Way2slow

When I was 16, the Quadrojets and Holley Double Pumpers were what I cut my teeth on. I was very lucky at the time and didn't realize it until later years, but there was an old man that had a shop across the street from our service station that liked me and pretty much mentored me through my early years with carburetors. Old man Nunley, as we called, him, was the master guru of high-performance carbs in the Augusta Ga area back in the early 60s and was the one racers came to from miles around for getting the most power out of them. So, at 16, I knew how to read sark plugs and change jets and metering rods to tune Quadrojets and make bunches of other modifications to them.

My brother's 20hp 2stroke Merc was a prime example. He has owned a construction company with lots of heavy equipment, plus messing with old cars all his life and has done a most of his own maintenance, so he is not a stranger to turning wrenches. His motor sat up for a couple of years and as a result, the only way he could get it to run was by spraying gas in the carb. He asked me about it and I told him 95% of the time that was because the main jet was plugged. To get to it on that carb, it had to come off the motor, so he bought a kit and rebuilt it. Puts it back on and still has the same problem. He calls me and asked what to do now, he rebuilt the carburetor and that didn't fix the problem. With this motor, the fuel pump is built into the carburetor, so other than making sure it was getting gas to the pump, there was not much else to check, so I told him to bring the whole boat and motor to my house so I could check it out. After checking the rest of the fuel delivery system, I pulled the carburetor off and went through it my way. Since all the gaskets were new, I didn't worry about needing another kit. While it "looked clean inside" I still went through everything the way I normally go through carbs. Put it back on and it ran like a top.

Don't forget to check that fuse and make sure it is a 20 amp. In the ideal world it was supposed to have blown to prevent the REC/REG from burning out because of have to put out more current that it was happy with. Also, it would pay you to keep a couple of those as spare fuses on the boat. Just letting a good battery get discharged and the motor trying to charge it can blow that fuse. That's whey the unknowing stick a larger fuse in. I guess they figure the $135 reg is cheaper than a 50 cent fuse.

Couple words of wisdom. Close to where that part is, there's a 20 amp fuse plugged into the wiring harness. Check that fuse and make sure it is a 20 amp and someone hasn't replaced it with a larger fuse. That fuse is there to help protect the Rec/Reg. When it blows, you loose all electrical power from the motor and too many times I've seen people put a larger fuse in. 95% of the time when you fry the REC/REG, it's because you have a bad battery and the rec/reg is over worked trying to charge it. That could also explain the hard to start. A lot of people have a hard time comprehending just because the motor is cranking over the battery could still be junk. The motor is cranking but it may be cranking to slow to provide enough spark to fire the plugs and pulling the voltage down too low on the other electrical. Jumping the battery off because it was too weak, and letting the motor try charging it will blow the Rec/Reg, it's not designed to be a battery charger, more of a battery maintainer. It would be wise for you to pull the battery, and have it tested, or you can just blow this off and think BS, there's nothing wrong with my battery, but do and there's a good chance you will be buying this part again.

I thought you were going to talk about being able to enjoy the time spent with the one on the front deck. For me, the boat was only the vehicle that let me enjoy the times had with my dad, son and granddaughter. Nothing like seeing your eight year old son catch catch his first 8 pound bass and at 14, catch his first 10-pound bass and the enjoyment he had in all those trips doing that. Then to have a granddaughter that truly loved to bass fish and could cast a Shimano Curado bait caster better at eight years old than most grown men, and would have lived on the water if able. Then as my dad got older, I made every effort I could to take him every other weekend, and on bream fishing trip on the St. Johns River twice a year. The kids grew up and made their own lives, my dad is now fishing in heaven and I totally lost interest after he passed. It took me five years of maintaining a 20ft Javelin bass boat and not putting it in the water but a couple of times during then to figure out I really didn't care to go by myself and get rid of that boat. I bought that boat simply because it was a dual console, big and roomy enough for my dad and keep him out of the wind while cruising down the lake. My pleasure was enjoying watching those with me enjoying their fishing trips. I still have my 14' jon boat, just in case I take a notion to go, but it has been sitting 18 months now without being put in the water. I've pretty much given my pontoon boat to my granddaughter so they can enjoy the lake with their kids and I go with them from time to time. Needless to say, it was those with me that I enjoyed and not the boat or fishing, the boat meant nothing without those that were with me in it.

Somebody needs to get themselves a little smarter on battery care/maintenance. Typical lead acid batteries self-discharge at a rate of approximately 5% per month. A battery that sits for 24 hours at a charge level below approximately 80% starts to sulphate. As the surface area sulphates, it can no longer transfer electrons between the plates, causing the battery to start losing capacity. This can turn a brand new, unused battery into lead scrap metal within several months. A battery needs to be recharged every six to eight weeks, just sitting on the shelf. That's why I only buy batteries from high volume places. After sitting on a shelf from six months at low volume dealers, and not having a maintenance charge, you are getting only half the battery, if you are lucky to get that much. As for the moisture around the lead post, that's not uncommon and is why you clean your terminals and post at least every year, if not sooner. This is primarily caused by the batteries being stacked on top of each other and during shipping, damages the seal between the lead post and plastic case.

