Starting new project 1973 Sea Ray 240 SRV

[Tnstratofam]

I have had more than a couple of " New Fuel Pumps " turn out to be complete rubbish right out of the box. Glad you found the problem. Good luck on the launch. Looking forward to pics if you get any.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Well got it in the after today. Will get a pic up when I get home from camping. Good news it floats. Bad news is the shift interrupter on the old engine was out of adjustment and killed the engine going in reverse. Trying to restart the starter finally conked out. Got it out for a bit on the rebuild engine. That engine the shift cable is stretched out and not always going in reverse. Also have some ticking noise along with noise when i am hard into a turn and in gear. Time to order a new starter and try to figure out what is causing the noise in the rebuilt engine. The noise was not there until after the fuel pump crapped out.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Well got it in the water today. Will get a pic up when I get home from camping. Good news it floats. Bad news is the shift interrupter on the old engine was out of adjustment and killed the engine going in reverse. Trying to restart the starter finally conked out. Got it out for a bit on the rebuild engine. That engine the shift cable is stretched out and not always going in reverse. Also have some ticking noise along with noise when i am hard into a turn and in gear. Time to order a new starter and try to figure out what is causing the noise in the rebuilt engine. The noise was not there until after the fuel pump crapped out.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

I am disliking posting from the phone. Went to edit and ended up with a double post.

 

[Scott Danforth]

LOL....drink a beer.....boat can wait.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

LOL....drink a beer.....boat can wait.

I have been but thanks for the reminder. I have been behaving myself. I have a boat with parts and tools in it sitting next to me at the campsite and I have not once tried to work on the boat. It may be due to the fact my wife would back the boat with me in it off the cliff into the lake but non the less I have resisted.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Couldn’t help myself. Ordered two new starters off EBay while sitting around the campfire. Damn EBay app.

 

[mickyryan]

that app breaks me every week
but in my defense she wants to get house painted so she has me on a time constraint! "thats my lead in and it has worked so far"

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Here is the picture of it actually floating.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Had to find something to work on so I started working on removing the bottom paint. The actual part that was below the water line is worn out and sands off fairly well. The large section that is above the water line has something like 4 different coats on it. After some reading and testing, I have settled on paint stripper and a metal paint scraper, the type that had a long handle and you pull towards yourself. Then after this, wet sanding with 80 grit to get the rest of the bulk off, followed by wet sanding with 220 grit to get the rest of the blue off. Worked on one side from the chine up. Picture of the un-touched side for comparison .

Have some gel coat repair work to do in the future, a ways in the future.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Let's recap where we are at now, or back to. I have two new starters to install. Have a shift cable on order. Drive is pulled from the port engine for the shift cable. Dropped the starter from the port engine and went to try and seal up the oil leak from the pan gasket. The sealant I had on there already started to peel off, so it looks like we are pulling the port engine, again, so we can drop and reinstall the oil pan, with sealant on the gasket this time. Should have gone with my gut the first time and put sealant on. At least I will get the engine bay de-greased again.

So with waiting on parts, and help, to do the engine in the Sea Ray I decided to finally get the other jet ski running. Went to fire it up for the first time with the rebuilt starter, and the starter solenoid just buzzed. So we now have a starter solenoid on order. At least that was only a $12 part.

Guess I will play with the shift interrupter on the starboard engine, since it is the only thing I need to work on that is in one piece will all the parts.

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Yikes.... i sense your aggravation. Better days are ahead!!

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Baylinerchuck. Just have to keep plugging along, not much else you can do.

Engine is pulled. Oil pan dropped and reinstalled. I found that most of the bolt holes on the sides of the pan were domed up. Almost like someone tried to pry the pan off with the bolts still on. Took it into the shop and hammered them back flat. This took the play out of the gasket that I found when I was getting ready to remove the pan. Also applied Ultra Grey sealant on both sides of the oil pan. Let me tell you, it is a real joy trying to put an oil pan on upside down. Degreased the engine bay. Also redid the valve lash since I had a bit of a tick in it when it was running.

The one odd thing is I pulled the coupler so it would be easier to turn it over for the valve lash and found that the nuts for the coupler were not very tight. On inspection they do not run in far enough to get into the locking ring on the nuts so they must have backed out a bit while running. I may have to get some other nuts and use lock washers.

Next will be the shift cable. But it is hot out and the sun is high. Took a cold shower and cooling off for a bit. Will get back at it in an hour or so.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

First off I now have a spare outdrive. While I was cooling off I hopped on craigslist and found someone who had just posted a complete drive system. They cut the transom out of the boat. Had the drive, tilt rams, tilt pump, and the complete inner and outer transom assembly. Said make offer. I offered $100, figured what the heck worst they could do was laugh at me. They countered with 150 so I jumped on it. Took a run and picked it up. Its not perfect but better then one of my drives, and the tilt rams look like new. They blew the engine in the boat so before they junked the boat they took everything they thought they could sell. The U-joint is rusty, but I don't care. It will be a winter project to strip it down and reseal the entire unit.

As for the rest of the day, I have the engine back in the boat now. Still need to put the manifold back on and a few other odds and end. but it is back. Shift cable is in. I now remember how much I hate shift cables. Took a good 20 minutes to get the damn sheath inside the shift cable boot. Then I could not get the new cable to go in. The old one would go in , but not the new one. I had to swing the motor to straight to get it to go in. It must have had a sharp edge on the end of the cable that was snagging up on the sheath. I should be good with shift cables for a while.

I ended up putting blue locktite on the crankshaft studs that the coupler bolts onto.

Hopefully this will be the end of the engine work. I would really like to put all the mechanic tools away and break out the wood working tools and start doing fun stuff.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Good score

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Man I should really start watching for those deals. A spare outdrive would be sweet.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

We will have to see how good of a deal it is once I get it apart and start checking gears and such. At least the tilt rams look worth it if nothing else.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Have the engine aligned again, getting good at that, and the outdrive back on, getting almost as good at doing that as alignment. Shift cable is all adjusted. Manifold is back on. Found out that the spring was weak on the shift interruptor on the other engine and that I did not notice the shift cable from the dash was bent. Got that all straightened out and bent the spring out to tighten it up, and the other engine appears to be shifting properly also. Just need to get the carb and throttle cable on the one engine and put the new starter on the other one and we will be ready for the water again. Plan to get the work done tomorrow and test fire both engines again.

 

[Scott Danforth]

One step at a time... Youre getting there

 

[sheboyganjohn]

I don't mind the one step at a time. I just hate repeating the same steps over and over.