Nater Potater's Build Thread

Sundancer said:
Nater, I just noticed that one of your outdrives says Counter Rotation on it. So, you have a left- and right-hand prop on the outdrives? I'm jealous! Mine are both standard right-handed (I think!) rotation. I didn't realize Sea Ray did that on some of their outdrives. That should help around the dock. I may have to go for a ride with you!
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Yep, pretty common for twins until the Bravo 3's came along with counter-rotating props. Then it's moot. I can only imagine how much more they charge for one of those props! As for maneuvering, I don't know how much that would help with docking, as it's probably more from the off-center thrust coming from the two outdrives. You'll have to blame your troubles with docking on something else...
 
Sundancer said:
Those drives are looking pretty good! I guess I'll have to get the inside scoop on how you did it or at least go back and read the thread.
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In a nutshell,
1) Sand-sand-sand
2) Stainless steel wire "toothbrush" to clean the pits left in the aluminum. Use a stainless pick in the really bad spots.
3) Aluma-brite or some similar metal surface etchant. Aluminum oxidizes within a few hours, so be ready to apply your filler (and later, paint) the same day.
4) Marine-grade JB Weld, making sure to force it into the deeper pits.
5) Sand some more.
6) Repeat steps 3 through 5 until you're satisfied with the surface.
7) More metal etchant.
8) Primer. Zinc Chromate is the best if you can find it. I ended-up with zinc-phosphate with seems to be working. Time will tell...
9) Paint. While I'm not a big fan of rattle-can paint, I tried genuine Mercruiser Quicksilver 802878Q1 Phantom Black, and was very impressed on how well it layed down, and how much it built up. They must be using a high-solids paint in those. A bit spendy at almost fifteen bucks a can from Amazon, but well worth it. The outdrives, transom units, and rams consumed close to three cans. YMMV
 
wyrman said:
Don't let him fool you, he can dock his boat really well, way better than I can with mine.
That's for sure!
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I disagree! I can crash into ANY dock!! I have an advantage that I've been driving this SAME boat for 14 years. I can still screw it up once in a while! Greg is pretty good at it as well and I think this is only year 3 or 4 driving it.

I really WANTED a counter rotating drive but never saw one on any of the boats that we looked at. I knew they made them, but they are like finding unicorns! Your drive is the first one I've ever seen! They could have been on many other boats at the marinas, but they were underwater, so it's hard to identify them.

I didn't realize there was a time limit on the aluminum! Once you are done sanding, you should be applying something immediately. Seems like I could be sanding for days on those suckers! I guess if I did one at a time, I should be OK. Thanks for the hints and the tips! Mine are old and I might have someone evaluate or rebuild them. I don't know what the typical Alpha I lifespan is, but I have to be pushing it. They SEEM OK, but who knows what the internals look like. You might want to watch your drives on the trailer. You might end up with a different set leaving Kennewick!
 
I seem to remember on the Bravo 3 to reverse rotation, simply change the shift linkage and install reverse rotation propellers. The other Mercruiser lower ends can't do this and have to be changed to counter rotation units.

Having the port propeller counter rotate not only aids in slow speed handling but water flow to and from the propellers is much more efficient. Having contra-rotating propellers like in a Bravo 3 probably throws all this out of the window.
 
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'Spent a few minutes this evening with the generator. I'm starting to get a bit disgruntled. In addition to the "won't stay running" issue, I was able to get it to run long enough to realize the water leak I was seeing is a frost-ruptured heat exchanger. This is the last thing on my list of must-haves, but at least I can focus my my energies on it. On a bright note (literally), we went out later this evening and discovered the nav, instruments, and switch back-lights light up!
 
Folks, please take care during your winterizing routine! As eluded to in the last post, here's what we found once the heat exchanger came out Friday evening:
IMG-3029.jpg

'Spent a couple of hours Saturday repairing the broken fitting. I couldn't find my favored copper alloy brazing rods, forcing me to make the repair with the old reliable lead solder. So far, I've not been able to break it off, so maybe we'll be okay.

After the repair:
IMG-3030.jpg


The cure for the no-run condition continues to elude me. I've gone as far as exploring the idea of cutting out a section of the floor to allow me to winch the generator out to where I can more easily work on it, but I really don't want to do that. This issue is the final roadblock to having a complete running boat. Maybe I can just bungee-cord a generator to the swim platform...
 
