I have returned... with a Starcraft this time!

[BWR1953]

I'd prime and paint the inner skin for sure, helps protect that surface from deteriorating.

Okie doke. Will do.

 

[BWR1953]

T Minus 20 days and counting.

Boo Yah!! Two old men and a boy got the job done! The lower unit has been reinstalled!


My 74 y.o. buddy came over this morning to render assistance with the LU. We pulled the spark plugs and he rocked the flywheel back and forth to align the splines. Meanwhile, the boy and I raised the LU. The boy lay on his back and guided everything together. Only took a couple of attempts and things lined up and got bolted into place.
And that's when I found the "extra" washers for the lock nuts in the bolt bucket. D'oh! :doh: So we took it apart and started over, putting the washers in place. Didn't really have any problems and I'm happy that it's done.






After that we double checked the stern skin and found a couple more "tartar" blemishes and got those cleaned up. First we tried with a brass wire cleaning brush which worked some. But again I wasn't satisfied so we switched to a stainless cleaning brush. That worked just fine. We used Goo Gone each time as well.

After that we went inside for lunch. Nice and cool in there. A balmy 94 degrees outside at the time. And getting close to my nap time too! But we rallied after lunch and went back out to work on the carbs. The plan was to get them reconnected to one another, fuel line connected, then remount them on the engine. Got part of it done. Connected the carbs and made sure WOT was correct on both.

Then when I stood up to take them over to the engine, I just about fell asleep while rising! :lol: So it's nap time now.

We'll go back out when it cools off this evening (still 92 right now) and mount the carbs. And I'll do a little ignition wire cleaning too.

Anybody know how to jump start this 50 without using a key and shifter?

 

[Watermann]

Just plug the controls into the motor plug and hook up the battery terminals... bam start it with the key. You'll have to run the throttle by hand without the cable connected but the choke should work too with the controls hooked up.

Old Mercs all have a preferred starting sequence that must be followed. Pump the bulb good and tight and on mine until the float bowl overflows start to dribble gas. Advance the warm up lever to 2/3rds, choke and hit the key. Don't rev much beyond 1500 rpms on the muffs and all will be good.

 

[BWR1953]

Just plug the controls into the motor plug and hook up the battery terminals... bam start it with the key. You'll have to run the throttle by hand without the cable connected but the choke should work too with the controls hooked up.

Old Mercs all have a preferred starting sequence that must be followed. Pump the bulb good and tight and on mine until the float bowl overflows start to dribble gas. Advance the warm up lever to 2/3rds, choke and hit the key. Don't rev much beyond 1500 rpms on the muffs and all will be good.

Yeahhh... that's not gonna happen. The controls are more disassembled than they were back on post #882 on page 59. As in bare wires removed from connectors and hanging out in the breeze. :lol:

My buddy hasn't gotten a chance to work on them again. Saw him tonight and he said he's gonna have to get to it "sometime." I reminded him of my schedule and he sorta rolled his eyes. I suggested that perhaps I should bring the stuff over to his shop where he can use all his tools and whatnot to work on it there. He said that sounded like a good idea so I'll take everything over there tomorrow.

 

[BWR1953]

Went back out this evening to install the carbs only to realize that I'd not removed the old gaskets. Ugh. Started scraping and cleaning that up when I got sidetracked by another non-boating issue. Ah well, tomorrow is another day. Even if it is another day closer to the deadline! :dizzy:

I'd been asked previously about whether or not this engine has a poppet valve or thermostat. It doesn't. I'd asked the parts dealer about how to flush the engine and was told to run it in a tub, not on muffs. Fair enough. I do have a barrel to use.

And yesterday I had the boy flush the water intake tube. I'd looked down inside with a flashlight and saw some sand. When flushed, sand indeed came out. We got it good and clean before mounting it in the motor. Does make me wonder what might be wandering around inside the water passages in the powerhead.

 

[Decker83]

The carbs look good. On my carbs I only used the permatex on the plugs that you drill out and replace with a cap and punch. They didn't have any threads on them.

 

[Watermann]

I'd just wire up the ignition switch then to the exterior wiring harness plug it in the motor, hook up power cables and once again... turn the key

Those old gaskets can be stubborn, I ended up painting on some adhesive remover to get mine softened up enough to scrape the last bits off with a razor. Even with some towels shoved in the intake holes I ran my shop vac in them just to make sure nothing got in there before reinstalling the carbs.

 

[BWR1953]

T minus 19 days and counting.

And I'm getting farther behind schedule. :sour:

Bad health day today. I was okay in the morning; did some work in the old shed and ran errands, including buying tool and supply stuff for the boat job. But the afternoon brought problems and I'm still not back to normal.