I look at it like this, you save when you don't need/want to spend. It makes no sense to save and draw the small interest on that and then make a large purchase for something on credit where the interest is going to be several times greater than what your savings is drawing.

I'm told Bucky's BBQ is paying restroom monitors over $20 an hour. Speaking of prices and Kayak's my son has one that's been hanging from the roof of a shelter for at least 10 years if not more. He don't buy cheap S**** so it's probably a pretty good one if someone close to Brownsville TX is looking for one, he could probably be talked into selling that one. He's in Hawaii right now won't be back until end of September though.

When the recession hits full force, things will balance out. Those billions in Covid money will run out. I don't think wages are going to catch up to inflation, not when it cost $20 just to go through a drive and get two burger meals. When I retired in 2011, I was making $29 an hour as a road service tech for one of the forklift companies. I'm a highly skilled mechanic, have a degree in electronics, very good with hydraulics and electrical, was a millwright and a maintenance superintended at a large manufacturing facility before going into the Air Force. There was a large local company advertising for skilled maintenance workers and because of the way cost of living has increased, I thought I might give it a shot. They said the position for a skilled maintenance worker normally started off at $15 an hour but with my qualifications, they could probably get me close to $19 an hour. I had to laugh in their face, I wouldn't take a janitor's job for that. Those kinds of wages are not going to support the average family in this economy even with husband and wife working.

I was probably 20 years old before I ever heard them referred to a mud dauber. They were dirt daubers. Just depends on where you live. Also, there are two different types in my neck of the woods. The big one that looks like more like a wasp with and extended tail, and then a small one that has a small slender body not much larger than a fly. The smaller ones are the ones that cause the most problems because they love even the smallest ready-made hole. Every time I pick up and air tool, I have to check to see if the fitting is clear. Recessed screw holes in tools/equipment are constantly getting filled in. Pee holes on outboards have to be kept plugged with a peg, nail or something or they will get plugged.

I was joking about "Driving" it, you know, like getting into like a car and heading out.

Personally, I wouldn't try to drive it, think of all the rigging it would take. ? If it's one of those high dollar ones, I would get something like WRB suggested if your truck roof has provisions for attaching something like that. You can always add a center support to help make sure it stays in place. You see those things all over the highways around my parts. Second option would be flipped upside down and a regular roof rack, again, if your vehicle supports something like that. Sticking way out the ass-end of a pickup would not be desirable for a long trip for me. Just more potential for problems, especially when parking and having to leave it unattended. Trailering would be my least favorable option, that's just another major potential for problems. Those small tires really don't like to be spun at high speeds for long durations, especially on these hot summer days, then you have the parking and just plain aggravation of having to deal with a trailer behind you.

Then you always have to worry about how big of an idiot the local tax accessor is. I live on the other side of the Savanah River in Ga, and I'm doing battle with the counties new tax accessor dreaming up her own ridiculous values. Like a plain old 2005 Lowe 1436L with a 1973 9.9 Johnson and she says its' valued at $3,800, and a 2001 Pontoon boat with 90 Merc I bought for $1,500 that needs total restoration valued at $14,000, without the trailers because in GA, the trailers are tax through DOT when you buy tags each year. I got the notice for the Lowe first and asked her where she came up with such a stupid value and told her she could stick it where the sun don't shine. She didn't even know in GA, a boat valued under $7,501 was not taxable. Well, a couple of weeks later I get the one for the pontoon boat, I guess she figured she would make up for the one on the Lowe. I'm still fighting that one.

There's always a chance the TM can cause interference on your sonar display. Doesn't hurt the sonar but can make the display do strange things. Usually (if it does interfere with it) it will make black lines or dots across the screen when you run the TM. Getting a large enough battery would be the next concern if the motor is electric start only and keep it charged. Not a lot of fun after running the TM for a while to go to start the motor and the battery is too weak. Most small motors and older motors only have about a 15 amp charging system so it's not going to keep the battery charged if you use the TM much, don't care how long you run the gas motor, you will still need to charge your battery every time you come back home from using it.

All lead-acid batteries can die a sudden death from a shorted cell. More than one person has parked a vehicle that was starting fine, go into a store just to come back out and it's dead as a hammer. Usually the first hot day of the year.

Yes. The last few batteries I've bought have been Duracell from Sam's Club. East Penn used to have a warehouse near me in Macon and I got them wholesale there. When I used to work for a living, I had an account there and the manager was a friend, but they closed it and moved it to the other side of Atlanta, so no more wholesale batteries.

