Re: [OMC-Boats] Shadedown voyage

BILL,

THANKS FOR THE PROGRESS REPORT.

Getting these old gals back to life is a process. It requires some
time, resources and commitment.

Hang in there, and you 'll be rewarded.

Lee

On May 17, 2009, at 10:26 PM, BLDFW wrote:

> Well, I completed the restoration on my Explorer and took it up to
> the lake today for it's first shakedown run. I had my boating buddy
> Jon, the guy who went with me when I bouthg it along for moral
> support. The plan was to back the boat in and while still on the
> trailer, run it to insure water was properly circulating before
> launching her all the way in. No water, no launch. Anyway, we ran
> into one minor problem that thwarted the much anticipated launch and
> one that may affect the whole status moving forward.
>
> When I bought the boat, we ran it and ran the outdrive in forward
> and reverse briefly with no unusual noises. Later after I got it
> home, in looking at the outdrive, it had the look of someone having
> serviced it so I made a mental note to double check the fluids
> before actually putting it in the water.
>
> This morning before heading up to the lake I checked the oil levels
> but couldn't make any determinations on how much oil was present and
> since this was my first OMC I stopped at West Marine and picked up a
> quart of Type C gear lube to top it off. In the parking lot, I
> removed the lower unit drain plug to check the condition of the
> oil. It drained a little bit of clear water and nothing else.
> Hmmmmm....gee....something not right about that! It should have
> more than a couple of black drops in there. So I immediately undid
> the drain plug for the upper unit and found no oil there too.
> Hmmmmmm...... It doesn't leave one with good feeling.
>
> I had run it briefly a couple of weeks ago on muffs and had the
> outdrive in gear (sans the prop) and could not detect any usual
> noises that one might associated with toasted gears. Jon and I
> talked it over and came to a preliminary conclusion that I hope is
> the case. The boat has not been registered since 1992 but had the
> look as if someone had started a restoration job on it before me and
> never finished it. The outdrive has the appearance of having been
> dismantled and put back together again. Overall it was very clean
> with some minor finger smudges. We're thinking (or is that
> hoping!?) that when it was put back together, the work stopped
> before the oil was could be added (he says tongue in cheek and
> fingers crossed). Between the upper and lower unit, I put in nearly
> two quarts of fresh lube oil.
>
> We continued up to the lake and backed the boat down into the water
> with myself in the boat leaning over the engine compartment to check
> for leaking. I immediately heard the gurgling of water and
> discovered that while the port side exhaust hose was hooked up, it
> wasn't tightened fully. I tighted it down and we backed it into the
> water a second time. I didn't hear water gurgling (a good sign) but
> as soon as I started the motor it was obvious there was an exhaust
> leak. Turns out the hose was not seated properly and when I finally
> was able to get it seated, it would no longer meet up with the
> manifold. While the hose didn't look all that old it was not
> plyable enough to get it to reconnect so I bailed on the effort
> until I could get a new hose 1.5" longer.
>
> I'm keeping my fingers crossed for round two sometime this week!
> Oui Vei!!
>
> -Bill
> Dallas, TX
> 1970 Evinrude Explorer - 155 Buick V6 OMC Sterndrive
> http://www.photobucket.com/evinrude_explorer
>
>
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Received on Monday, 18 May 2009