Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

[GA_Boater]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

Glad you're back, even if a brief visit. Looks pretty good to me. The AV plate being even with the keel is only a starting point, so you prob have it knocked.

 

[ben2go]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

Anti cav plate should be roughly 1 to 1.5 inches below the lowest part of the hull.It may cause some loss of speed, and possibly air pockets in the cooling system.

 

[laurentide]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

Thanks guys....it literally cannot be any lower, so I'll just have to see how it performs like this.

Guess what this dumb guy forgot to do? :facepalm:

I'm hoping I can slide it in and then snake the cable through the S/W port.

EDIT: Or not...not a huge deal to re-mount.

Another edit: If the LU ends up being too high, that'll be a great excuse to get a CMC unit or something a little bigger with T/T next season.

 

[Watermann]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

Steering cable...

I put a CMC TnT on my SN and although they are pricey, but wow what a good unit it has turned out to be. I mounted mine with the cav plate even with the bottom of the hull, it could go down a bit more but the only thing I noticed is that it wants to ventilate out of the hole if I forget to trim down all the way. The CMC gives you a -5 degree down tilt too.

 

[laurentide]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

Steering cable...

I put a CMC TnT on my SN and although they are pricey, but wow what a good unit it has turned out to be. I mounted mine with the cav plate even with the bottom of the hull, it could go down a bit more but the only thing I noticed is that it wants to ventilate out of the hole if I forget to trim down all the way. The CMC gives you a -5 degree down tilt too.

Thanks, Watermann. I've been keeping my eye on Search Tempest for a while, and they sometimes show up for under $400. I can live without trim, but not having tilt gets old after a while, especially since my reverse lock engages every time I go to pull it up.

I was doing a google search for the A/V plate location, and some even say it should be an inch or so above the lowest point of the hull...I think it was on the Classic Mako forum, and there seemed to be some consensus on that. I think every hull is different in this respect. I'll just have to see how this one does, and save my pennies for the CMC regardless.

BTW, got the steering cable in by just sliding the OB over a few inches.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

Based on my research and knowledge the optimum location for the Anti-Cavitation plate is even with the keel or 1 - 1 1/2" above the keel line. Not below it. I think your's looks almost perfect, as I said before.

 

[laurentide]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

Right on, wood. The boating internet also agrees.


So, she's starting to look like a Chieftain again:

I need to replace that wonky anchor light ^^^

Still lots of work to do...wiring, console (my biggest challenge by far), side panels, and registration:

But it feels good to have all the hardware re-attached.

I thought I was going to be able to simply mount the kicker on the transom on the port side of the main engine, but this pesky steering arm is in the way:

I'm going to have to just get a bracket. The bummer is that I'm flat broke right now, and part of what's going on is my wife just lost her job a couple of weeks ago. So, if I can scrounge enough to get tags, here's what I'll be doing without for a while: bimini, VHF, kicker bracket and steering link, and pretty much anything else that costs money except gas and 2 stroke oil. Once everything is done, because I've already purchased everything required to make her safe and useable, I'll hopefully get to use the boat this summer. Not sure when yet, but fingers crossed.

Cheers.

EDIT: In case anyone is wondering about my seating deal, I'm going to make hinged, fold-down bases out of ply, with the hinges mounted to the gunwales. I have the original "u" supports that go into flanges under the base, so I can maximize deck space while fishing. Which reminds me...I also need a couple of seats. Walmart is the answer there.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

Chem - She's looking great. Sorry about the wife's job. It does put a damper on boat money. Hope she can find a new and better job. Do what you can and the late summer splash could happen.

 

[laurentide]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

Yeah, thanks GA. It's obviously not my #1 priority right now, but I've still got plenty of time and daylight! It's been pretty therapeutic to work on the boat, too. Not quite like boating/fishing, but still pretty nice.

 

[ben2go]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

An inventive person could use that steering arm to attach a kicker and steer with the helm.A add on throttle and shifter will be needed to control the kicker engine.An inventive person could cover that on the cheap too.There was some DIY control writes floating around the web.

 

[Teamster]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

Running a tie bar to steer the kicker is easy,...

It doesn't look like there is room for a kicker without a bracket,....

If you have a tiller kicker cut the fat end of off a plastic whiffle ball type bat and push it on the tiller handle for a cheap tiller handle extension,.....

 

[laurentide]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

I was just going to get the cheap-o tie bar from iboats to connect the steering. It's an old ('69) lightwin, so the throttle is on the side of the engine, no shifting...it's always in gear when running. You turn it 180 for reverse. I'm gonna hit ebay for the bracket when I have some money.

 

[Teamster]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

You can make an even cheaper tie bar out of a cheap piece of threaded rod and some air hose fittings fro quick connects,......

Wrap the threaded rod with electrical tape,........

 

[laurentide]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

Teamster, how would you connect the air hose couplers to the engines in that setup? You're talking about these, right?

EDIT: This is $31, I think that's reasonable for something that works out of the box:

The thing about using a tiller extension on this boat is that I wouldn't be able to see anything over the cabin, so it has to be helm steered.

 

[ben2go]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

I never understood the airhose fitting deal either.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

That's a good looking setup right there. She be ideal for your rig.

 

[Teamster]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

For 31 bucks buy the kit out of the box,....................

 

[laurentide]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

I will apologize profusely ahead of time for the horrible video quality here, as it's an old cell phone, but I had a little time after work today to get the engine cables back on, and decided to just use my portable tank to start it up. There's also a 30 second limit to videos on my crappy phone.

Not much progress here, just making sure that I remembered how it went back together and didn't get crudded up over the winter.

I generally don't rev it while it's on the muffs, but it was idling very nicely for 20 minutes or so. I'll wait until I have my tach hooked up to fine tune the neutral idle and in gear idle speeds when it's in the water.

 

[laurentide]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

I also have a question for the Starmada folks. I've seen a couple of different configurations, but, on this boat, would you mount the engine remote box right to the gunwale aft of the console? It would partially obscure the capacity plate if I mounted it there...I don't care, but would the CG?

Thanks.

 

[Watermann]

Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild

You could always move the plate to a better location.

Almost forgot to ask, did you put the tell tale in? It look's to me like its spraying towards the back rather than off to the starboard side of the lower motor cowl. I sure like the nice crackle sound of a 2 stroke.