Looking for a boat, maybe

[Tim Hancock]

My bilge pump has never needed to run after I rebuilt my boat along with the new drive bellows/hoses. It remains dry as a bone under my engine surprisingly even when docked for a week at the lake.

[KFC911]

Late 80s ... a creek off the St. John's river in Jax ... my buddy's maiden launch of his new 22' Center Consiole...

Don't forget to put the dang plug in !

We were brutal buds as he pulled back out ... it's never happened to me or anyone else there since ... and we ALL remember ... still .

[juanbenae]

Maiden voyage went off without a hitch! As fun to drive as other tourney boats I've piloted in years past. Solid 4 hours out cruzing and pulling a buddy on the knee board. Great power, sound and times with 100* temps.

A couple minor issue that I will need to attend to, but nothing that will sink me at this point. The temp gauge was not working and in looking on a couple sites suggested it's likely the 39 y/o VDO gauge. The springs break do to all the up & down shocks of being on the water in waves and such. Am looking into a new gauge that is compatible cause the VDO is NLA. A couple of options on the forums exist for <$50 that are plug and play if you can crawl under the dash/bow and reach it... The other thing was the propeller shaft seal is pissing waaaay too much water. They are suppose to leak some to cool the packing of the inboard coupler. Mine was spraying under power, and a constant drip while at idle.. They can be repacked so I will be doing that here soon. Since I replaced the bilge pump it will not prevent other outings before that task.


Ugly on the water...

[onewhippedpuppy]

Nice! Thats a pretty solid maiden voyage.

[KFC911]

Let the games begin !

Nicely done...

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Nice! Thats a pretty solid maiden voyage.

Thanks.

I was definitely the nervous captain for the 1st hour or so for sure. All and all great 1st outing for the Natty.

[juanbenae]

Lil update on this 2 star post for those still tuned in...

I previously put a new bilge pump in and replaced the 40 y/o button for the main ignition circuit with a toggle switch. The auto bilge button of the same kind is broken and I did not want to have the ignition one take a dump while out on the water. This switch allows all the accessories to be hot without the motor running, and the key will not turn it over w/o the switch on.

Found a way to test the no op water temp gauge by grounding it at the sender and if it pegs the thing is good and it's likely the sender. Instead of boiling water and testing resistance with an ohm meter I shelled out for a new sender at $35 and will be replacing the thermostat too as it is a wear item with all the raw cooling water.


The other item I noticed was the propeller shaft packing was leaking more than it should have been while sitting, idling or under high revs. There is an inspection cover that I was paying keen attention to where I noticed the leak. Did not come close to sinking us but was glad the bilge was new and up to the task. The packing is a rope type affair and the ones that came out today were shot.

So today I started the repack of the prop shaft and in my research it was suggested to remove the entire assembly to check the shaft alignment where it leaves the hull to confirm it's centered. Well, it was off badly so I will be undertaking a shaft realignment by moving the adjustments at the motor mounts for up/down and adjustment points for side to side, 4 of each in total, and 1 of each at each corner. .

Jumping in with both feet....









More disassembled not, but no photos before I wrapped up today.

[onewhippedpuppy]

That’s good stuff, you seem well equipped for boat ownership. I think being able to DIY makes it so much more pleasant. Unless you just have a ton of money, being at the mercy of the boat mechanic rarely ends well.

I never had to deal with the prop shaft alignment and packing, all of my boats have been inboard/outboard drives. Which of course have their own maintenance requirements. Doesn’t look like too crazy of a job though.

[JeremyD]

I've aligned a couple of inboards - there are some cheat sheets out there that you can use - I ended up doing the last one by feel and it turned out pretty well. I will tell you that it took some maneuvering to move a 1,100 lb diesel engine.

Also know that the normal shaft logs are designed to have a slow drip to cool them. Tightening the packing down all the way will cause them to score the shafts and then they will really leak. You can buy dripless logs that are not too expensive, While you are in there - double up those hose clamps

My dripless shaft logs

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by JeremyD

I've aligned a couple of inboards - there are some cheat sheets out there that you can use - I ended up doing the last one by feel and it turned out pretty well. I will tell you that it took some maneuvering to move a 1,100 lb diesel engine.