Sorry guys. :blue:


We did wash the stern of the KF this morning in preparation to plugging holes. For what little that's worth. The paint is pretty chalky so I guess I'll hit it with some TSP before plugging the holes.



Picked up some Xylene, SE primer, new fuel hose and some counter sink drill bits this morning. The light switch is for a different project, not the KF. :lol:

 

[Watermann]

Oh boy my favorite, Xylene...:hail: I had a gallon of it. I used it as a reducer for painting Rusto topside on my SN. Cleans a paint covered spray gun nice and shiny again. Removed mass amounts of sticker goo like no tomorrow since it's an adhesive reducer like MEK. It licks up 5200 like a kitten with milk. And of course works great to turn stick JB into soft putty.

 

[BWR1953]

Oh boy my favorite, Xylene...:hail: I had a gallon of it. I used it as a reducer for painting Rusto topside on my SN. Cleans a paint covered spray gun nice and shiny again. Removed mass amounts of sticker goo like no tomorrow since it's an adhesive reducer like MEK. It licks up 5200 like a kitten with milk. And of course works great to turn stick JB into soft putty.

Yup, I picked it up based on your recommendation. Thanks WM!

I just wish I could have put it to work today. Ah well, tomorrow will be another chance.

 

[BWR1953]

T minus 18 days and counting.

Feeling better today.

Much better! Got stuff done today!

Started out with the washed transom.



Then I scraped and scrubbed it again, following up with TSP substitute to get rid of the chalky white paint that was over top of the original Starcraft cream color. The TSP stuff did a good job! After cleaning, we sanded with 180 grit paper and the electric orbital hand sander.


Next was the task of removing the rear deck panel. And I will say this much... I will never use screws to secure a deck again! :yell: I'd used the stainless deck screws with 2mm square drive (aka Robertson drive) thinking that they'd be easy to remove later; as in now. Wrong. The heads stripped out and I fussed around with trying to remove the screws without damaging the deck for 45 minutes. I was thinking that I was going to have to go through the carp I did when I first removed the deck 2 years ago. Then I remembered that I didn't have to save this deck! D'oh! :doh:

So I grabbed my hole saw and made short work of the stubborn screws. :friendly_wink:



Next step was to remove the deck from the boat but the foam I'd used to seal around the edges was preventing that from happening. So we decided to get serious. Got out the BFH (which the boy calls "Thor's Hammer") and a pry bar. That worked just fine.



Got the deck up and the ol' foam was still there. I boogered up a couple of the blocks but will fix those up with some more aluminum duct tape.




And then the boy pulled the foam blocks out and did a quick vacuum cleaning.

​
Then I started plugging holes with the JB WaterWeld with Xylene chaser. The stern sure looks different! And I still have some holes that I'm not sure what to do about. The 1985 Mercury 50HP motor I have doesn't use the BIA standard. Suggestions?

 

[BWR1953]

T minus 17 days and counting.

And still further behind schedule. In the red, as it were.

No work on the boat at all today! :blue:

I'd hoped to get a little work done this evening but it looks like a complete loss. Sigh.

The boy's birthday today. Took him out to breakfast, then to a medical appointment. That took awhile. Then I took him to pick out his birthday present. A new bike. He's happy about that. But it took more time.

Then my wife came home early from work for a dentist appointment. We all went. And she ended up having major dental work done. We didn't get home till 6PM. She's in a lot of pain and took some Vicodin a short while ago and needs me to be "around" for her. As in me on the couch with her head on my shoulder. Okay then.

I was thinking that the boy and I could get out to the garage tonight and I could do a couple small things while he cleaned up. Doesn't look like it's gonna happen though. Double sigh. :grumpy::grumpy:

 

[Watermann]

Do what I did with my SS to have a nice clean slate...

 

[BWR1953]

Do what I did with my SS to have a nice clean slate...

Did you fill large holes? Those larger holes in the stern shown in my pic are 1/2" diameter. I'm a bit concerned if the WaterWeld plugs will stay put when they're that big.

 

[Watermann]

No I put the plate over the holes that was back buttered with 5200, ran machine screws through and clamped until it set. The new transom was installed already so I just filled the holes in level with 5200 before putting on the plate.

 

[BWR1953]

No I put the plate over the holes that was back buttered with 5200, ran machine screws through and clamped until it set. The new transom was installed already so I just filled the holes in level with 5200 before putting on the plate.

Ah. I see. I hadn't planned on replacing that external plate with anything. Especially since my 50 Merc doesn't use the BIA standard. I will have to cogitate on this for a bit.

Going out soon to work on the boat. Am hoping to get a bunch done today but my wife still isn't feeling well. I had to drive her to work. I hope she makes it through the day so that I don't have to stop work and go back to get her.

