Glen-L.com

Looks like about what I found for a motor...but I went the boat/motor/trailer way and trashed the boat. I had a tough time too finding a diamond on a glass budget too.

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Bill

I told my wife we needed a three-car garage for my projects...she told me to ask her for permission next time before I buy a house.
http://www.unitybuild.net

Very Very Nice...Job well Done

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The Bitterness of Poor Quality, Remains Long After The Sweetness of Cut Price is Forgotten...Thanks Dad R.I.P.

Lots of activity going on. With most of the wooden interior pieces either attached or complete and waiting for assembly, I've started on the wiring. I devised a flip down fuse panel that will be up and out of the way in normal use, but pivot down for changing fuses, etc.

Here you can see the panel in it's up position behind the dash with some initial wiring in place. You can also see the steering rack, switches and back of the gauges. It's real easy to work on this now before the deck is in place. There are two 6 connector fuse panels, the nearer one is unswitched and is for circuits that can be used at all times, such as the outlets. The further one is switched and only hot when the ignition key is on. All the wires will run up through the pivot point so the panel can drop down.

Like so. This is the panel in its down position and the picture is taken from under the dash. It will be accessible; not perfectly convenient, but reasonable to get to.

Here's a close up of the gauge wiring to date. There still is more to do, plus I want to label the wires and fuse panel and tie things down a bit.

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Bob
Completed Malahini (launched 6/24/2012)
http://bobsboatbuild.blogspot.com/

Today is motor mounting day. While I have more wiring to do, it is Saturday and I had access to help from my neighbor. Here's the arrangement of my motor well. I decided to put the battery switch in the motor well so it was near the battery and I could easily access it from the outside. The empty hole will be for battery cables and the control cables. Next is a bilge outlet, there is a matching one on the other side, as I have two pumps. The steering cable hole brought the cable into a good position but created a challenge I'll explain later.

Prior to mounting the motor, I restored the lower unit and replaced the water pump, so the motor was ready for mounting. We tipped the motor up at the rear of the boat and placed the tip into my car jack. While my neighbor kept it balanced, I jacked it up and crept it over the transom. Lowering the jack brought it home like so.

For now, I'm just using the clamps built into the motor to hold it. I have stainless bolts for more permanent mounting, but I want to make sure it runs first. The steering created two challenges. After the motor was in place, I couldn't insert the steering rod into the tilt tube. The alignment of the hole and the stiffness of the cable didn't let it align. Since the cable can come out of the top of the hole, I tilted the motor sideways to raise the tilt tube and that allowed me to insert the steering rod.

The second challenge was the steering rod. I bought one for a '84 Mercury on eBay that looked about right. The rod was straight. That was a problem because it hit the housing and didn't quite let me turn the motor head all the way to the right (e. g. left turn). So, I used two propane torches to heat the rod red hot and put in a bend to provide clearance.

Here is the rod attached and you can see the slight bend I put in it. It seems to work just fine.

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Bob
Completed Malahini (launched 6/24/2012)
http://bobsboatbuild.blogspot.com/

On a lot of installations it's common to have to insert the steering cable into the tilt tube, then set the engine in place....it's like that on two of my boats with Teleflex.

I need to remove one of my engines (75 HP Merc similar to yours) and clean out the tilt tube of rust and corrosion , but am procrastinating for that reason (that and the boat has a poling platform above the engine to come off before I use a cherry picker to p/u the engine)

PINA, but that's the way it is!!!

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Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream

The old Mercury motor control box is an issue. I was hoping to bury it in my side console, with only the handle showing. Unfortunately, that won't work for several reasons. First, the control has a warm-up lever that lets you open the throttle while in neutral. That would be inaccessible. Second, the handle needs about 120 degrees forward movement (from vertical) and about 90 degrees in reverse to cover its range. There is no way I could bury the control box.
As an alternative, I looked into aftermarket replacements that could be mounted behind a panel. I found one from Teleflex/Morse that mounts on a side panel and works with my motor. I also found a close-out deal so I got a great price.
Here's the unit sitting on a bucket next to my side console.

The X on masking tape is where the handle goes. As you can see, I screwed up. The hole that I intended to mount a 12v outlet is in the way. There was no solution other than a patch, so I made a cover plate of wood to cover the old hole and let me make a new one out of harm's way.
Here is how it will look. I actually replaced this oak patch with mahogany so it would be a better match.

After configuring the control unit for a Mercury, I attached the controls and put the console in the boat so I could attach the cables, neutral lock-out wiring, etc. I also ordered new control cables, but then found out after receiving the control unit that it would work with my old Mercury cables. Oh well. The look is much cleaner.

