18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Son is feeling a little better. Hopefully better still tomorrow. Allergies big time.

I got the 2nd coat on the transom and splashwell tonight which is great because even that is way more than would have been accomplished if we'd made it out to the 'burgh. If my son is feeling better tomorrow I hope to hang the motor and start on the controls.

Don't everyone get too excited.....it must not be forgotten that my motor has issues and my trailer has bad bearings. These things will need to be dealt with before a launch is possible.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

I was just thinking about one of these http://www.dhcampingandfishingsupply.com/110200000.html

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Photo from the other night, transom painted:

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Tonight got a little bit of work done (only 2 beers worth). I installed the transom cap, the end caps, cut off 2 long bolts that extended too far into the splashwell, and installed my new cable boot.

I wanted to thread in the motor bolts and 5200 them in preparation for hanging the motor but I really think I want to buy one of these:http://www.dhcampingandfishingsupply.com/110200000.html first. If I get time tomorrow I'm going to install the cleats, and possibly play with the motor rigging.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

I have a wonderful piece of diamond plate for the transom. Not putting in back on. Being stubborn about it. It serves no purpose in my opinion. I'm sure the outboard will mark up the boat but this ain't a 12' where I'm going to be taking the motor off and on. I left it off my Jupiter also and the transom didn't fall off

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Well the motor is on the boat. Darn near killed me but it's one. Had it one and tightened and then tried to connect the steering and there wasn't room enough to insert the steering tube. (The Jupiter didn't have that sloped splashwell so I didn't think to check). So I had to take it back off again and insert the tube and remount it. All this by myself crammed into that cubby of my garage where the motor was hanging. What a b!tch. Bad news, my steering cable is a foot too short. It still works fine but there isn't enough slack to tuck it up out of the away along the gunnel. So that's definitely a bummer. I measured how they tell you to measure and I really didn't want any extra as that can be also be a pain. I'm going to leave it for a while and eventually buy a new one and swap it out. Since the motor will have to be taken off again, I'm not too enthusiastic about that prospect. Could be worse. It could have been too short to work. No pics tonight because I am beat. I'll take some tomorrow as I tidy up the carnage in my garage. Little tip for everyone, don't get antsy and decide to install your motor the same night as you 5200 your motor bolts in place. You'll just get 5200 all over yourself and everything and with the bolts moving in and out you have no idea if you got a decent seal. I will probably back the nuts off and back the motor off a bit once the 5200 is dry and reseal to make sure.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Nah I wouldn't say it was a bust. The motor is hung and the steering is connected and working. Cable is a litte short but it won't keep me on shore. Tomorrow I hope to work on installing the controls.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Not much real interesting going on and I have been very lax with the pictures. I got the fuel tank all plumbed up (that was a pain, that fill tubing is so NOT flexible) and I have the basic wiring just about complete (lights, horn, bilge pump). Tonight I'm going to tear a wheel and hub apart from the trailer to see if I can figure out what I need to order as far as new pre-loaded hubs go.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Ok here's the pics.

LED bow light installed and wired

LED stern light installed and wired. It's awfully tall but I don't think that's a bad thing

Horn installed wired

My mind blowingly awesome switch panel (not). I reused two pull switches that came with the boat and one was bad. So I had to pull them back out. I'll get another one this week and reinstall.

Battery tray and bilge pump installed

Passenger dash panel glued in place. The 5200 is holding the StarBoard just fine for now. Once I add the flush mount tackle tray thingie it will be physically fastened as well

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

My too short steering cable situation. Not too terrible and the seat will cover it. I will replace with a longer cable at some point

Steering cable boot

Fuel tank hold downs. Very solid

Fuel tank plumbing

Ugly outboard

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Cleats installed

This is what I did tonight. Took apart a hub. Of course this would be a non-shot hub. It didn't rumble at all. Oh well, they're both getting replaced. I was hoping to find some numbers or something on here that would tell me what I need to order for pre-loaded hubs. Anyone know how I can tell? I didn't thoroughly clean the hub so there could be some numbers somewhere.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Thanks brad. The boat is a '76 and motor is an '81. I like the vinyl product but I didn't do the greatest job in installing it. I have air bubbles. Nothing major but I'm not 100% happy with it. I tried my darndest to get them out but short of poking holes in it, it hasn't worked. Honestly I think I'd go with Durabak, Kiwi Grip or some other similar product if I had it to do over again.

My motor is now completely connected. The only things left to do is replace a bad bilge pump switch and install the starboard jump seat. Unfortunately at that point I will just have a nice boat on a trailer that doesn't roll and a motor that doesn't run (right). Both of these issues require money and/or expertise that I don't currently have. It will get on the water within the next 2 weeks I hope but I'm just fairly irritated at the whole situation at the moment. The weather here has been terrible so it's not like I'm really missing out. Even when it's nice out there's been high winds

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Pulled the boat out tonight and installed the one remaining jump seat. I put 5 gallons of gas in the tank and fired up the motor. She still runs!! Yeah!! Idles well, goes into gear fine. Too bad it won't do that on the water . I'm going to do it again soon in a bin of water and see if it stalls.

Tomorrow I'm going to take my hubs off and Saturday morning I'm going to run to the RV shop with them and hopefully they can tell me what I need bearing/seal-wise. God willing within a week I'll get in a test run. Hopefully at least as good a test run as I got when I first bought it if I can get the motor in gear without it dying.

