FINALLY found an 84' 255 AJ to buy!

Well last night was a bad late nighter. I spent 7 hours trying to align the gimble and the engine coupler. I went in half turns from the top of the mounts to the bottom with no success. I was by myself so I'm pretty sure I climbed into and out of the boat at least 100 times. By the end of the night, I was literally ready to pick up the sledge hammer and just destroy the entire boat. I think the biggest problem is that I was very tired and I'm just ready to go burn some gas and relax on the water. I should have quit 3 hours before I actually did.

This morning I took all of my tools out of the boat, hooked up the trailer and took it to the mechanic's. I told him all about my previous two nights, I had borrowed the alignment tool from him and he was surprised that I didn't get it done. Anyway, I left it with him and said to either fix it or burn it, either way I was pretty much over it. I knew he was busy and pushed to get other boats out by the weekend and especially by the 4th. So I was surprised when he called me at 3 to tell me the boat was ready to go. They aligned it, checked everything and installed the drive too. To say I was very pleasantly surprised is a huge understatement! So I now have the boat at home on the trailer, I have about an hour of work to have it ready for the water so I'm hoping to splash her either Saturday or Sunday.

Oh, and I no longer want to burn it or sell it for $50. But I swear, I was at the end of my rope with it for about 24 hours. Glad I left the sledge hammer sitting on the shop floor...
 
Saturday I put everything back, hooked everything up, tried to start. No start, check fire, check fuel, no compression... Then it hit me, I forgot to pump up the lifters and adjusted them wrong. This morning I backed them off and the engine started right up. One drain petcock was leaking so I'm replacing that. All I have to do is start it, set my valves with it running, set timing and we should be ready to launch tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
 
Well, I think it's time to let this thread die. I'll start new threads for the splash and our future adventures.
 
glad you have everything working out!!! It's awesome when you get a happy ending and not another hull in the landfill lol
 
I agree, and the boat is looking so nice sitting on the trailer ready to go. Should be headed to the lake in a couple hours.
 
Late nights and classic boats go hand-n-hand.

Been out in the barn converting my surge brakes to electric brakes and putting new lights and wires on the trailer. Yeah, been a few late and frustrating nights...

She's done now and works awesome!! So, there is light at the end of every tunnel.

Since you let this thread die I hope you don't mind me steering it on a tangent.

I'm curious about the surge to electric conversion. Are you replacing the whole system or just replacing the master cylinder with the electric unit? I need to do domthing with mine and looking for ideas. Thanks,
 
You replace your backing plates (what the brakes are mounted to) with new electric style backing plates. Then you simply run the wires to each new backing plate and switch your plug to the round 8 prong style. Now, when you hit the brakes, your new assembly is energized electrically and a magnet actually applies the brakes against the drums. The more you turn up the controller in the truck, the harder the magnet applies the brakes.

Your old master cylinder is no longer used and you simply cut the old hydraulic brake lines off the trailer.
 
Thanks. Theres also a kit where you remove the master cylinder and replace it with an electric one that removes the "surge" part but still uses the hydraulics of the original setup. Just curious.
 
You replace your backing plates (what the brakes are mounted to) with new electric style backing plates. Then you simply run the wires to each new backing plate and switch your plug to the round 8 prong style. Now, when you hit the brakes, your new assembly is energized electrically and a magnet actually applies the brakes against the drums. The more you turn up the controller in the truck, the harder the magnet applies the brakes.

Your old master cylinder is no longer used and you simply cut the old hydraulic brake lines off the trailer.

Don't forget the needed break away kit too.
I pulled my master cylinder completely out and locked the slide part of the hitch in the compressed position with drilled holes and (4) 3/4" grade 8 bolts.
Eastern Marine is worth checking for the needed brake parts - best price I found.
Just my 2 cents on the subject.
 
I purchased a new hitch portion for my trailer, I planned to remove the hitch/master cylinder and weld the new hitch in place. Having and using the electronic controller that mounts inside the truck gives you the advantage of being able to apply the brakes to the trailer independently from the truck or adjust how much brake action you get from applying the brakes. As the brake pads or shoes wear, you'll want to increase brake action from the controller rather than having to adjust the brakes on the trailer.
 
No hydraulics, no master cylinder, no plumbing. Just wiring and electric brake hubs. No fuss no muss.
 
Good luck.

Did you ever try a different prop?
it never ran long enough to try anything. They told me 3 weeks to have it ready...I'm not going to work on it myself.

I'm pretty sure that once it's done we'll use it for a month or two while we list it for sale.
 
The mechanic says next week. When I get it from there it's going to straight to a brokerage. I don't even want to deal with selling it. If anyone wants a good AJ that's been partially redone this would be a good opportunity.
 

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