IT LIVES!!! I'm so glad I didn't hack up the floor just to get the pig out. There's a saying amongst the British bike group, and I find that it bleeds over into most of the ICE world; "If it acts like ignition, it's probably carburetors. If it acts like carburetors, it's probably ignition." In my case, the genny would readily start and come up to speed, but die just as if you'd turned off the key. No bogging down, no sputtering, no nuthin' that would lead me to believe it was fuel-related. I tried manually working the choke during this time, but it didn't make a bit of difference. I had all of the interlocks disconnected, swapped in a new excitation capacitor, and was trying to figure out how to get to the outward mounting bolts so I could at least slide it out far enough to get into the electronics box. As I was standing there down in the bilge just staring at it as if something would jump out at me, I reached over with a screwdriver just to make sure the fuel shutoff valve was still in the correct position. Rotating it to "Off" then "On" told me that it was good to go, so that couldn't be it. Stared at it some more. "Oh, what the hell. Hit the start button again." After it cleared its throat a couple of times, it ran up to and settled in at the required 3600 rpm! Could it be that the solenoid was just hung up from having sat for so long? Whatever! I let it run long enough to come up to temp, shut down and started a couple more times, and checked this last item off the to-do list.

Well, that pretty much makes this boat a viable rig. We still have a few items such as a flaky stereo, a couple of bulbs to be swapped with LEDs, and a VHF that appears to need an external speaker, so I'll be updating this thread as those things come and go. I know there's no way I'll ever be completely done with this boat, so stay tuned for updates.
 
Nater Potater said:
IT LIVES!!! I'm so glad I didn't hack up the floor just to get the pig out. There's a saying amongst the British bike group, and I find that it bleeds over into most of the ICE world; "If it acts like ignition, it's probably carburetors. If it acts like carburetors, it's probably ignition." In my case, the genny would readily start and come up to speed, but die just as if you'd turned off the key. No bogging down, no sputtering, no nuthin' that would lead me to believe it was fuel-related. I tried manually working the choke during this time, but it didn't make a bit of difference. I had all of the interlocks disconnected, swapped in a new excitation capacitor, and was trying to figure out how to get to the outward mounting bolts so I could at least slide it out far enough to get into the electronics box. As I was standing there down in the bilge just staring at it as if something would jump out at me, I reached over with a screwdriver just to make sure the fuel shutoff valve was still in the correct position. Rotating it to "Off" then "On" told me that it was good to go, so that couldn't be it. Stared at it some more. "Oh, what the hell. Hit the start button again." After it cleared its throat a couple of times, it ran up to and settled in at the required 3600 rpm! Could it be that the solenoid was just hung up from having sat for so long? Whatever! I let it run long enough to come up to temp, shut down and started a couple more times, and checked this last item off the to-do list.

Well, that pretty much makes this boat a viable rig. We still have a few items such as a flaky stereo, a couple of bulbs to be swapped with LEDs, and a VHF that appears to need an external speaker, so I'll be updating this thread as those things come and go. I know there's no way I'll ever be completely done with this boat, so stay tuned for updates.
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Good going Nater. Stay with it.
 
Nater Potater said:
IT LIVES!!! I'm so glad I didn't hack up the floor just to get the pig out. There's a saying amongst the British bike group, and I find that it bleeds over into most of the ICE world; "If it acts like ignition, it's probably carburetors. If it acts like carburetors, it's probably ignition." In my case, the genny would readily start and come up to speed, but die just as if you'd turned off the key. No bogging down, no sputtering, no nuthin' that would lead me to believe it was fuel-related. I tried manually working the choke during this time, but it didn't make a bit of difference. I had all of the interlocks disconnected, swapped in a new excitation capacitor, and was trying to figure out how to get to the outward mounting bolts so I could at least slide it out far enough to get into the electronics box. As I was standing there down in the bilge just staring at it as if something would jump out at me, I reached over with a screwdriver just to make sure the fuel shutoff valve was still in the correct position. Rotating it to "Off" then "On" told me that it was good to go, so that couldn't be it. Stared at it some more. "Oh, what the hell. Hit the start button again." After it cleared its throat a couple of times, it ran up to and settled in at the required 3600 rpm! Could it be that the solenoid was just hung up from having sat for so long? Whatever! I let it run long enough to come up to temp, shut down and started a couple more times, and checked this last item off the to-do list.

Well, that pretty much makes this boat a viable rig. We still have a few items such as a flaky stereo, a couple of bulbs to be swapped with LEDs, and a VHF that appears to need an external speaker, so I'll be updating this thread as those things come and go. I know there's no way I'll ever be completely done with this boat, so stay tuned for updates.
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Congratulations! It is very satisfying solving a problem like that.
 