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Bob
Completed Malahini (launched 6/24/2012)
http://bobsboatbuild.blogspot.com/

Looking great. What does the new control box lever use in place of the warm up lever the old control box had? I find I use that warm up lever for every cold start.

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My Zip build log...
http://www.vupilot.blogspot.com
http://picasaweb.google.com/vupilot/Chr ... O0x7SvsQE#

"Nothing screams poor craftsmanship like wrinkles in your duct tape."

I've got the same control Bob and it works great. I salvaged the ignition/choke switch from the old control and mounted it in the dash. Yes, you loose the warm up lever but I've only really needed it a few times...those times I just popped the hood off the motor and turned the adjustment on the cable to idle a little higher. I did mount mine behind the side cover and therefore left the plastic Morse cover off. I think you will be happy!

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Bill

I told my wife we needed a three-car garage for my projects...she told me to ask her for permission next time before I buy a house.
http://www.unitybuild.net

I like it Bob. It is not obtrusive like my control is.

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2011 MALAHINI - KICKED IN THE HEAD

I wake up with a 16ft woody every morning
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=534DBtp1Cnc
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/2011malahini/

Just one comment on your electrical at the dash. Bend to wires down so that a slight loop or sag. That way if water ever gets to it, the drip will run away from the connection.

Bill

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Mini -Tug, KH Tahoe 19 & Bartender 24 - There can be no miracle recoveries without first screwing up.
Tahoe 19 Build

Thanks. On the model I have, if you pull the control handle out, it disengages the shifter and just let you work the throttle. THen you pull it back to Neutral and is snaps it so you can shift. Works pretty nice.

Rather than use the old Mercury cable, I rewired a whole new cable using the switches on my dash and neutral lock out in the control unit. The challenge was making a connector at the engine, but I crafted one out of brass machine screws and some phenolic sheeting I had. It looks like a good fit. I will be testing it real soon. Stay tuned.

Thanks for the tip on wiring and water. I'll have to take a look at that and see if I have issues. One sometimes forgets the environment boats have to deal with. At least I'm not in salt water. I had a sailboat when I lived in Massachusetts and the effect of saltwater on just about everything is amazing. It even rusted the metal rings inside the snaps on my windbreaker and made it hard to open and close the windbreaker.

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Bob
Completed Malahini (launched 6/24/2012)
http://bobsboatbuild.blogspot.com/

I completed all the wiring and connected all the ends to my fuse panel. I connected the battery and waited for smoke. No smoke!
I temporarily wired up my bow and stern lights to test things out. Everything worked!

Lights, horn, etc. were controlled as planned. I disconnected the positive lead on the the starter motor, because I wasn't ready to turn it over. However, this let me test the choke solenoid and starter relay, which also worked as planned. The only problem I had was that the choke solenoid blew a 5A fuse. So, I installed a 10A and things worked fine.

I also labelled all the wires and updated my wiring diagram. I find that if you don't keep accurate records of what you did, you come back a few days later and don't remember what goes where.

A few more details. The starter circuit is un-fused, so I added an inline fuse holder on that circuit. I also attached a vertical piece of mahogany with a channel in the back that can feed wires from the panel into the side console. This hides the wires when you are in the cockpit and makes it look like part of the interior. I also tested to ensure the fuse panel swings down and doesn't pull on any wires.

The last challenge was at the motor. Everything I read suggested using #4 wire for the starter circuit. I ordered #4 cable and had the wire ready to go for the motor. However, the Mercury outboard I bought has a channel for the battery cables that did not take #4 wire. I had to reorder all new lengths of #6 cable, new terminals and rebuild.

Here you can see the starter cables in their channel. The black goes in first followed by red. There is a cover plate that holds these cables plus the control circuit cable all in place.
After all the circuits were in place, I removed the plugs and sprayed some fog oil into the cylinders. I reconnected the starter motor wire and tried the starter. So far, so good. I'm going to try starting the motor this weekend.

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Bob
Completed Malahini (launched 6/24/2012)
http://bobsboatbuild.blogspot.com/

Great job Bob. I love the fact that you put the ignition key in the dash. That was something that I wanted to do and never did. I still use the key that is built into the control. Some day, maybe I'll try to figure that out and move mine. My cables barely fit into my engine shroud. I bought 2ga cables.

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2011 MALAHINI - KICKED IN THE HEAD

I wake up with a 16ft woody every morning
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=534DBtp1Cnc
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/2011malahini/

Looking Great, Bob!!!

Roberta

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Roberta
Built Zip "Oliver IV" and Super Spartan "Jimmy 70"

Great idea on the wiring and fuse panel. My personal hate is untidy wiring for both aesthetic and practical reasons.
Nice work.. keep it up.

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By the time I have built a boat, I'll be ready to build a boat....