Project Sweet 16!: YAHOOOOOOO!!!

We did it! Project Sweet 16! went into the water and ran all weekend!!

Actually, it's not quite that simple. Last Sunday I put her in the water
for the very first time - man that boat looks great! It was the first time
I had trailered her, too. Unfortunately, after several hours, I couldn't
get her to start. She would start if I used starting fluid, but not run.
Just seemed fuel starved. Disappointed, I took her back home. I thought
the gas might be bad, so my plan was to drain and replace the fuel.
Thursday morning I was doing an inspection and I noticed the (new) fuel line
to the carburetor was kinked where it came out of the fuel pump. I trimmed
some line off and eliminted the kink and voila! She fired right up>

I was so excited I immediately took her back up to the lake. This time she
started okay, and I backed her away from the dock. Yahoo, I was under way.
Not so fast, I had NO FORWARD GEAR! :( Reverse and neutral were there, but
no forward. So I spent several hours trying to adjust the linkage but to no
avail. That night I poured over the service manual and decided to double
check the shift rod coupler since I had the lower unit last weekend to
replace the water pump impeller. Sure enough, it looked like I didn't
quite get the coupler connected all the way. Took her back up to the lake
that afternoon and whooooweee! She started and ran great, forward and
reverse. The family can't believe I finally got her going (neither can I,
actually).

We christened her with a bottle of beer (poured over the hull) on Sunday.
Next step is to redo the steering, then the carpet, then the canopy. Then I
canget fishing goodies (trolling motor, downriggers, etc.). The kids had a
lot of fun being pulled around on the boogy board. Oh yeah, wedid run out
of gas, once! Some nice people gave us a tow. Now I know how much fuel she
drinks.

So here's what I did:

Cleaned out the leaves, cat crap and junk in the boat.

Removed all the seats, old carpet and aluminum trim

Install indoor/outdoor carpet (that's coming out!)

Repainted the seats - you wouldn't even believe it!

Bought a battery

Bought a starter solenoid

Overhauled the magneto (man, that was a learning curve!)

Rebuilt the fuel pump

Rebuilt the carburetors (I still can't believe it runs!)

Replaced the ignition swtich

After all that I finally got there.

I'll post some pics when I get access to a digital camera.

Michael Frenn, California
1965 Sweet 16 75 HP Evinrude
Received on Monday, 19 August 2002