1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

[Jack_toda_Max]

Hey guys,

I'm 19 and studying mechanical engineering at uni in Brisbane Australia. I inherited this off my great uncle. I've never owned a powerboat before.

It is a Pride 15-16 foot skiboat. The boat was made in Australia in the 60's. I don't know alot about it other than this. It looks to be a copy of some of the American boats I have seen on here. Apparently someone brought a mold for the top deck from America but the hull is Australian. If anyone has any info it would be appreciated.

Hourmeter reads 201.

Tacho and speedo do not work. Hourmeter and amperage do. Does anyone know why these gauges would not be working?

Electronic shift, works perfectly. That green stuff in front of the throttle on the side of the boat is melted green tape. The boat was last rego'd 1979 and my great uncle taped the sticker on. Anyone know how to get this stuff off? It's like paint.

Rear vision mirror polished up well.

Engine is a 1962 Evinrude Starflite IV 75HP with electric shift. I am replacing the impeller, all seals, fuel lines, water lines, fuel pump kit.

I will post a video of the engine running soon.

 

[Jack_toda_Max]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

It has a roof, but I took it off so it wouldn't be damaged. It is lying in the bottom of the boat in this pic.

The boat is run in saltwater 99% of the time so my great uncle made this flusher attachment.

Lower unit. Does this look OK for a 48 year old engine?

Impeller. How do you tell when they are worn? I didn't know how well it was working because there is no tell-tale. I may install one soon. Does this one need replacing? I was thinking of sanding the housing smooth because the corrosion has made it a bit rough and it would rip the impeller up pretty quick.

Exhaust. A fine mist comes out of here when the engine is running.

Because I am new to powerboats I have a few questions.

Does anyone know what temperature boat engines like to run at? I race karts and have both cylinder head temp sensors and water temp sensors.

Do these motors smoke much? We ran it at 20:1 and there was no smoke until we sped up a bit and then it blew some white smoke. It wasn't coming out of the exhaust hole in the leg though, it was just kinda coming off the bottom of the leg and near the prop. Maybe it was just steam? Do they steam much?

When we had it idling on the boat ramp, you could see it was depositing fuel everywhere. Once the boat was out of the water there was oily fuel deposits on the hydrofoil bit on the lower leg. Is this normal?

Should I bother installing a tell-tale?

Anything else I should know?

I will upload a video of it running soon.

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE ENGINE THREAD
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=380063

Thanks,

Jack.

 

[tdrudd87]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

Awesome looking boat! I can't be much help with the particulars, but if you hop over to the outboard section there are some really smart guys there.

Liking school? I'm set to grad with my M.E. degree in September! Keep up the good work, looks like you are on the right track!

Terry

 

[CBGale2]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

Id post all your questions regarding the motor in the motor section. I can tell you that the impeller needs to be changed in that water pump, those are good for a few years so Im sure its way past time to replace it, better safe than sorry type deal. The main exaust port is down by the prop so that is normal your getting smoke from there. But like I said post this out in the John/Rude section, very smart group of guys.

And by the way you've got a nice looking boat there, it doesnt look its age thats for sure. Should be lots of fun.

 

[gjm700]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

Jack, great boat.
We had a Pride by Caribbean back in the early 70's. However doesn't look like yours. However I'll have a look around down here for some info.

White smoke probably a little steam.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

The speedometer works off a pressure tube that should be mounted somewhere on the back of your boat. They often get clogged.

 

[Jack_toda_Max]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

Thanks for the replies guys.

Terry
I'm loving school. Mainly coz of this!

CBGale2
Yeah I have a seperate post for the motor but it hasn't had many replies. The boat needs a little work itself and I will post the boat stuff here.
I'll post the link to the engine thread in the first post anyway.

The impeller is on it's way here from the iboats store so it will be replaced anyway. I was just wondering why they need to be replaced. Do they just get rounded and don't work anymore or do they like snap off or what?

Yeah I know the main exhaust is down near the propeller but I'm thinking if it was smoke from the engine then why wasn't it coming out of the exhaust hole in the upper leg aswell?

gjm700
Any pics?? I think mine is 60's but not 100% sure. My great uncle's memory isn't the best. And yeah I'm pretty sure it was just steam. Engine must have got up to temp and that's why it only steamed after a while.

The steam was kinda intermittent though. There was none in the marina, none leaving the marina but then once it was on the plane out of the marina it started to smoke. I then told my uncle to slow down, and some water washed up against the motor and I think some went into the exhaust hole (up on the leg). The white smoke stopped. Then once on the plane again it started again. Re-entering the marina there was no smoke.

I think once it got hot it steamed, then when we slowed the water washed over the leg and it cooled down and then on the plane again it got hot and steamed again. Will be replacing the impeller anyway though.

ezmobee
I traced the tube from the mount on the back of the boat and it has rotted through and broken off. I think it plugs into the electronic box under the rear transom (is that what it's called?). I'll replace the tube before we go out again.

Any idea why tacho wouldn't work?

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

No clue. You may have a dead tach. I do know that they read the pulses from the alternator or stator so one of the benefits of a tach is that it also lets you know your charging system is working. A bad rectifier can cause the tach and the charging system to stop working. I don't know how to test that though. Read battery voltage when stopped, read again when running and it should be a little higher.

 

[micks110]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

Hey Jack. The tube for the speedo does not run to the electonic box(uni-charger). The speedo tube should run from your speedo directly to this mounted on the transom.

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Your tach wires should run from the back of your tach to the uni-charger(basically your alternator). The tach wires are included in the wire harness that runs from the uni-charger to the front of the boat. These uni-chargers put out 20 amps.

