Taking my 1984 LaveyCraft out of moth-balls

[84Lavey]

I stored my boat 9 years ago when my daughter was born and I'm really hoping to get this thing on the lake this summer to show her a good time. It's been kept dry and out of the sun (under tarps) so it's in reasonably good shape for its age.

It a 1984, 5.7L 350 OMC Stringer. Model# 983489. S/N J350739

I did a compression check. 185,170,170,140,180,175,180,160. I figure this compression is OK. What else should I evaluate before moving forward? I have read the opinions on the OMC stern-drives and I don't want to throw good money after bad.

I want to replace my original points-distributor to an HEI electronic ignition. What HEI sytem / kit should I buy? Any direct links to part(s) would be awesome.

This thing has a bad history of randomly not wanting to start. When it did this I could jump the starter solenoid to get it going. But sometimes jumping the solenoid wouldn't work and I'd be left stranded. It would die, not want to start and the next morning it would fire up with no problems at all. I have replaced the starter solenoid. Had the ignition wiring/switch replaced at a boat-shop but the problem persisted sporadically. I plan to replace the starter solenoid and the trim/tilt solenoids. I am hoping that new solenoids and new HEI the problem will be solved. But at this point that's all it is....hope. Anyone have this same experience?

I know I'm going to have more questions as I go through this and thank you for your input in advance.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Any compression reading above 150 means your gauge is suspect or you have oil or water in the cylinders

A delco voyager distributor or a mallory YLM624 distributor

Keep in mind your boat is 38 years old. Pretty sure you will have transom and stringer problems. I would focus on that long before you worry about swapping dizzys

Your outdrive will need ball gears, raw water pump, and if you havent replaced the vertical drive shaft, that will be suspect

 

[84Lavey]

Thanks for the reply Scott.

The compression gauge is good. I did squirt oil in the cylinders before turning it over though before checking compression. I let it stand a couple days, turned if over many times and they tested the same. The book says there shouldn't be more than a 20psi difference between the cylinders. In my case there is more. Not sure how much that matters.

Anyhow, I put it back together, it fires up and sounds pretty good. I ran it for 15 minutes and the temperature gauge was sitting steady at 160f. When I turned off the ignition however, it pegged right to 240f. Not sure what's going on there.

Thank you for your advise. I'm not going to invest in an electronic distributor until I know everything else is up to snuff.

Attached is a picture of my ball gears. There is definitely wear. How close to failure are these? If these go does it cause catastrophic failure?

Ball Gear and water pump kits will run me ~$300

 

[Scott Danforth]

your ball gears are getting close to their end. I believe the rule of thumb was replace when the nubs are 1/3 worn

regarding going from 160 to 240, time to troubleshoot. use an IR thermometer. could simply be electrical in nature. need to look

 

[kenny nunez]

Like SD said about the ball gears they are close to replacement time.
The thing to be really cautious about is the shift cable. Hopefully it is not corroded in the intermediate housing where the outer jacket peals off of the core. In the past I have had to replace water pumps and ball gears without pulling the cable out. Needless to say a real PITA suspending the drive to do that but I saved the customer $ .
You probably have a Prestolite distributor, if so then just get a Prestolite electronic conversion kit that should work with the shift interrupter control system that OMC added to help with full clutch dog engagement.
A SD also said get a I R temperature checker to look for the hot spots.
Keep us posted

 

[84Lavey]

On Tuesday I fired up the boat and it was sounding great. On Wednesday I wanted to check the water flow from the sea water pump but I have run into some sort of electrical gremlin that I can't wrap my head around.

I have voltage to the gauge at the helm. I'm able to jump the trim, tilt, and starter solenoids but I get zero function from the controls. There are two fuses in rubber shrouds going to the solenoids with suspect contact and put brass shims in there to tighten them up. I've sanded clean all contacts.

I'm borrowing my friends beefy bus battery while going through this (before buying new batteries). It's 12v with 1300 cranking amps.

I'm running out of ideas of where to look next.

 

[Scott Danforth]

start at the battery cables and clean both ends of every cable. clean where the cables connect to the block.

also look at your MOB switch and neutral safety switch

 

[84Lavey]

Thanks again for the reply. I checked the neutral safety switch and I've cleaned the battery cables and connection to the block.

An MOB switch would make a lot of sense but this boat does not have one that I'm aware of. Maybe it's hiding somewhere?

Another wrinkle is that the trim motor started running (and wouldn't stop) when I turned the battery switch on Wednesday. That's when I cleaned the solenoid contacts for the trim. The motor does not run automatically now and does work up and down when jumping the solenoids.

I'm thinking a bad ground or short somewhere? Could also explain the temp gauge pegging right when power was shut off?

I'll scratch my head some more.

 

[84Lavey]

Just an update: I found the trim switch up front was either defective or wires were pinched sending power to the trim solenoid all the time. When that happens it looks like the starter and tilt became useless. I got that sorted out.

Since the sea water pump is functional and the ball gears may have a summer left in them I'm going to leave it alone and keep my fingers crossed.
This coming fall/winter I may make it a project to take it apart. I'm just afraid if I start taking this apart now it wont get on the water this summer.

 

[kenny nunez]

Smart move, these things can become a Pandora’s Box once you start on them. 30 years ago it was no big deal because the special tools were still at my shop and genuine OMC parts were a phone call/fax away.
If you start having drive pump problems and you have about 6” in front of the crankshaft pulley you can convert to a crankshaft nose sea water pump from Marine Power for just under $300.00 With a through hull fitting. Not cheap but a lot easier than replacing the pump in the drive and maybe ruining a $700.00 shift cable.

 

[Scott Danforth]

shift cables went up in price. last time I looked, they were $900

 

[84Lavey]

Following up on this. We took her out for about 5 days on the water over two long weekends and it was a blast with zero hiccups other than the shift cable is tight.

The notorious shift cable...where's the best place to buy one?

 

[Scott Danforth]

there are two shift cables. the one from the controls to the ESA unit. and the lower one.

the lower one, the best place is probably at the only OMC stringer specialty site. http://sterndrive.info/

or if you find an dealer that used to service OMC that may have a NOS one

 

[kenny nunez]

Disconnect the front control box shift cable from the converter box. Then try shifting to see if the binding is in that cable rather than the lower one.