Well i think its time for a update on my boat motor project. So far I got it running like a champ. Tested it out on a pals boat, it really has a lot of tork for a tiny outboard. Next was a tare down of the motor to see what needed to be fixed or replaced.
Through the tare down i ran into a lot of issues with the simple fact that some numb nuts engineer thought it would be a good idea to use ALUMINUM screws and bolts in freaking ALUMINUM! This is a huge no no in engineering and mainly in stuff that will be exposed to the elements and well water >.> You see alum corrodes and will eventually fuse to another.
The first thing that i tried to conquer was the lower unit and prop, which was fused to it self >.>. The prob is made to slip on the Zephyr. It is over a bronze cone and inside the alum prop is lead, fallowed by a heavy bronze spring and alum nut. The tighter you tighten the nut the less it will slip. When i tried to take the nut off nothing seemed to make it budge, liquid wrench, kerosene, fire, beating it senselessly... Finally i put it in the vice and got a big tork rod and socket and pulled till the it came off leaving part of it inside the prop, under the nut it was stepped to go inside the spring some. Some drilling got the rest of it out but it was till corroded on right from the alum dust... I finally got it off with a lot of heat, banging, and melting the lead a little >.>
Next on the list was getting the dents out of the tank. It didn't look like i was gonna be able to get inside the tank to beat them out so I got some Bondo. A lot of sanding and primer and now it looks like it never was dented. After using Bondo I don't see y so many people knock it so bad. I mean if you use it right it works wonders. If u don't though and put too much up there filling in the grand canyon you are gonna have a lot of trouble.
After all that today I ordered some new bolts and screws that are NOT alum for some of the vital areas of the motor that i either had to drill out or just straight up were gone like the ones holding the recoil down. I replaced most of them with stainless and silicon bronze where i could. At this point restoring it with original parts apposed to making it right the way it should have been made, the right way tops the list.
This was the first run of the motor on the pond. You can see how much shit and mess was in it from looking at all the oil flowing down the under water exhaust pipe. I wasn't very environmentally friendly that day :P Also it wasn't putting out much power since the two lower cylinders on that run got full of crud from being run for the first time in prob like 40 years. After some cleaning it just about planed that heavy ass barge or a jon boat with me Lucy and my pal John. Also Lucy was lending a paw and enjoying the ride.
here are some pics of the bondo job:
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m44/wwkayaker386/9-5-09/0926091536a.jpg http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m44/wwkayaker386/9-5-09/0926091536.jpgand one of the mess of parts in the barn atm
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m44/wwkayaker386/9-5-09/1008091412.jpgThere are also loads of pics that I took here of a lot of the things I did thus far here :3
http://s101.photobucket.com/albums/m44/wwkayaker386/9-5-09/