Well my cable change didn't get my problem done. I took my boat out Saturday and it was frustrating. The starboard shifter had to be held in throttle position and in full forward (WOT) only achieved about 4mph. Port was slightly better but ran hot (may need thermostate). Both shifters are hard to move past initial gear. I thought the cables were the cause of that. I except the reality that every machine with moving parts, at some point will need repair. I'm kinda tired of making repairs for this season. Unlike Nater, I have limited mechanical skills and even less diagnostic skills when it comes to boats. Reached out to my mechanic and will meet up with him probably Thursday. Right now I need Tylenol.
 
Well, we had our first failure, and it hasn't even left the back yard. Since our plans to run down the Snake river with the PNW gang fell through, we went back into the boat this evening to pull the food out. I had left the fridge running, and I'm glad I did. I found it to be still running, but it was hot inside. Now, the inside of the boat was pretty hot, but the fridge should still be able to power through that. That is, if they had included air vents during the install! I pulled it out to give it a once-over and verify where any venting might be. There wasn't any. How could they build the damn boat without any venting for the fridge? I'll let it cool down through the night and try again tomorrow, but confidence is not high. Crap!
 
Nater Potater said:
Well, we had our first failure, and it hasn't even left the back yard. Since our plans to run down the Snake river with the PNW gang fell through, we went back into the boat this evening to pull the food out. I had left the fridge running, and I'm glad I did. I found it to be still running, but it was hot inside. Now, the inside of the boat was pretty hot, but the fridge should still be able to power through that. That is, if they had included air vents during the install! I pulled it out to give it a once-over and verify where any venting might be. There wasn't any. How could they build the damn boat without any venting for the fridge? I'll let it cool down through the night and try again tomorrow, but confidence is not high. Crap!
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It should still cool without venting, it will be very inefficient though. So there is probably an issue with the fridge itself. I think some are vented at the bottom of the fridge itself and the back of the opening is probably open into the space behind. On mine there is a vent with a stainless cover from the cabinet into the head as well that seems to work well.
 
Creekwood said:
It should still cool without venting, it will be very inefficient though. So there is probably an issue with the fridge itself. I think some are vented at the bottom of the fridge itself and the back of the opening is probably open into the space behind. On mine there is a vent with a stainless cover from the cabinet into the head as well that seems to work well.
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I plan to look deeper this evening in hopes that it'll still run once cooled down, but, upon initial inspection, there's no venting anywhere around the front of the fridge. The manual goes as far as warning to not remove the skids on the bottom so as to allow cooling air to enter down low. Not on mine...
 
Well, we're back up north where we belong. Too bad it's only for a couple of days. Ah, the tribulations of the a working stiff.
We took the boat out on Pend O'Reille today, and it was the first time I can honestly say that it was a very relaxing trip. The launch was uneventful, even with a pretty good crosswind. Having a couple extra hands on the lines sure helped. With the drivetrain running well, we were able to focus on more of the peripherals. First, the anchor and windlass so we could rest without worrying about drifting into shore. Success! Then, the radio. We got a response back from a radio check request, so that works. Next, onto the major unknown; the generator. While it did run while on the hard, we had yet to use it to supply power to the boat. It works. No big deal. However (isn't it always the way?) even though I felt all around the inlet strainer, once the sea cock was opened, water came pouring in through the drain hole I couldn't find. No problem. I played Little Dutch Boy with my finger in the hole while my buddy fired up the generator, then switched in the a/c. Well, alright! We winched the anchor back in, then went cruising along the cliffs looking for mountain goats. While we didn't see any, just being out on the boat on a for-real cruise was very satisfying.
Proof by the wake that it'll actually move under its own power while my lovely wife gets a bit of video:
image000000-1.jpg


Best bud's daughter trying to catch bugs in her teeth. It was a chore getting to come along, but she seemed to legitimately enjoy herself once we were out on the water.
image000001-4.jpg


My wife, the water bug:
IMG-3123.jpg


Best bud's daughter, wife, and me. Notice how I proudly display my CSR shirt there. That should be worth some points off my next sponsorship, hm-m-m?
image000000-3.jpg


All in all, a great day! Alright, PNW boaters. I now have no excuse for not being there next year!
 
Your rear bench sits funny. Mine opens and sits closer to the back. It is kind of hinky the way it opens and folds to sitting position.

So happy to see you out with it and having fun.
 
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