Spent the weekend working on the duckboat

Scott Farris

Scott Farris

Well-known member
This weekend was just gorgeous here in CT. I spent both afternoons in tee shirt, working on my Nissan 25-hp & the 14-ft V-hull. The goal, to first get the OB running well again (rebuild carb and fuel pump, clean the filter and check all hoses), modify it for old man in wicked cold weather (install an electric starter kit), and set the rig up to run shallow (install manually adjustable Jack Plate).

I’ve played with outboards for close to 40 years but these were my first outboard, carb & fuel pump rebuilds, as well as the starter kit? Who knew what I’d be getting into? So I started off taking a bunch of “before” photos to help me reassemble stuff and if it got real bad, to restore it back to original.



View attachment beforestern.jpg


Where the starter is going:


View attachment beforestarboard.jpg


and the fuel system:


View attachment fuelsys.jpg


I kept taking shots through the rebuilds, which was a good thing. At the completion of the first day (Carb & pump most of the starter stuff, I down loaded the photos and went whoops when I got to this shot. (photo shopped to pull two images closer together)



View attachment fuelpumpclose.jpg



I realized that I swapped the gasket and diaphragm order. Luckily, since I knew what I was doing (kind of), and everything was already clean, it took maybe 15 min to correct it Sunday.

The starter was a bit more of a trial and error. First off, the $500 kit didn’t come with instructions. Fortunately, I have the Nissan shop manual for their small (2 to 40 hp) two stroke engines. In the back, it has decent generic installation instructions for the electric starter kit. Unfortunately, their generic kit and mine had some differences. An experienced mechanic may not even have noticed them but it was my first time. I spent a lot of time working it out ahead of time then in practice it came together nicely. Except I ended up with a couple of small parts (I really wish I knew where they went). I also broke two screws off. These were drill out and re-tapped, one was for connecting two ground wires and the other was for one of three screws holding the new switch bracket in place. The wiring looked a lot tougher than it turned out to be, everything was color coded and set up with the correct connector.



View attachment starter.jpg


Once all together I filled the garbage can with water and with all fingers and toes crossed I hit the starter button and she fired right up! The proceeded to run at idle better than any time in the last few years. After some 10 or 15 minutes and a few start stop cycles it was back to the garage to take the motor off the boat.


Continued to allow additional photos:
 
Jack plate time! Holding the jack plate against the transom it was quickly apparent that I needed to trim the transom plugs back 1-1/2” a side, to clear the jack plate - Sawzall time! Then using the supplied template I drilled 4 new holes in the transom. Temporarily I’ve stuffed the two old holes with silicone sealer which will be upgraded when the jack plate proves itself. Instillation was painless although the motor gets heavier every time I wrestle with it (actually is heavier with the starter in place). Popped two holes in the jack plate to bolt the motor in place. Darn holes line up with the bottom edge of the inside plastic board mounting material. A quick change to a hole saw and the interference was eliminated, and the nuts now sit flush on the aluminum plate.

View attachment jackstart.jpg


And a shot from behind with the jack plate in the full up position:

View attachment jackedstern.jpg



Well that’s how she sits at the moment as I ran out of time. The battery box has to get tied down and the new LED navigation lights need to be hard wired. I want to rig a fish finder that’s easily removable. I wish I had been smart enough to drill and install the mounting plate with two carriage bolts sticking out to fit the transducer. That would have allowed me to attach and remove the transducer at will. Wonder if I can get back off, I think I used 5200.

Hope to get her on the water next weekend, reports to follow. Evenings this week and next are tied up with another Hunter Ed Class. Carl, your trap selection will be shown off with pleasure.

Thanks all,
Scott
 
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Scott,
Nice post and pictures. Now all you need to do is chop a section of the bottom out and instal a tunnel and she will not only go shallow, but will get you there before anyone else.
How hard is it to set the height on the jackplate?
 
Thanks Bob,

Jack plate adjustment isn't something I will be able to do on the fly. The 4 nuts (2 a side) have to be loosened then a large brass center nut is used to adjust the height, then the 4 nuts re-tightened. With ratchet wrenches its pretty quick but I hope to start the day in the required position and just leave it as is. As far as a tunnel hull. that would be nice but at it's fastest (26 mph) that's less than half the speed of some of the jet boats that fish the area.

Scott
 
Scott- To make a removable transducer mount, use a piece of heavy aluminum angle that bolts to the side of the jack plate.
 
Thanks Eric, yes the Nissan has taken a beating on the rocky river for the last 10 years. It definitely needed some attention by the end of last season but it always got me there and back even in below 0 F temperatures. If they still made it, I would recommend it. About three years ago I bought the 9.9 four stroke (my 3rd Nissan). I was very unimpressed with the tilt bracket. They went from a nice solid casting to a light fabrication for roughly the same weight motor. Runs well though, I just stuff a block of wood to wedge it in the up position when not being used.

Trip, Thanks, I may resort to your suggestion. If I can't get the block (lower pot transom) to pop off, I'll take the easy route and see how many times I can screw self tapping screws into the mounting board. The final fix may simply be a tapped aluminum plate with a clearance holes behind to allow me to hold the transducer with machine screws . The other fancier option is using a sandwich of two plates to make a pocket that the transducer can slide down into.

Scott
 
Scott- If you go to this website (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sideimaging/) and join the group, there are a lot of pictures of mounting a transducer on a jack plate. It is a very common practice to mount the Humminbird Side Imaging xducer on the JP. LEt me know and I can help you with this as I have done that. Easy peasy as Steve says.
 
Great post and pics.

Maybe I missed it but are you putting a generator on the motor too or are you just going to charge the battery after each use ?

Pretty work,
Harry
 
I thinkn they have starter/generators, dont they? All in the same unit or something to that effect?
 
Harry,

Yeah what Carl said :^)

Just wicked luck on my part but the Nissan already has the charging system in it. It is a coil plate - from the manual: "The lighting coil is capable of lighting the electric lamp of 12V80W directly. However, when the electric started motor is installed, this will be used as a coil for charging the battery."

It sure didn't factor into my original purchase decision but I'll take it! I was warned by the battery shop that I need to check the voltage. If it exceeds 14.6 V it can harm the AGM battery I bought.

Scott
 
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Thanks Major. And what makes pulling that darn cord even worse; I remember the times I worked up a good sweat on a cold dark morning only to realize the plastic lanyard clip is off.

Enjoy,
Scott
 
Scott, you were very wise to take pictures of the disassembly of the fuel pump and other things as you went along. My 6 hp Evinurde would start but not stay running so I decided to rebuild the fuel pump. Well, I already had the pump off the motor and disassembled before I realized that in my agitated state I had forgotten to take pictures of anything including how the pump inlet and outlet were oriented originally on the motor. I ended up taking that fuel pump apart, reassembling and installing it on the motor five times before I got it right. It was a humbling lesson to relearn.

eSay, who makes that lower unit and propeller protector that you have on your Nissan 25? About two and a half inches of the skeg on my Evinrude 6 is broken off and that protector might solve my problem. It looks like it would also be the ticket for the blow down and rock filled rivers that I use a Mariner 25 on too.

Thanks.

Chris
 
Scott and all,
I added an electric starter to my 25 Evinrude and then found out that I couldn't even get an alternator to fit mine. @#***^&%$#. The starter came off a junker so I wasn't into it too deep. SO I decided to just use it and hope for the best. Wellp Two garden traactor size bateriess run everything for most of the season w/o a charging system. I would prefer one but it works and the motor does still have a recoil. Good to know.
 
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