New boater with a lot of questions

[thenotsofreeboat]

Hello Iboat peoples.

After haunting this website for months i decided that i need to join this group.

I have a free hurricane sportsdecker that needed/needs alot of work and have some questions I couldn't find elsewhere in the posts. The boat i have put in a new bildge pump, put in a fuse box and some new wiring(it had no fuses or anything before yikes) and checked for shorts. I won't do anything else until i actually run the boat in the lake. It has a crack about the size of a hair on the transom on one side but all attepts to move the transom or make the crack bigger don't work, so i think it is just a surface crack. At this point the boat is not so free anymore and don't want to spend anymore on a boat that may not run.

I have a 1981 75HP chrysler 756h1g it was last ran before i got my hands on it in 03. Since then i have replaced the lower unit and water impeller. I started it up in the tank and it idles pretty well after new fuel line and bulb. It is a smoking SOB but i have my fuel mixed with more oil to compensate for the long down time. Compression is 150, 150, and 145. Is there anything about this motor that i should be aware of?

I just got it reg. with the state and plan on taking it out this weekend or next. What should i look for in term of it actually working in the lake? I have read enough to know that if it runs in your drive way that is not an indication that it will work in the water.
Is there anything else that i need to do before i put this disater in the water other then bring along rope, a sign that says need a tow, a fire extingisher, life jackets and paddles?

Thanks i know this is pretty general but i would like to keep me and my wife safe and avoid the "i told you so nightmare" any negitive situation might bring about.

Thank you

 

[roscoe]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

Sounds like fun to me.
Post back with the results from your first outing, be gentle on the old girl, and be nice to your wife too.

Don't forget the plug.

 

[Robby662]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

I am on my second older boat. I have always kept a trolling motor on the boat with me. If I was not sure about the boats performance I would stay within a 1/2 mile of the dock and if push came to shove it would always get me back. It was not the most orthodox way on a 18' ski boat, but it has also helped me get to land when I was too far out to make it back to the boat dock where I was parked. Some people will try to help but the idea of being absolutely dead in the water frightens me. I had to use it once to get out of the shipping canals in the river just to found out that it was a valve on the fuel line that keeps the carb primed.

 

[thenotsofreeboat]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

Trolling motor?? I'm in my 20's the paddle is my trolling motor.
Oh i won't forget the plug, i might forget something else but not the plug it is already in the boat while it sits in the garage.

I will post my results after the outing.

If there is no post in 2 weeks that means all went wrong and wife has killed me. Honey the motor is dead here is your paddle. WWHACK, splash.
I had better ware my PFD

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

Good Luck. The trolling motor is a good idea even if on a ski boat. Auxilliary power that hopefully does not need a break from pushing you on the way back.

 

[jmoorepghpa]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

Yep, stay close to the dock for a while to see whats up. Know anybody with a boat who can shadow you when you get a bit more adventurous?

 

[rogerwa]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

make sure you have an anchor with a long enough rode in the case you need to throw it out if the motor kills. Wind will take you to shore.. Just not in a graceful way.

Also bring along a long line just in case you need a tow..

That chrysler will be a stinker even after the mixture is correct. The Chrysler/Force engine always smoke real bad..

 

[byacey]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

Get one of those neon light spark testers and make sure all cylinders are firing. Many people assume that because it seems to be idling OK in the barrel it's running OK. Often even with one cylinder not firing it seems to be idling good. When you call for power, that's where the dead cylinder shows up. I can't count the number of posts that start: Idles fine, but in the lake it has no get up and go, or it takes forever to plane out.

 

[jmoorepghpa]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

Another resounding endorsement of the inline spark tester! Truly a very handy little device---everybody should have one.

 

[thenotsofreeboat]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

Thanks for the great info. I don't know anyone with a boat but the lake i am going to try it out in is only 990 acres so there will be some one close by. I figured I will just go outside of the no wake zone do a couple of large circles out there and see what happens if all looks good I might push my luck a little. I thought about an anchor, that makes a lot of sense. Last weekend the winds were like 30 MPH so Hopefully this weekend is more calm. I read all about the anchors and rode on Iboats, who knew there was so much too it. I don't want the boat to become a sail boat if something goes wrong so that is on the walmart list. Neon spark tester huh? I will pick one of those up too. Heck if all goes wrong i could always use it on the old blazer. I will post my results when i get that thing in the water.

Thanks

 

[thenotsofreeboat]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

Hey all My boat and Me (was nervous about the launch) did perfect. I idled out and putted around for 15 minutes then slowly increased the throttle until I was at WOT and was crusing around at about 28mph. i ran around for a hour at varying speeds and it went better than hoped (should have brought more gas). My wife is now sold on the boat idea. It is hard to convince someone that the heap in the garage is going to be fun. One question, is the clip on the motor supposed to clip on the transom mount pin that selects what angle the motor sits at? When backing up the motor will come out of the water if you give it any gas. after the maiden voyage i looked into this and there is a little spring loaded clip that is hanging there not doing anything.

Thank you for this bank of information you have created. If it wasn't for it this boat would have ended up in the junk yard.

 

[redfury]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

There should be a lever to lock the motor down for reverse. The idea behind the motor coming up like that is that if you hit something underwater, it doesn't take your lower unit with it. The pin is designed to adjust your trim angle. Play with it and see how it affects your top speed.

