Recent content by ppine

Half choke for a cold start.

Wow. I am going through the same mental process after owning a 19 foot Jetcraft for 13 years I am thinking about selling. Most of my friends are too wimpy or too busy to go fishing. Now I have a drift boat with a 6 hp outboard that is easy to handle and works for lakes and rivers. Just right...

Avoid ablative paint if you can. Avoid any paint if you can. Leaving a boat in the water for two weeks is usually no big deal and you can scrub it on the trailer.

After some trial and error the problem is mostly solved. I start the motor cold with the choke only about half way out. I start it warm with no choke. The motor is now a 2 pull motor. Because it is a one cylinder it does have more vibration than the old 2 cylinder engines. One thing that...

Thanks for the replies. The engine is getting plenty of fuel. The spark plug is covered in black soot and wet. Maybe less choke will work.

You can spend a lot of money on marine paint like Interlux, you can use epoxy paint. If you prepare the surface properly and prime it a lot of different kinds of paint will work. I like oil based enamel, but porch paint will work fine. I have used rattle cans to touch up my $20,000 on the...

I have a 1929 Johnson that is very similar to the first one, but Johnson Outboard Motors is cast into the fly wheel. It could a knock off of Johnson like Elgin or one of the other early engines in the 1930s.

YOu have some corrosion of visible metal parts. It suggests you might have some in the not visible parts. Ethanol in fuel absorbs water. Boats sit around and can corrode metal parts in fuel.

If you continue to have no water coming out of your exhaust port on the impeller will continue to burn them up. A standard shaft engine is 15 inches, a long shaft is 20 inches and an extra long shaft is 25-26 inches. You want the cavitation plate to be slightly under the bottom on the...

I have been running outboards for 60 years, mostly 2 strokes and all used. I have had a 1963 Mercury 6 Twin that was a one pull motor. I had a 1975 Johnson 6 on a sailboat that was one pull. When I was a kid we had a 1929 Johnson 1 1/2 horse that still runs and sits in my garage. I bought...

Hiking? Sure. I have been serious about it for 60 years. I had an outdoor career. The first thing you learn in forestry school is there are no trails most of the places you need to go. Trails are over rated. Now I am 70 have been diagnosed with some heart issues. Got my hart rhythm reset...

Replacement seats are a good idea. There are so many crummy ones out there. The yachting catalogues for big boats, have totally different quality seats. You can spend as much as you want though.

Wolves, "Inches per gallon." Good one. My Dad used to have a 42 foot power boat on Puget Sound. Twin Ford Lehman diesels and a planing hull. It had 3 fuel tanks that held 900 gallons. Dad liked to cruise at 17 knots. Even 20 years ago, I watched him spend $2,000 to fill the tanks for a trip.

The older a tin boat is, the more I want to be welded. Fishing and climbing in and out of boats can cause a small amount of water to accumulate. I hate the idea of dealing with a leaky boat. More than a cup of water would be unacceptable. I carry a hand bilge pump to remove water that...

I put a depth finder on my aluminum drift boat. Modern adhesives would work fine. I like the idea of adhering a small block to the transom and putting screws into. My current set up is piece of cedar lumber with the transducer mounted to it and couple of screws for the clamps to hold the...