top of the old hole, mostly ensuring it clears my transom protector/ stiffener that the boat came with (drilled into the repair to ensure the guard and the repair were separate) then put a light coat of epoxy to cap the repair, and sealed into the remaining with 5200, taped over and lowered the engine again.
One final coat of epoxy into the new hole, and I started work with the tilt lock.
Previously I had issues with the tilt lock, pretty much I was unable to lock the engine in full tilt due to the size of the mini fridge, the top of the cowl would hit the splash well preventing a full lock,
As a workaround, it was decided that the engine needed to be raised anyways for best performance + to clear the splashwell.
I also picked up a "trailering bracket" that was an option from the factory, it holds the engine at a slightly lower tilt for travel down the road.
Well after my first outing last week, It was noted how low the engine already sat, and it was decided that the boat would need to be backed into the water with the trailering bracket removed but in full tilt lock (trailering bracket would be a pain to remove while inside of the boat), due to how low to the ground the trailer sits, the skeg being in jeopardy...
So once I lowered, reminding my self of the previous issue, I first confirmed I can still get a replacement tilt lock, then I pulled it from the engine, and drilled a series of holes where I decided the material would get removed from.
Then using my diegrinder I started cutting, and then finished off with a stone bit.
reinstalled, and confirmed that my now huge channel won't cause an issue unless the engine bounces, allowing the cowl to slam into the splashwell...
another side affect of the larger channel, raising the engine all the way up now auto engages the tilt lock, prior I had to manually push the lock into place via reach around :lol:
I noticed on the replacement tilt lock kits available, it comes with a bracket for the other side of the engine, it serves as an additional limiter to prevent the engine from going to high.
So maybe later on I'll see if I can't fab up a bracket that will prevent the lock from going to high, into the splashwell
