Hello all,
First time pontoon owner as of Tuesday. The toon is an older 1983 Kayot Commodore 5924 24', and is in PHENOMENAL condition for it's age. The upholstery is in dire need of recover, but the rest is absolutely solid, no cracked welds, toons are pristine (not even a scum line). Purchased it for 500, no motor, no trailer.
I had in my possession for the past couple years a great running 1971 Evinrude 85 horse, manual tilt/trim, electric shift. Purchased that for the price of the prop (buy the prop for 25 bucks, get the motor free). Mounted up perfectly to the pontoon. Here comes the problem:
Upon trying to connect the push-pull steering cable (rotary I believe), I quickly discovered that the motor's pivot is a simple bolt, not a pivot tube. Turns out Johnson/Evinrude did not add the pivot tube until 1973. Here is what I've learned so far:
If I don't intend on tilting/pivoting the motor, no problem, just affix the steering cable to the transom and connect a connector rod. BUT I intend on having full tilt motion on the motor.
There are add-on brackets you can attach to the transom, that hold the pivot tube (or cable housing without the pivot tube), at the motor's clamp area, and have it function in that respect. BUT the pontoon's transom is barely wider than the motor, so the cable can not be made to fit down into that area without severe kinking. Also, I can not attach such a clamp above the transom area since the motor's powerhead does actually recess slightly into that area when fully raised.
Here are a couple ideas I am considering:
Drill a hole into the side of the transom, as high as possible, allowing the cable's pushrod to pass through into the transom area, just under the motor's pivot point, and using the connecting rod as normal. This type of installation would also require me to add a bracket externally of the transom to hold the aforementioned tube bracket (since the length of extension and retraction of the cable is nearly the width of the transom).
Boring the holes larger through the motor's transom bracket and the pivot bracket to allow for the pivot tube to pass through. Without doing the necessary measuring, a visual inspection leads me to believe there will still be plenty of material on the brackets of the motor, as compared to my 1981 Evinrude 85hp on my other boat, that does have the pivot tube in place.
Lastly, a long-shot, much more expensive than the other two options is to locate the full tilt and turn bracket from a 1973 Johnson/Evinrude motor that has the provision for the tilt tube assembly, and see if I can frankenstein it onto my 1971 motor.
I am prepared to have to custom-make my connecting rod as necessary from cable pushrod to motor, and the idea of the hydraulic steering system, although perhaps the BEST solution, is way out of my budget.
Has anyone encountered this before? If so, what was your solution? Any thoughts to my ideas? (I'm leaning toward the hole in the side of the transom, for ease, speed of deployment, and simplicity)
Thank you for taking the time in reviewing this
Jeremy
First time pontoon owner as of Tuesday. The toon is an older 1983 Kayot Commodore 5924 24', and is in PHENOMENAL condition for it's age. The upholstery is in dire need of recover, but the rest is absolutely solid, no cracked welds, toons are pristine (not even a scum line). Purchased it for 500, no motor, no trailer.
I had in my possession for the past couple years a great running 1971 Evinrude 85 horse, manual tilt/trim, electric shift. Purchased that for the price of the prop (buy the prop for 25 bucks, get the motor free). Mounted up perfectly to the pontoon. Here comes the problem:
Upon trying to connect the push-pull steering cable (rotary I believe), I quickly discovered that the motor's pivot is a simple bolt, not a pivot tube. Turns out Johnson/Evinrude did not add the pivot tube until 1973. Here is what I've learned so far:
If I don't intend on tilting/pivoting the motor, no problem, just affix the steering cable to the transom and connect a connector rod. BUT I intend on having full tilt motion on the motor.
There are add-on brackets you can attach to the transom, that hold the pivot tube (or cable housing without the pivot tube), at the motor's clamp area, and have it function in that respect. BUT the pontoon's transom is barely wider than the motor, so the cable can not be made to fit down into that area without severe kinking. Also, I can not attach such a clamp above the transom area since the motor's powerhead does actually recess slightly into that area when fully raised.
Here are a couple ideas I am considering:
Drill a hole into the side of the transom, as high as possible, allowing the cable's pushrod to pass through into the transom area, just under the motor's pivot point, and using the connecting rod as normal. This type of installation would also require me to add a bracket externally of the transom to hold the aforementioned tube bracket (since the length of extension and retraction of the cable is nearly the width of the transom).
Boring the holes larger through the motor's transom bracket and the pivot bracket to allow for the pivot tube to pass through. Without doing the necessary measuring, a visual inspection leads me to believe there will still be plenty of material on the brackets of the motor, as compared to my 1981 Evinrude 85hp on my other boat, that does have the pivot tube in place.
Lastly, a long-shot, much more expensive than the other two options is to locate the full tilt and turn bracket from a 1973 Johnson/Evinrude motor that has the provision for the tilt tube assembly, and see if I can frankenstein it onto my 1971 motor.
I am prepared to have to custom-make my connecting rod as necessary from cable pushrod to motor, and the idea of the hydraulic steering system, although perhaps the BEST solution, is way out of my budget.
Has anyone encountered this before? If so, what was your solution? Any thoughts to my ideas? (I'm leaning toward the hole in the side of the transom, for ease, speed of deployment, and simplicity)
Thank you for taking the time in reviewing this
Jeremy