This is my boat, a 1958 Texas Maid Osprey, and it resides in Texas (ha, ah very funny), when I got it (for 340$) it was in mediocre condition as you can see. The wiring was all done through the 1960 Johnson 40 HP which was hydro locked (was not sold with the boat), so I had to rip out and redo the entire wiring system
Not too bad but I also had to redo the bow light, because as you can see the yellow has faded out of the green to make blue, which is illegal by the way. (found that out the hard way)
As I said, when I got it it had no engine so looking around I found a nice 1993 Mercury 40 HP 4 Cylinder 2 Stroke. (Only 40 hours on the motor and 280$)
Sadly the motor turned out to be more than I thought it would be, I had to put 120+ hours into the motor to transfer it (drilling holes in 1/4 inch stainless steel with a power drill and titanium bits like an idiot). Once it was on though I got a key made (didn't come with one) I sprayed it with PLENTY of starter fluid, hooked her up to some earmuffs, and...after being "winterized" for 12 YEARS...she started on the 3rd or 4th crank. ran for maybe 30 seconds before I realized the tell tale was still dry. Killed it and inspected. 8 inches of "foreign material" that I don't want to go into the specifics of. Cleaned that out and ran it again tell tale squirted water like it was fresh out of the factory. Did a water pump rebuild anyway. (only 2 of 6 fins when I got to it)
After all of that I till wasn't happy with it so I ordered 2 full carb rebuild kits a new fuel tank and fuel line with bulb. Also rebuilt the fuel pump while I was at it. I thought it ran great before but now it ran superbly. Took her out, and the problems began:
Hard to start in water
Dies in 5 mins under load
Never ran at full RPM's
After a thorough look through realized that the prop is a pitch of 16 and a diameter of 10". that is the problem getting a new one today and will get back to you guys.
PS:
Can i post youtube links here? I'm new and don't want to get in trouble.