Battery Facts: A lot of it depends on who/where the battery is made and the quality of the battery. I try to avoid all imported batteries, which is very hard to do these days. There are only 4 or maybe 5 battery manufacturers in the US and only a couple of them that make high quality batteries. These are probably the two best, but don't think you are going to find them at Wal-Mart or other discount places. 1. Marine and RV Batteries | U.S. Battery Mfg. Co. | Since 1926 (usbattery.com) 2. Trojan Battery | Home These are good and sold under numerous names through a lot of places. 3. East Penn Manufacturing – The world's largest single site, family-owned lead-acid battery manufacturer They make a good battery and make lot of OEM batteries for different manufactures, plus Deka, Duracell, BPS top of the line, and tons more. Johnson Control used to be a major battery producer but they sold off much of their automotive style battery business several years ago. With so many of the other brands that use to be US manufactures, some of their top of the line batteries might still be made in the US, but many of them have changed to batteries made in Mexico and any place across the pond they can get them cheap and sell for big bucks under their name. Lithium's are starting to make a market in the Marine Deep Cycle world but again, it's going to depend on weeding through the lies/false accusations and sales BS they are using to market them. I'm still don't trust them enough to want to go that route yet. It's going to take time for the consumers to work out who's are worth having. For the absolute most run time out of lead acid batteries, it's going to take true deep cycle and service caps on the top. Those have the most amount of plate surface area but a probably the least desirable because of the maintenance required. The second in line would be the AGM Deep Cycle. One bit of info, True deep cycle batteries DO NOT have a CCA/MCA rating on them because they are not designed to give the high amp surges required for cranking. Now, how are you going to know if you are getting and US made battery or an import, you are probably not unless it's Trojan, US Battery or know which batteries East Penn makes. With the parts stores and companies that buy/sell rebranded batteries, it just depends on which quality battery you are buying as to where it might be made. For instance, Advance Auto Parts, sells batteries for five different manufacturers, depending on which one you get and the sales people don't have a clue. So, unless you have a list of manufacturers codes and can read them, you ain't gonna know.

I just always make mine, it's not and overly difficult job to do. I would think most any upholstery shop that does boat seat could make you some. However, they are so uncomfortable, when I can, I usually swap them out for some of the newer molded to fit seats.

Be careful buying BPS discounted inflatable vest. Several years back they had some discounted and picked up three, thinking I was getting a deal. As I'm going through the checkout, I thought maybe I should check the expiration dates. One was expired and two only had a month left. I politely told the cashier, thank you, but no thank you, I wouldn't be getting them. I've found a lot of times when they are discounted anywhere, it's to try and move them before they expire, and with most, updating them wipes out the savings and then some. I'm like Glen though, if I'm moving, I put a good vest on over the auto-inflate vest. Those are just for moving around in the boat while fishing.

Most of the time, once you get past the basic stuff like making sure it has fresh gas, clean filter/water separator, spark plugs etc, EFI motors require hooking the computer and diagnostic software to them to troubleshoot. If he doesn't have that, it might be getting time to bend over and grease up, because it's coming.

Another option is not buying the high-priced kits. You can buy a number of the bobbins, cylinders and pins separately for less than the cost of one kit. Just one word of caution, the bobbins have an expiration date so make sure you are getting fresh ones and not some near their expiration date or past it when you think you are fresh new ones. This applies to the kits as well as just the bobbins. Nothing like getting a $75 Mustang kit to find it expires a couple of months after getting or has expired when you first receive it.

I agree with others, putting strong chemicals on gel coat is not a very good thing to do. Once word of caution, be careful on how much you sand if it has metal flake. The clear gel coat over metal flake is fairly thin and if you sand through it, every little flake you hit is going to take the color off and will be a silver. Also, once you go through the clear, the finish deteriorates in a hurry, starts getting a roughness to it and will never stay smooth and shinney.

Trust me, I'm not blaming him for wanting a starter. Back in the early 70's I bought a brand new 25 Johnson with a starter and no charging system and never had problem. If was just the simple matter of putting a starter on my 25 Merc, I would have done it 20 years ago when I bought it but no ring gear was the butt kicker. Another flywheel for electric start was very difficult to find and, even used was more than I paid for the motor. Not counting all the other stuff it needed. It just was not worth the cost. That's why in my first post I commented he may be getting into more than he bargained for, but if his has the ring gear and the starter will bolt up and work, I would do the same thing.

I looked at putting a starter on my 85MY, 25hp merc and decided it wasn't worth it. I think on mine, the flywheel, even without the charging system was not compatible, it didn't have the ring gear on it. The guy I got it from had converted it from tiller to remote control and steering, and still had the tiller, so I took all that off and put the tiller back on. (I bought boat, motor and trailer for $200, just for the motor and trailer and trashed the boat). Putting it on my jon boat, I looked at adding stick steering but figured if I was going to have to get up and go back to start the motor every time, I had just as well stay back there and run it. Mine starts easy enough with just one short pull of the pull cord (after the initial cold start) that I can do while sitting on the bench seat at the back. Want to add remote control and steering, I might be willing to get rid of that stuff I took off mine, if I can find it now, that was a lot of years ago.

I think you will find there's a whole lot more to it than just putting a starter on it. Pull rope motors don't have a charging system, electric start motors do, so they have a different flywheel, the stator, the rectifier and wiring. I think you are going to find out, it would be cheaper to just find another motor.