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Re: homemade outboard

68.4.211.130

dang it the lower end flooded again, even with the garbage bags wrapped around. I figure its going to be a tear in the bags, or leak at the stuffing box or leaking where i had put a hole in the g-bags to allow the shaft to pass thru then tried to tape it shut on the pvc pipe around the shaft. I read that stuffing boxes are supposed to leak, but only one to two drops per minute while running-if tightened properly. since I am missing the jam nut and I have no idea how tight is enough, i might crank it down some more and put a hose clamp or something on it to hold it in place if it is spinning loose.
At first I intended to fiberglass in the hole at the bottom of the lower end, but then I thought that that hole gave me access to almost everthing there so I wanted to make an access panel instead of a permanent cover. The bump at the bottom of the fglass panel is supposed to be sort of a bilge area so that the water can collect-that was the theory anyways. I thought I could make a cover with fiberglass that could simply be removed when I needed to work on it. I put a gargabe bag on the lower end then fiberglassed on top of that (3-layers) so I could remove the cover once it dried. This did not work that well, the garbage bag wrinkles so that the cover does not fit snugly. I put the dried cover back on, drilled a bunch of holes along the perimeter and put in machine screws to hold it in place (after caulking it) Its difficult to tell ifs its water tight-the problem is that I cant see in there to see where the leak is coming from.
I want to avoid drilling the shaft for the cotter pin if I can-for me it would be alot of work and trial and errors till I got it to go together correctly. The shaft spins opposite to the nut turning off. I might try to double up the nuts in front of the prop with a lockwasher in-between. By the way the reason I start the motor with the drill is that I broke the manual start when I first got the motor, i discovered by accident that a socket head that I had fit perfectly on the flywheel ratchet. Sure makes it easier to start. Its a dedate if I want to fix the manual start- even if I fix it, I will have to stand up in the boat and pull upward on the pull start, kind of awkward. I have 2 additional batteries that fit the drill and will charge em all up before a trip if I have to. Once the motor is hot its starts pretty easy even with the prop in the water. That reminds me, remember you said the noise would be better if I piped the exhaust underwater-what a difference! much quieter. I first soldered copper pipe together. It melted and fell apart in less than a minute, I reassembled it and then held it together with machine screws. The question now is the routing of the pipe to the water.
Going to head to boattrader.com to see what they have. No updated photos.


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