 

[Watermann]

My Merc 140 wasn't the correct BIA pattern either and neither was the the 140 dorm fridge that was original, they both clamp at the top and have a narrow bottom 2 holes. So I put the pad on especially because it wasn't BIA and I needed to drill out the new 1/2" holes in the BIA pattern . :lol:

You could install the transom with all the fasteners attached, fill the holes back against the wood with water weld, sand smooth and call it good. Just don't go beating on the exact spot with a hammer or the plug could become dislodged. If worried then go ahead and make a pad out of plywood, seal it with spar if you don't have any AL and 5200 it over the area and once set drill your new holes. I have a bunch of repaired holes below the waterline on my Chief's transom and I don't think those mounting holes you have are even below the waterline. Anyway I've not had any issues in 3 seasons and the transom doesn't take any sort of impacts nor does it flex to cause a leak.

 

[BWR1953]

T minus 16 days and counting.

Still way behind schedule but moving forward. We worked for a solid 8 hours out there today. Looking at the pix, it doesn't seem like much got done but we were hard at it and only took 1/2 hour for lunch. And I even skipped my afternoon nap! :laugh:


My goals for today were:

• Sand the plugged holes in the stern
• Fill more holes in the stern.
• Remove the remaining decking and foam.
• Clean inside of hull.
• Pressure wash outside and inside of the hull.
• Remove boat from trailer and turtle it inside the garage.

Got much of it done but had some equipment failures and a weather issue at the end.

Didn't get the hull pressure washed or turtled because the pressure washer wouldn't. :yell:
The boy was really disappointed about that because it was in the low 90s here for most of the day and he wanted to do the pressure washing so that he could cool off.

And although we got the boat outside and ready for washing this evening, the pressure washer failed and while I was trying to figure out what was wrong, a big T-storm started rolling in and we had to stop. Tonight I'll research to see if I can find out why the pressure washer isn't pressurizing.

This morning I sanded the WaterWeld plugs I put in the stern yesterday. I used my 9 y.o. electric HF cheapo palm sander. Started with the outside of the stern using 120 grit paper and that knocked it down pretty quickly. Then I switched to 180 grit and smoothed things out more. I'm happy with the results. However! Just as I was finishing up, the sander started "clanking" a little and then it gave up the ghost. Hey, I got it for 8 bucks some 9 years ago. I can't complain. But I need to buy a new one. (Maybe two?) Will do that tomorrow morning.

Fortunately, the boy got me a random orbital HF sander for Father's Day. It has 80 grit paper on it and no replacement paper. So I carefully knocked down the plugs on the inside of the stern and the boy followed up with a file and some 180 grit paper on a hand sander. But that big orbital sander is just too rugged for the boat work I'm doing.

And I also plugged up 6 more holes. Will sand those down tomorrow. While I was sitting there this evening while the boy locked up the garage, I "noticed" that I'd overlooked three holes in the starboard side where I'd removed rivets from the old steering system. Will address those holes tomorrow too.




Then we started working on getting the deck out. That took awhile but it's done now. :joyous:





Now this looks familiar. Sorta like where I was two years ago when I first started this project! :lol:





The old deck pieces. Gonna use those as templates for the new panels.

 

[BWR1953]

My Merc 140 wasn't the correct BIA pattern either and neither was the the 140 dorm fridge that was original, they both clamp at the top and have a narrow bottom 2 holes. So I put the pad on especially because it wasn't BIA and I needed to drill out the new 1/2" holes in the BIA pattern . :lol:

You could install the transom with all the fasteners attached, fill the holes back against the wood with water weld, sand smooth and call it good. Just don't go beating on the exact spot with a hammer or the plug could become dislodged. If worried then go ahead and make a pad out of plywood, seal it with spar if you don't have any AL and 5200 it over the area and once set drill your new holes. I have a bunch of repaired holes below the waterline on my Chief's transom and I don't think those mounting holes you have are even below the waterline. Anyway I've not had any issues in 3 seasons and the transom doesn't take any sort of impacts nor does it flex to cause a leak.

Yeah, the Merc 50 I have also uses the clamps on top and the skinny frame with 2 holes on the bottom. I also need to leave room for the power trim whoozits. :lol:

For now I've filled everything except the transom and knee brace bolt holes. Gonna need those anyway so don't want to fill and re-drill for the same thing.

I'm going to have to buy some 1/4" plywood to make a new external stern plate.

 

[Watermann]

I would use 1/2 in ply rather than flimsy 1/4 in, I don't think they even make an exterior rated 1/4 do they? You'll have lots of room still with the screws, they pull out like 2 inches.