22-2 inboard

[JimCt]

Decided to take a break from my ICU boats to have a romp in my old 170.  What a sweet boat!

[RickK]

A needed break!!

[MJB]

JimCt,

I noticed the 75HP Merc -- how do you like that HP??  I plan to use my AS 170 for inshore fishing, but the kids will likely use it to tube or even maybe pull a skier so I've been considering 90HP -- will that be too much??    Also, I noticed the transom, looks like a 20" shaft -- I was talking with someone who has had a couple AS 170s in my area and he mentioned making the transom for a 25" shaft, basically eliminating that small notch for the motor to reduce water over the transom.  Any thoughts on that??  I'm going to replace the transom this fall.

[JimCt]

Depends on how exciting you want the kids skiing/tubing to be.  I defer to others to answer that question since the only things I've towed are umbrella rigs.  I get nervous towing humans.

All the 170's I've seen have the notch.  I liked the 75 fine.  Light enough engine so I had some freeboard back at the transom...

[billh1963]

Jim,
Still waiting for pics of the "refreshed" boat in the water.

[JimCt]

Having an adventure trying to get the new ignition system to function.  Next, the strut has to be aligned & set.  Have been up to my ears w/work, getting the F-350 in order and mowing.  Next weekend have to re-deck the porch at my mother's place.  Am trying to squeeze in AS time where I can.  Seems the more I do the further behind I get...

[LilRichard]

Join the club... (non-sarcastically) it was birthday weekend this weekend (mine and the wife's- I am 29, she's 30- we're getting really old    ).  Anyway, the majority of the time was spent hanging 2" wood blinds that were a joint "house gift".... hung 14 windows worth in all.  Look good, but the flatback is no closer to the H20.



 :spiderman:

[John Jones]

Same here.  Work has had me bouncing from FL to MA to CA for two months.  In between is mowing, visiting grandkids, normal honey-do's.  Then my dog comes down with an weird auto-immune system disorder and nearly died.  Owning boats has been a waste this summer.

[JimCt]

Finally got the engine running again after tearing out the original Chrysler ECM ignition system.  Strange how you figure things out sometimes.  Usually when I sleep on a knotty problem, in the morning I have a solution to the situation.  In this case what solved the engine problem was running the kicker... of all things.  As I said, I'd torn out the old Chrysler ECM module & harness and replaced it with a new Mallory distributor which has a magnetic pick-up and electronic advance.



 I have tried for two weeks on & off to get the engine to start.  Not even a cough.  Checked that timing marks were corresponding to the correct rotor position for #1 cylinder, correct voltage was getting through the ballast resistor, the coil was good... the whole works.  Had spark from the coil and out to the plugs.  Only thing left possible was that the timing was out 180 degrees.  Triple checked that again and all was good.  It had to run... but nothing.

Two days ago after messing with advancing & retarding the spark and running the batteries down I figured I'd move on to something else on the boat to at least get something accomplished.  Decided to run the Honda kicker and check it's charging circuit to be sure it was functioning.  Connected the fuel line up, which draws from the same tank as the main engine, gave the bulb a couple of squeezes and the outboard fired right up.  Ran for about two minutes then quit.  Figured there was still some air in the line so I gave the bulb another squeeze or two and the motor lit right off just fine.  Ran for another minute then quit.  If you've been following me on this, you've already figured out  why the main engine wasn't starting.  If the outboard was starved for fuel the main engine was too.

This afternoon put in 5 gallons of fuel, cranked the main engine about 10 seconds and:





           :!:

My father always told me "When all else fails check the fuel!"
I should keep him in mind more often.

[John Jones]

Yep.  Some days we are just too hard headed to believe what we already know.  Glad it's running.  That new ignition should be way more reliable.

[RickK]

No gauge?
Glad it's running.  
Now that it is Labor Day (like you said - Already) isn't it time to winterize and cover them up for the winter?  Hope not.

[GoneFission]

Jim - with the price of gas these days, I could see why you trying to wean that engine from it - but I guess it just does not work that way...  

It's amazing how often something obvious is missed.  The transom drain plug somehow comes to mind to me...  

I've got to join the club on lack of boat use this summer - been all over the world to work, but the Aquasport has been sitting unused.  But next week for sure!!!  

See ya on the water (I hope!)

[JimCt]

My problem was in assuming and it cost me 2 weeks.

Boat has a low tech gauge: a mahogany stick.  At least now I know where empty is on the stick, about 4 gallons remain below the pick-up.  The tank, which is original, was never fitted for an electric gauge and with the age of it I figured why spend the money on it when it's going to be replaced anyway.  My 170 was never rigged for a gauge either.

As far as using the boat, the last task is re-setting the prop strut.  Still plenty of time to use it.  The way the weather's been these last few years, end of November to the middle of December is when the curtain falls.

[JimCt]

I've always preached about having bilge pumps on an unfused circuit.  Today I changed my tune.  From here on out EVERYTHING will be fused.

Here's what happened today.  Because the shaft wasn't lining up perfectly to the transmission flange and the boat was somewhat crooked on the trailer, I decided to float the boat off the trailer, line it up perfectly and re-haul it on the trailer to see if that would help the alignment.  Had seacocks closed, garboard plug in and everything pretty well buttoned up for the first "splash" of the boat since I've owned it.  Since you never know with a new boat, I had the batteries aboard and the bilge pumps armed to go on if something unexpected happed.  Well, we got the boat in and tied off at the float at the ramp.  I pulled the empty trailer up the ramp to do some adjusting on it and tweak a few things when I got an alarmed shout from my friend who was helping me with the operation.  "The boat's smoking!"  Took me about 15 seconds to drop what I was doing and scamper down the ramp to the float and sure enough, smoke was rolling out of the console.  My first concern was the gas going off but the smell was electrical... so far.  Jumped aboard, confirmed the fuel shut-off was off then killed the main switch then disconnected the batteries from the circuit.  The smoke stopped.  Tipped up the console and the engine looked perfect.  Peered into the console and sure enough it was electrical.  Two wires had heated up enough to fry themselves and completely char the insulation off.

Here's what I found:





and the bilge pump switch...



Turns out the forward pump had ingested a screw somehow and had seized.  Naturally, with no fuse in the circuit, the two batteries kept bailing the power to the pump until it shorted out and completed the circuit from one pole to the other of the batteries.  The fried wires also caused some collateral damage to adjacent wiring.  Things got so hot that it took out the switch panel.  Second picture shows the copper buss desoldered from the hot side of all the fuses.  Those two yellow & red wires are 14AWG.

The culprit:



So, today I got the shaft flange to align to the transmission but the cost was a bit high.

When I got home from the ramp I changed my shorts.

[Kaczki]

:evil:  :evil:  :evil:  :evil:  :x  :x  :x  :x  :x  :x  :x