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Here is the uni-charger I found on ebay- great find!

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I have a 61 eninrude starflite III. I am finishing restoring my boat and then I will be onto the engine so I will be following your thread to learn more about the engine.

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Nice boat too by the way! Good Luck with it!

 

[Jack_toda_Max]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

Amperage is 0 amps when ignition is turned off.

When ignition is on but motor hasn't started running yet, the hourmeter starts audibly ticking and the amperage goes slightly negative.

When the engine is on and running the amperage goes positive.

Leg is off the motor at the moment and it will be a while until the boat is in running condition again so I won't be able to test the tacho.

I'll try and polish that green stuff off the interior gel coat this weekend and I've gotta fix a few other things too.

 

[Jack_toda_Max]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

Wow Mick. Your uni-charger and igniton barrel are identical to mine!

I'll post some more pics of the engine in the engine section. I have already rebuilt the carbs and will be doing fuel pump/impeller/lower unit seal kit as soon as the parts arrive.

And yeah my speedo tube mounts to that plastic thing on the transom. (Might be able to see it in the pics). I thought the other end went into a box next to the uni-charger. You can see the edge of it in this pic. It's in the extreme top left corner. The box then has an electric wire running up to the speedo. (I will confirm this tomorrow when it is sunlight outside.)

 

[micks110]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

From what I found out in doing research the uni-charger was around for about 5 or 6 years- 59-64 or something like that. Post the link to your engine thread- I looked but couldn't find it?

Yeh I don't know what that box is in that pic of your speedo tube. From what I understood the tube should be a straight run from the speedo to the transom mount.

I'd check the mounts on the back of the tach to make sure they are connected and not loose. Other than that you could look inside the uni-charger to make sure everything is ok. If it still doesn't work then???

 

[Jack_toda_Max]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

Here is the link.
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=380063

No pictures yet and I need to update it. I'm super busy with assignments this week so may not be updated for a few days.

 

[micks110]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

Just posted some links in your engine thread

 

[vegasphotoman]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

Hi Jack
I havent been on the forums for a while due to being REAL BUSY

that speedo you can check by ---take the tube off the pitot at the transom (thats the plastic thing that folds down into the water) and Blow into the tube hard....have someone watch the speedo...it should go to about 10-15mph blowing on it...it takes alot of pressure to really get the speedo up to 2-30mph...compressed air etc....

I am certainly no expert at old outboards..but I do own one! I pretty sure that hole in the back IS A TELLTALE...and the impeller housing should be replaced on yours if you can score one for the right price...otherwise you're on the right track smoothing the housing interior out....
the impeller rubber is supposed to be bent like that...but when you pull the impeller out is should straighten out....it applies pressure to the side walls of the housing and sucks water that way....

PS my brother in law just moved down to Australia! he loves it...he's south of Sydney living with his girlfriend (shes obviously australian)


PS I have a Johnson Evinnrude PDF manual for these old gals if you need one lemme know (it is 39 megs)

 

[vegasphotoman]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

heres the old 1963 motor we just restored......still gotta go through and figure out all the wires! someone cut the harness tips off..DOH

 

[Jack_toda_Max]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

Motor looks nice and clean vegasphotoman!

I had a look at that speedo tube today. The tube that runs from the plastic thing mounted to the transom, indeed runs all the way up to the speedo.

The broken tube that leads into the black box near the interior stern of the boat leads to the engine. The electrical wiring that comes out of the black box leads to the tacho. Replacing the broken tube should hopefully get the tacho working again and replacing the speedo tube would be nice too, (it probably has cracks in it somewhere).

 

[ifeeltheneed4speed]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

Hey jack, I have your motor! 1962 Starflite IV complete (uni-charger, dash ignition, temp gauge, controls). I just purchased it a few days ago. I am almost sure the rectifer ($300) will need to be replaced. It has been sitting for 15 years!!! The original owner went to prison for god knows what and the new house owners wanted it gone. I was more then happy to take it off their hands. There was some water in the boat around the uni-charger. It was just sitting in the bottom. The engine has good compression and turns over super easy! I have not even hooked it up to see if it will run. Jumped the starter off battery.
IF YOU NEED PARTS, LET ME KNOW! I also have a complete factory parts list with pics. After just pricing a few parts I decided it will cost to much to maintain. My mercury 850 took a dump and I got this one. Sold my boat yesterday, so I really dont need this. I can either sell parts direct or I can list on EBAY! I wish I could have had the motor a few months back. I would have bought that controller off Ebay.

 

[Jack_toda_Max]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

Hey everyone! I haven't been on here in ages because of uni but now I'm on holidays and it's summer here. I should probably update everyone on the condition of the boat.

I've been out in it 5 or 6 times now. Everything is registered including the trailer (had to lie a bit) and it is kind of reliable. I fixed the massive pollution issue aswell. Turns out I replaced all of the fuel and water lines except one that was semi-hidden by the lower cowling. It was cracked and was leaking fuel down through the leg.

This is what the boat looks like on the water.

Out the back.

I will try get a video up soon.

I drained the oil today and it was still milky coloured. Looks like I'm going to have to pull the gearcase head out but I will go over this in the engine thread.

 

[Sea Stomper]

Re: 1962 Australian Pride Skiboat and Evinrude Starflite IV

Nice work. You are now a certified sea man! I've had the stuff turn a little milky and then the next load came out fine. Maybe some condensation or the water came in through the drain or vent plug or something. I use a pressure oil filler so changing it is easy.