Also know that the normal shaft logs are designed to have a slow drip to cool them. Tightening the packing down all the way will cause them to score the shafts and then they will really leak. You can buy dripless logs that are not too expensive, While you are in there - double up those hose clamps

My dripless shaft logs

I watched a couple YT videos on it that made it seem like rocket science with the guy using a .0015" feeler gauge to check the two face surfaces. I understand the importance of it being dead nuts on to not cause vibration, so I did as you did with feel. I did use a .004" feeler gauge and got it consistent all the way around the flanges and centered where it exited the hull. Use a slit piece of rubber hose to center the shaft at the hull before starting the motor adjustment. The motor adjustment was tedious to be sure and getting a second set of eyes and hands helped significantly in sighting and adjusting with each of us working a side.

The boat being nearly 40 years old the motor mounts are in need of replacement, so I took that into consideration for this effort. The existing sealing/packing rope was pretty much toast resembling a used up shoelace to the point the coupler simple spun off after the safety wire was removed. Aligned it, replaced the coupler packing and will hopefully get it into the water later this week for a test. The plan for this winter is to replace the motor mounts, repack the rudder shaft (add a zirk for greasing as well), replace the prop strut bushings. Will possibly look into another style shaft log at that time, but if the rope packing works why mess with what's working? Ya, they are designed to drop for cooling as you mention, but only 6-7 drops a minute is a win.

What puzzles me is as off as the shaft was prior to separating the output & prop shaft flanges why was that not causing vibration when the realign require such rocket science precision? I was not gunna skip aligning it as best as I could but am still having a hard time wrapping my head around that.

This site is golden and has been very, very helpful in getting some confidence and info on doing these tasks. Much like pelican did for me with the 911 20+ years ago. https://www.youtube.com/@rontanis1024

[juanbenae]

Second shake down run today after repacking the prop shaft where it enters the hull, and a new water temp sender. All went well, but perhaps the highlight of the day was the bald eagle we spotted and flew with for a while. Excuse the shaky video, but when on zoom it really magnifies the unsteadiness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQDPLe3SjUQ


Old Wards Ferry bridge. You can still see the stacked rock landing from when it was actually a ferry crossing.






Boat is running awesome, will need to retighten the prop shaft packing after it was broken in today, and going to replace the thermostat cause I think the one in there is stuck open, so it is running a bit too cool. never got above 120* today with the new sender.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Very cool, what lake is that?

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Very cool, what lake is that?

Don Pedro. There are 3 marinas on it as it's a huge lake, the one closest to me is 30 minutes from my place to the boat in the water.

[juanbenae]

here is the photo of the landing from the old river crossing ferry.




Think the "Missouri River Boat Ride" in Outlaw Josey Wales.....

[onewhippedpuppy]

Looks really pretty, super clean. Mostly rock/limestone bottom?

[juanbenae]

Not sure, prolly a bunch of sediment... I had been on the lake a few times and never got back as far as the Wards Ferry bridge like we did today. I have riden Wards Ferry Road on my supermoto a number of times when it was muddy river from the deck of the bridge. It's called graffiti bridge cause it's all painted up and stolen cars are regularly rolled off the road below the bridge.

[juanbenae]

In an effort to not stink up the other thread on an 86 Ski Nautique I will keep my rehab effort alive.

Just so my thread won't get all bogged down my trailer has tires, dual axle so 4 tires are about a year old, and the spare is not much older I reckon, has bearing buddies that I've pushed grease in before each of my 2 trailer ramp dipping. I myself will not repack them, I got a guy in town that repacks axle bearing for $120 an axle, done the featherlite car hauler a couple times now...

Pulled the thermostat housing and no thermostat was present. I was experiencing low water temps, kinda the barely above the 120* Tim was experiencing... Too cool like too hot is not good so I put a new stat in after having to make my own gaskets cause they are NLA. Dabbled a bit of RTV around the perimeter of my hammer time made gaskets... Also painted the parts after finding the Shelby/Ford motor blue at O'reily's along with some of the front of the motor after some prep. No photos, but will show and tell more next time the cover comes off...


Todays task? A lil bling for the teak deck was in order... Last keeper of the natty used varnish or some BS instead of teak or tongue oil so refinishing the wood has been more work than it should have been. Good thing I get time on my hands and a place for the Natty to be shaded...