True to every boat stereotype, this project has stretched on for several more months and many more $$$'s than I had originally planned.  But, it's been good to take care of a lot of things on this rig all at once.  Here's how it started.

This started with needing to get at the gas tank under the floor, and also needing to replace the trim limit switch and sender on the back.  

Project #1 - The carpet was worn out, not really glued down any more and there was screws coming up out of the floor...so while I had it out to get at the gas tank under the floor, I figured I would replace the floor and decided to put marine vinyl down instead of carpet.  I started out more ambitious thinking I would redo the bow carpet and rebuild the consoles too, but ended up leaving those for a next winter project instead.  I did pull out and replace the main floor, tops of the consoles and the motor enclosure.  We decided on a tan (sandstone) Nautolex vinyl that looks good with the red and tan original colors on the boat.  Overall not a bad project, after a bunch of reading I decided on regular ACX plywood and soaked the back with Thompsons to seal it.  The vinyl and glue waterproof the top, and the edges are rolled around and glued with contact cement and stainless staples.

I did take a half dozen core samples of the foam in various areas and couldn't find any that seemed remotely damp, so thankfully I didn't have to pull all of that out and redo it too.  Something had stashed about 500 acorns under one spot though, which is why the foam turned black in that spot.  While I had it apart and had easy access, I replaced the fuel filler hose, fuel line to the pump, tank check valve, checked the vent hose, replaced the bilge blower and blower ducting and both battery trays and hold downs.  



















Project #2 - After sitting for so long it was due for new rubber on the transom in addition to the trim limit switch and sender.  As soon as I pulled the drive from the gimbal housing I found out it would be a bigger project...the u-joint bellows was full of gear oil, so that meant the upper gear housing would need some new seals.  I ended up replacing all of the seals in the upper housing and driveshaft, and put a speedi-sleeve on the seal surface of the driveshaft because it was pitted and failed the pressure test after I reassembled it the first time.  In the process it also got a new lower shift cable, the lower shift shaft bushing/seal upgrade kit, new water pump impeller, housing and seals, new drain and vent plugs and seals, lower bushings for the trim cylinders, bellows and water pickup line.  







Side project to the first 2 projects...

Last summer I could only get ~3200 rpm instead of the ~4400 or so it was supposed to top out at.  I replaced the plugs, distributor cap, wires, upgraded to electronic ignition from points, rebuilt the carb, checked compression, changed props and it still wasn't getting to full power.  I figured about all I had left at this point was the fuel pump, so I added a diaphragm kit on to one of my other parts orders recently.  I took the pump apart last night, and found the bottom of the diaphragm shaft and the bypass line running from the pump to the carb both gummed up with some sort of blue goo.  Not sure if it's marine grease or 2-stroke oil or what, and also not sure how it got there.  But that couldn't have been helping the cause at all.  



So, 3+ months later once my last seal gets here I can bolt the drive back on and start this thing up for the year....hopefully!

Nice boat.



That is one of the reasons I like aluminum fishing boats.
Not much to do but clean and keep an eye put for cracks.
Also why I like outboards rather than outdrives.

Nice rig, I too am not a fan of outdrives

I greased the u-joints up good, all that came out was gear oil.  I did a couple rounds of greasing until oil came out, move them all around to work the grease in, then grease some more and repeat.  They feel like new greased u-joints now, nice and smooth, so we'll see how they last.

I used a tiny tach to compare to the gauge last summer when I was setting the idle after I did a full rebuild on the carb.  It got a full Mercarb rebuild kit and the brass float upgrade.
The boat tach was fairly close in that low rpm range at least.  Though I don't trust the tiny tach that much either.

If the fuel pump rebuild doesn't fix it, I'll have to start looking for something mechanical in the engine.  According to the notes in the manual, the engine was rebuilt by a dealership about 50 hours ago.  But that 50 hours of use probably puts the rebuild in the early 2010's if I were to guess.

I put a 15x17 pitch Black Max on last summer when I was troubleshooting.  It had a 19p on there previously.

The engine ran good up to about 3/4 throttle and 32ish mph with 2 of us in the boat.   After 3/4 throttle it didn't change anything.   Getting full travel out of the cable/carb though which is why I was thinking it may just not be getting enough fuel.

Looks good and be glad there was no rot in the stringers. Did you replace the gimbal bearing when you were in there?

Yep, new gimbal bearing and grease seal while I had it apart.

Had to wait for a new OEM shift cable to get delivered because the aftermarket one just didn't work.  Lesson learned there.  We finally got to take the boat out today and do a little fishing.  Everything worked well, seems like my fuel issues are better since it was hitting 4400 rpm like it's supposed to now.

Good deal! I’m glad it’s coming together.