Took a ride with my son tonight to check out the boat ramp situation at a different section of the same river where I usually boat. Looks like a really cool area. I definitely want to go there with my dad's boat. I could quite tell if I could run the SS there or not. You may have heard of the prominent landmark in the area......Three Mile Island!!!!

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Just got back from the RV shop. Good thing I went there. Apparently just about ALL my stuff was weird. My inner bearings were a typical size. The outers were unusually small but they actually had a set in stock. The rear seals were totally weird and they had to order them. I paid for all the parts today and am only in it $33. When the seals come in, I'm going to take them home and make sure they fit the spindle then I will probably take everything back and pay them a little labor to put it all back together. This will end up being the same price as if I actually had been able to buy pre-loaded hubs and will be much cheaper than a new axle. So some more time will be lost but at least the trailer will be getting taken care of. They spent like a half hour today determining all the parts I needed which I really appreciated.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

sooooooo ....... get the hubs back togeather ??

Scott you fail at reading comprehension I'm waiting on the rear seals which had to be ordered. Hopefully early this week.

My weekend started out crappy. We were hit with a major hail storm that damaged two of our vehicles and possibly the house. The "new" Jeep and my truck got hit bad. My neighbors rear window got smashed out of her car. I'm sure the Jeep will get fixed fine but I'm worried about my truck. If they decide to paint only the hood and roof that's going to look pretty dumb on a 20 year old vehicle. If that's the case, I probably just won't fix it which will be a shame since it was in real nice shape. Fortunately our deductibles were only $250 each but that's still a lot of money. Our house appears ok but this is the second major hail storm it's been through....including one about a year ago which caused about half my neighborhood to get new roofs and siding. We figured we better at least get it checked out as we didn't last time. Bummer all the way around.

Had a GREAT day today. My wife and I and our son took my dad's little boat out on a section of the river we've never been to before. It was awesome! It wasn't a huge area but there was lots to look at. Lots of islands. A couple of them even had boat docks and had little park/picnic areas on them! That's pretty cool since any island I've ever seen otherwise was usually posted. I didn't know if it was an area I could take the SS out in but there were plenty of larger boats there. I think I'd be ok if I stuck to the open areas. Can't wait to check it out again with the SS. We fished for a bit but nothing serious since our son is 2.5. He had a blast though. We covered a good bit of area even though we only had 4HP.

I told my wife the SS would be usable on memorial day weekend and come hell or high water....it will be.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

I just got back from the PA Fish & Boat Commission where I finally transferred the registration for my boat to my name. I'm all legal now! My bearing seals for the trailer came in on Friday. I have my axle in the truck right now and I'm headed to the RV shop right after work. We'll check the seals to make sure they fit and if they do, I'm headed immediately to the shop of a fellow iboater, john3931, who has generously agreed to help me get everything reassembled. I will be so pumped to finally have this trailer done.

Assuming that all gets done tonight....the plan is:

- reinstall the axle. Probably have to move it a couple times to achieve the optimal tongue weight
- install the new LED light set on the trailer
- fire up the motor again, this time with the lower unit submerged and see if I can replicate the situation where it stalls going into gear. Adjust the idle speed and see if that helps
- One night this week take the boat for a test run

Assuming nothing catastrophic happens....I will be taking the family out this weekend!!!

If those bearing seals don't fit I'm f&*ked! The RV shop took careful measurements though before ordering so I'm optimistic. If they don't fit I'm going to order a whole new axle to get away from all this weirdness. I will probably do that at some time in the future anyway.

Speaking of hail damage.....found out Friday we're going to need a whole new roof on the house. Joy.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Complete FAIL on the trailer repair. The seals didn't fit. I had the axle with me at the RV shop and they hadn't seen one like it. Time for it to go. It looks like Eastern Marine has everything I need and they are only in Newark, DE so hopefully they can get a new axle and hubs by Thursday. I'm going to call them first thing tomorrow. F trailers.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Holy crap guys, it looks like tractor supply does have my axle (or at least one that will work) and for HALF of what I was about to spend. I'm going to call them in a few minutes to see if they have it in stock. There's a couple stores in my area so I should be able to find it somewhere.

It's either this one http://www.tractorsupply.com/traile...ailer-axles/axle-72-58-3500-lbs-idler-1075529

or this one http://www.tractorsupply.com/traile...ailer-axles/70x58-idler-axle-2000-lbs-0175415

I'm confused cuz that 3500 one is labeled 3500 in the title but 2000 in the text. I wonder which is correct.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Don't know yet. I'm going to remeasure. My hubface measurement is currently 71" but I didn't have the hubs bolted on so it may be closer to 70" in which case I'll probably get the 2000# axle. However, can't hurt to have the extra capacity and I have already have really beefy springs! Decisions, decisions. The spring center measurement is the same for both.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

SUCCESS!!!! Tractor supply had everything I needed. I went with the 3500lb axle and it was practically plug and play. The project couldn't have gone better. I even stopped at Harbor Freight on the way home to get a new grinder (mine died) assuming I may have to modify the spring seats but I didn't even have to take it out of the box.

Old axle/new axle

Crusty old axle

New axle mounted right up!

Finally on her own feet again

Fenders reinstalled