The free boat- how bad can it be?

Copied from the boat thread.

A boat repair shop closed and sold their land to developers.

It has a motor, but...

It also has a hole. I'm betting from getting fork-lifted around.

Still, a boat with a motor? For free? I'll take it.



A week later: Did a minimal bit of work on the free boat.

I gave it a good looking over and found that:

1. The wiring harness was unplugged from the engine
2. There was no oil cap for the engine.
3. There is no key, but I knew this already.

In prep for ordering a new lock cylinder, I took apart the control box and found that the hot wire connection inside the box had come apart. I wonder if that's how the boat wound up at the boat repair facility in the first place. I ordered a new lock cylinder, an oil cap for the engine, bought a battery and picked up a fiberglass repair kit.

I may have to kick this out into a build thread.

I'm also debating if this boat is going to replace my 20' Key West. It takes up way less room, can be towed by a smaller vehicle and holds the number of people that I usually have fishing (1-2) easily. Really the only time I need the bigger boat is when we're at the beach and have 4-5 people out at a time. 

A few parts came in, so I spent a bit of time working on it today.

First, I put the oil cap on. I don't like holes to atmosphere left open in any engine I work on.

I took the control box apart and wired in the new lock cylinder, greased everything up and got it all buttoned back up together.

Then, I put my attention on the fuel system. I started replacing fuel lines and ran into something I didn't expect to see, and was surprised I hadn't noticed before.

The fuel pump is gone.

This reinforces my idea that the boat was in to get repaired, work was done, they didn't like how much it was going to cost and they abandoned it/never responded to come get it when the boat shop closed.

So, I ordered another fuel pump and a new inline fuel filter to get it ready for the next step, which will be to change the oil/filter and plugs, hook everything up and see if it cranks.


 

Looks good to me. I've never owned one, but I think those Mercurys have a good reputation.  That's an easy fiberglass repair. Does the boat have a floor or stringers? How's the transom?

If you cant see daylight, its not a hole, just a blemish. 

Can't see the pics for some reason?

Mr_Asa said:

Can't see the pics for some reason?

Neither can I

talon2k3 said:

Mr_Asa said:

Can't see the pics for some reason?

Neither can I

I can but looks like they are shared off google.

Ah, jeez. I can't edit my post due to the time that's passed. In the future, I'll upload them.

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

Time issue is gone so you can edit now.

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

We'll see how the Merc does down the road.

It has a floor, possibly with stringers under it. I've not dug into the specs of the boat too much. If anybody recognizes exactly what model/year it is, I don't know myself. The only brand/model marking on it is that Bomber plaque. It does have a Hull ID, I was planning on using that as the basis for trying to figure it out.

The transom seems pretty solid.

According to the HIN, this is a 1974 Fiberking Bomber. Older than I thought.

The Motor was manufactured in 2000.

The steering cable is frozen to a degree I usually only see on boats that were in salt water and completely neglected.

Usually a few taps with an engineer's hammer will loosen them up, but this one isn't having it.

I've been unable to get the lower unit off of the motor. After getting mildly frustrated, I looked at some videos that... don't match what to do on my motor. So, I went outside and got much more frustrated, decided to quit before I broke something and came inside.

Steps I took:

• Gear selector in neutral, shift arm disconnected.
• Remove 4 bolts holding on the lower unit.
• Tap gently with a rubber mallet.
• Get angry

I'll look around for a bolt or nut that I missed another day. I didn't check under the anode, and I'm betting that's where it winds up being.

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

Does it have a trim tab?  The fin like thing that sticks down behind the propeller?  If so, there's a plug in the top of the lower unit.  Remove that and then insert a socket on an extension to remove the bolt that holds it in place.  That one fooled me the first time.  (It may be a an allen head capscrew, it's been a minute since I've done a water pump)

There was a nut under the sacrificial anode- which is also the trim tab. 

Now it dropped down a couple of inches, but it seems like it's hung up on the shift lever or driveshaft. I had it in neutral to try to remove it, so... off to the internet again. 

(Edit: it's absolutely the gear shaft. If I move slightly into forward or reverse from neutral, the lower unit wants to move with it. A quick search didn't turn up how to fix this.

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

That's an easy fiberglass repair.

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

I always put the control in forward before I dropped the lower unit.  Not sure if this will help your situation or not.

The worst thing about anything you have no history on is that you don't know any history. Self evident, right?

The free boat has a hole in it. Very visible, you know what it is.

The motor?
Disconnected wiring harness, missing fuel pump, loose connections everywhere, linkage and wiring harness disconnected and so on. I've had to find all of this out as I've gone along with it.

Now, it seems the major issue I am having is that the gear rod might be bent. I'm going to search for schematics after this. At the very least, it seems that you have to take apart the linkage to release it.

It looks like the rod might have that angle built into it on purpose.

Post-lunch update:

There *was* a retaining clip holding it in, but nothing matched the actual diagrams I've seen. Instead of being on the port end of the linkage, as per part number 14, it's embedded in the middle of the linkage on the starboard side of the shift rod. I had to poke around a bit to find it (since it looks different) but once I identified it based on "that isn't in the diagram or videos I've seen" I slid it off of the rod and the lower unit dropped right out.

Funny how well things work when you're not frustrated and perform the steps as intended.

New impeller kit.
Fresh synthetic oil.
New plugs.
Cleaning out the pisser tube.

Crank dat!

Aaaaaand... what sounds like rod knock. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/o_7TRKcCiXQ?feature=shared