my new old 1988 ss20v

[Watermann]

When you get the alignment tool to start in the coupler, use a mallet to thump on the tool on all sides to align the gimbal bearing in the assembly while pushing in on the tool. Most times you'll never get it to drop all the way inside into the splines without doing this.

 

[ab59]

I'm getting rained out today and if the weather forecast is right it may be a couple of weeks of rain coming our way so it's hurry up and wait I guess.
I tried the thumping of the alignment rod with a rubber mallet but I'm too far off to do me much good. I put some white grease onto the end of the rod and pushed it up in to the coupler , at least I tried anyway. It did not really enter the coupler but is hitting the lower right side and the white grease marks it pretty good. It's off by quite a bit so I hope I don't have a much more serious problem going on here. I need to lower the right side and see what I've got , sure wish that the rear mounts could be adjusted but I guess they built it like this for a reason.
I'm hoping for a brake here and there in the weather so that I might get few hours in on the boat here and there but will have to wait and see.

 

[ab59]

Finally . It quit raining for a day and I got the engine to line up and I am real happy with the results. I let the front mounts down a turn and got the alignment tool to start into the spline and it showed the front needed to come down even further . I adjusted it again and the grease marks on the tool looked pretty dang close but I checked the front mount height and had to make an adjustment on one side of about a turn . From there I torqued the engine mount bolts , front and back to their respective torques and ran the tool one more time and wallah the spline marks in the grease look very close to perfect , well in my eyes anyways. I only had to make three climbs into the boat to get it done , what luck that was but I think that measuring the front mount bolts to make sure they were even made the difference in getting it right fairly quickly.
Now to hook up the wiring and put the interior back together again and then I can give her the ultimate test . Very soon I hope but the last I saw we are looking at another ten days of rain . I guess it they are right , that ten days should give me plenty of time to get the rest of the work done on the inside of the boat.---

 

[Watermann]

Good news right there! I see some getting paralyzed when trying to align their sterndrive, mainly just by over thinking it.

 

[ab59]

I can see how someone could get paralyzed by the adjustment process as I was getting a little intimidated myself but by just following the alignment procedure and NOT SKIPPING ANY STEPS ( lol ) I was able to line up a badly out of line engine.
If i can do it , Anyone can do it , no worries be happy .

 

[ab59]

Well I got my starter problem straightened out and all but a connection or two in the wiring harness hooked back up just ahead of another storm system . Will order the rivets I need tonight as I forgot to order them again. I am about to begin the dreaded lower shift cable installation and adjustment so I am scanning the site for information. DO NOT want to screw this up and eat up the outdrive . Back to the books-------

 

[ab59]

Finally stopped raining here and I've had a couple of days to work on the boat again. Had a few problems with the shift Bell Crank among other things but it's all good now . Wet sanded and primed the outdrive today and will install the end on the transom shift cable before and hook the shift cables up to the bracket after adjusting to spec.Tomorrow I hope to paint the outdrive and if it's dry enough by late afternoon I will install and torque same and test the next day. That is if it's not raining again.----here's hoping------

 

[Watermann]

Lookin good and getting oh so close! :thumb:

 

[ab59]

Well , as usual the minute I got out the paint the wind came up ! I don't know what it is around here but it's as if some one with the power to control the wind is watching and just waiting to fire up the wind when I start to paint something on this boat.
Anyway It is what it is now because I'm almost out of the Cobra Paint . I guess I can order some more if I need to but I'm ready to be done with this project.
Put the new transom shift cable in and adjusted it up to spec but once I took the OMC jig off of the bell crank the crank does not return to the correct position that it was in when I shift it at the controller , so got a little more adjusting to do.
I keep forgetting about changing the outdrive oil so need to do that pretty quick.
Anyone have a good substitute for the " High-Vis " outdrive oil ? That stuff is more than a little pricey for my tastes .

 

[Watermann]

For me new clean oil is more important than brand.

I just use this in all my lowers.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Super-Tec...waAjDVEALw_wcB

 

[ab59]

Great , I can get that locally , thanks.

 

[ab59]

I've got the outdrive back on the boat and hopefully got the shift cables adjusted correctly . Was going to take a couple of pictures but my little sony cibershot suddenly quit working and I refuse to link my cell phone to my computer so guess there won't be any pictures til I find a cheap replacement .
I'm screwing many of the braces down and getting ready to install the transom cap and all the little pickup work before I put the side and rear panels back up.
What has everyone been using to glue the laps of the aluminum at the gunnels and aluminum overlap areas ? i thought about using 5200 but I'm sure that I would have it everywhere by the time I got things together. Whatever Starcraft used seems to have been pretty dang good stuff because it was still stuck when I took the rear cap off and where the gunnels were stuck at the laps.

 

[Watermann]

My transom cover didn't have any sealer on it, just screws and rivets holding it on.

 

[roadkingba]

I have a very similar Boat that is in good shape but trying to find new gauges for it. Most replacements or round and these are square. Any links?

 

[ab59]

Roadkingba-- I screwed up my gas gauge square gauge and could never find another one . I did find that there are a great deal of Starcraft parts around the Great lakes areas and if you were to keep an eye out there might be a chance of finding one on Craig's List. Your second option might be to buy a new gauge as close as you can find to the old one and buy a square bezel for it . I have seen some now and then on eBay . Don't know what iboats parts might have but worth a look.
I put a round one in mine and then forgot about finding a square bezel but now that you have reminded me I will look for just the square cutout myself !
Good luck .

Remember that anything you might find used will be 30 years old .

 

[ab59]

The rain has finally backed off and the winds are below 20 mph so I latched onto the boat and hauled her to the ramp down the road and gave her one last leak test and after about 15-20 minutes there is NO water coming into the boat ! Looks like I'm good to go to put everything back together again , hopefully for the LAST time. I could not get the engine to start for some reason while soaking the boat at the ramp. I'm going to put the muffs on and find the problem . Sounds like the engine fires and wants to start and run but cannot. Will look over the connections and see if something was left disconnected . Got to be something simple that was overlooked.
Once I get the engine to run right I should be able to complete the the rest in one day , two at the outside. Rain coming again tonight so it's going to be some more hurry up and wait time .
Was going to include a few pics but my new camera is shooting in too large a format in standard mode and I cannot load them . I resized them but then could not access them through the attachment button.








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[Watermann]

Oh man in the water pics are our favorite too! Good luck on flushing out the little start up gremlin

 

[ab59]

Hey , a question for someone who knows . When I hooked the wiring back up I did not ground the engine block to the transom thinking that the engine mounts were enough of a ground . It was my understanding that grounding to the transom may and or would cause aluminum corrosion at the transom . Do I need to ground the engine block to the Transom ???

 

[Watermann]

No just to the battery. My MC has SS wire straps that connect to everything grounding it, part of their cathode system I believe.

 

[ab59]

We had a nice day so I got a little bit of work done on the boat. put the main side panel on and began looking for the reason why the engine won't start. Cranked on it again and put a little gas down her throat but no start. Tomorrow I will disconnect the throttle cable and work the throttle on the carb . by hand and see if it is squirting gas like it should. Just sounds like it wants to start but isn't getting any spark . Everything was great before I pulled the engine out this last time . I keep thinking that I left a wire loose somewhere but it all looks like it's where it should be. Electronic ign. new coil , got to be overlooking something . will study my picture files and maybe I will see something that I missed or did wrong .