1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

That seems right on the flapper. V'ed end toward the motor will be forced tighter (more open) with the exhaust and cooling water exiting. If a slug of water from the stern comes up the tube, the flapper gets closed to keep the water out of the motor.

The wood is looking good, too.

 

[captainnate]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

Thanks GA

I think I'll take one more look at the manual and then give putting this thing back together a try.

 

[captainnate]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

3M 5200 or 4200 for through transom bolts? I have used 5200 on a previous transom project (15' aluminum Meyers boat w/outboard). It seemed to seal up pretty nice. However, now I am reading 5200 is a real bugger to take apart. I don't anticipate taking many of these bolts out ever again, however, maybe the less permanent 4200 would be a better choice. Thoughts?

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

Both are for above or below the water line. I've always used 5200 on transom hardware, but with all new wood and seals for the Mercruiser bits I don't see why 4200 wouldn't work fine. So far my experience with the 5200 isn't the permanence of the bond between parts, it's cleaning up the residue prior to reassembly.

 

[captainnate]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

I looked through the manual again last night. It looks like putting it back together is pretty straight forward. Hopefully I don't do anything out of order and have to redo the job.

 

[captainnate]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

Well I have a lot of it together. I still have a few concerns. Why does the front engine mount have to be at it's lower limit for the alignment to be good? I would have liked a little more room to work with; I wonder if I screwed something up along the way, or if I missed something. Could the rear mounts be bad; the looked okay to me? Should I replace the wood front engine support with a slightly thinner piece? Just seems weird to me. Here is a like to a question about the front mount: http://forums.iboats.com/mercruiser...mount-mercruiser-120-installation-622037.html

 

[captainnate]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

Still trying to figure out why the front of the engine has to be so low. I had just over 2 inches on thickness on the new transom, about 2.06" to be exact. The rear mounts seem to be in correctly: squiggly washer, fiber washer, engine, spacer, steel washer, bolt. Maybe it came this way from the factory. One possibility is that some damage was previously done to the engine coupler; it was in there with a rotted transom for a while. However, I only ran it on muffs a few times, and one very short run on the lake (see previous posts). I'm leaning towards just running with it for now. It is aligned at this point. Boy, you can definitely tell when the alignment is way off; that bar doesn't want to go in or out of the coupler.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

As long as the bar goes in and out easily, you should be OK, Nate. Did you turn the motor to check at different positions?

 

[captainnate]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

Thanks GA. I didn't turn the motor yet. What is the best way to do that? The crankshaft pulley is hard to get to because of the front mount. Maybe I will finish hooking up the motor wires and turn it that way. Another question to illustrate my inexperience; does turning the motor 90 degrees literally mean just that? I guess the crankshaft pulley is on one end, and the engine coupler on the other end of the crankshaft, correct? There shouldn't be any ratio to account for, right?

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

It's a straight 1:1, so a 1/4 turn on the front pulley is a 1/4 turn of the coupler. If you pull the spark plugs, sometimes you can use the bolts on the water pump pulley to turn the motor over if the belt doesn't slip. If it doesn't turn easy, don't snap the bolts.

It is a tight fit between the crank pulley and motor mount. Another thing to try is to remove the right spacer on the mount - closest to the alternator. That spacer is for belt replacement and might give a little extra room to get a box or open end wrench in there to turn the motor using the crank bolt. Again pull the plugs to make it easier. Caution - Don't loosen the left side mount bolts below the large water pump hose.

 

[captainnate]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

I turned over the motor with the starter. I tried it at a few different spots. It was not consistant at all. At one point it would be good, then spin the engine (check that it has rotated at least 90), check again, and it was much harder to push/pull in out.

Is my coupler bad?

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

Might be time for the Mercruiser forum, Nate. I know how it should work with a known good coupler, so we're getting out of my comfort zone for advice.

 

[captainnate]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

So I got the engine back in it's place, and took it down to the marina. The mechanic bang the alignment tool around a lot more than I was, and got it aligned. He also looked at the bellows, shift cable, gimbal bearing, and outdrive. He said it all looked fine. I guess you could say I didn't really know what I was doing. Oh well, I feel better knowing that the old mechanic gave me the thumbs up. He told me a few pointers on putting the drive back on, so that will be next. I'm anxious to get this thing in the water. You can check out my alignment issues here if you are interested http://forums.iboats.com/mercruiser-i-o-inboard-engines-outdrives/engine-coupler-toast-622417.html

I also got some new trailer lights, and wired them up this morning. The old ones were working intermittently and were very unreliable. Just a few more things to do, and I will be ready for first splash. This hasn't been a "restoration" by any means, but then again I wasn't really going for that to began with. I still have plenty to do to make it look pretty and work out some smaller issues. It will be sweet to take it for a ride on the lake.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

A firm hand. You're close to getting her wet. Hope all the problems are behind you, Nate.

 

[captainnate]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

Thanks GA. I took the boat down to the river and ran it while it was on the trailer. Had just a tiny bit of water in the bilge, about half a cup. It was a little disapointing, but I'm not sure where it came from. I did notice it right after it was in the water, so it may have been accumlation from the front of the boat. I will have to keep an eye on it. What I didn't like is the motor quit while going from reverse to neutral multiplr times. Maybe I will have to adjust he cable. Time to read up on it some more.

 

[captainnate]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

I apologize for not having any pics or video, but I floated the boat yesterday. I was confident enough to take along two of my kids, my 8 year old son and 5 year old daughter. All went pretty well. The boat doesn't shift very well going out of reverse. That combined with my lack of experience made for a tense docking/loading situation. Also, idle speed seems high, and is most notable when docking and loading. The engine ran strong; I only stalled once or twice coming out of gear while approaching the dock. I had it all the way up to 3800 rpm's. That wasn't full throttle, but I didn't want to over do it the first time out. I was thinking of trying this shift cable adjustment http://www.mercstuff.com/images/shiftcable.jpg

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

Any more water, other than the bit when you ran her on the trailer the other day?

Does your motor have the shift interrupt? I think that's what it's called. It interrupts the ignition for an instant when shifting to let the lower unit change gears easier.

 

[captainnate]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

I had about the same amount of water as I did the other day. Honestly I'm not terribly worried about that right now. It is something I can work on after I get a few other things done. I adjusted the shift cable per the mercstuff.com instructions. Hopefully that will help. I won't know until I go out again.

I'm pretty sure I have the shift interrupter. I definitively notice a momentary drop in rpm's when shifting.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

The interrupter may have gotten knocked out of adjustment during the motor shuffle. That could be why it wants to cut off coming out of reverse.

 

[captainnate]

Re: 1972 Starcraft Nova 18'

Okay, so I have taken the boat out a few times now. Overall I'm satisfied with how it is working. I think the next item I need to fix is the wiring. All my engine wiring appears to be fine, and all the gauges are working fine. What doesn't work are all my accessories. My lights don't work. My bilge pump is wired direct to the battery. I may just have to take more time and see if I can get it working. Does anybody have a good starting point for rewiring a boat? I guess I need to get a tester and just get to work.

thanks, Nate