( btw, a free boat that needs work is better than paying for a boat that needs a lot of work
<----- The wife isn't totally sold on my $300 glastron with no stringers, floor or transom )

 

[thenotsofreeboat]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

300 bucks for all that work huh? I guess at least you will know it will be new when done. Man no wonder she's mad, that's rough. It was a hard sell when it was just dirty and missing a piece of the motor on my end.

Okay, I have located a broken black knob behind the steering that says lock- unlock but this spins freely and doesn't do anything. I am testing this with the motor up and locked if that makes any difference. There is a rod that is connected to the knob that spins. When i get this working right do i need to switch it manually when changeing forward to rev? Tonight i will look in the manual i have to see what parts I am missing. On the Trim angle, I just looked at the holes and guessed which one was used more from paint scratches. When driving in the lake, The anti-vent plate is about an inch or two under the water under way. I am guessing that adjusting it up makes more speed from lower resistance and down more push? Also steering is hard to one side. I read on Iboats that i can adjust my exhust snout to fix this. Is that correct? When running my tach doesn't do anything, it looks factory for a 1975 boat so i would like to replace it. The wiring in the boat has been hacked apart by some one with a big roll of red wire, everything is red wire even the grounds. I am slowly sorting that mess out. What tach do i need? I have a terminal on the motor block that says tach so just hook sender wires there? New to the whole wiring deal, but thanks to Iboats i have most of the stuff working. Also have a drain on battery, like little sparks shoot out when hooking up + with all the swithes off and the ignition off. What could that be? something with the ignition or something else? right now i just keep the battery unhooked but if i anchor for a fishing marathon i don't want the battery to die on me.

Okay i think that is all the questions for this part of the rebuild.

Thank you for any replies or general advise.

 

[jhs5150]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

"That chrysler will be a stinker even after the mixture is correct. The Chrysler/Force engine always smoke real bad..

No they don't. I have a 125 that doesn't smoke at all. If you choke it when cold it might smoke a little.

Once it's warmed up you might smell a 2-cycle a little, but it shouldn't smoke.

 

[leeschaumberg]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

Hello
Chryslers don't smoke unless the owner can't finger out mixing the gas and oil correctly. Just keep adding oil untill the ports are plugged up and the rings are stuck. After the engine has run ten hours after new there is absolutely no reason to mix the TCW3 oil any richer than 50 to 1. Maybe if the owner has oil left to get rid of.
As the outboard gets older more and more oil is burned and problems crop up. Be kind to your Chrysler and don't make it smoke.
Working in the Chrysler engineering lab for many years has proved this without spending my own money. One test was how long would a 3.5 hp run without any oil. Well the test was concluded after 100 hours and nothing bad hapened.
The only almost bad thing was running a 120 hp on the dyno and forgetting to turn on the water. Good thing I moved fast. The only bad thing was the brown hue on the cylinder head.
Each model of the Chrysler outboards was hp certified by a BIA witnessing inspector that was not employed by Chrysler. 4 readings a minute apart were taken and averaged to equal the rating. If the hp was marginal the carb adjustment and first reading happened very fast. The next 3 readings kept dropping but the average if still was still the rating.

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: New boater with a lot of questions

With new TCW-3 oils, at 50 -1 ratio as recommended, the ports will not plug with carbon and neither will the rings, provided you do not continually run the engine at idle all day. As long as you run her, smoke should not be a major problem. Yeah! There will always be a bit of smoke and at idle, wind will blow some smoke back into the boat and you will smell it. but it should not be objectionable.

Contrary to most people, I say that if you use a 50-1 ratio you do not even need to winterize the engine--just storing it upright is sufficient. The residual oil inside will preserve internal parts from corrosion. Cold weather will prevent the gas from evaporating out of the carbs and no oil sludge will form there. I don't even use any gas additive and have not yet had a problem. BTW: 1 pint oil to 6 gals gas is 48 to 1 and close enough plus way easier to measure.

That 3 cylinder engine is sweet and will run almost forever if you treat her correctly. I prefer them to the 4 cylinder engines

Change the lower unit oil the end of each season and change the water pump impeller every two years or as needed, whichever comes first.

With newer alcohol containing gasoline, change the fuel pump diaphragm at least every two seasons, whether or not it needs it. Put a cheap disposable plastic fuel filter in the fuel line between the fuel pump and carbs.

I don't remember exactly when Chrysler changed ignition systems, but both the distributor Motorola system and non distributor Prestolite systems were relatively trouble free.

Plugs are usually the sticky point. If your engine suddenly gets hard to start or starts idling poorly, clean the sparkplugs before you do anything else. Those surface gap plugs do tend to foul a bit easy.

For God's sake, do not mess with carb settings--that small brass needle in the front of the carbs. Running too lean is a fast way to melt pistons. AND, If you do not already have one, install either a warning light or a buzzer for overheat. (This uses the orange wire.)

So take your boat and engine and travel about secure and happy, BUT: remember Murphy's Law. It is best to have some auxiliary power. I once snapped a prop shaft a couple of miles away from the launch area. The little put-put took two hours to get me there, but it did, I did not need a tow (Expensive if commercial), and my wife was not nervous.