Inherited 16' Aluminum fishing boat need HELP!

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akthor

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Ok been fishing my whole life and besides having a 10' jon boat with a 4hp motor in my early 20's most of my boating experience is with canoes and Kayaks.

At the end of last summer I met a new woman. It got pretty serious and we started "going out" She is a great gal and a definite bonus is that she came with a pickup truck and a nice if neglected fishing boat.

As such I have sort of inherited her dad's old boat. He left it to her when he passed and since it was her dad's even though she has had no idea how to run it or maintain it she hasn't wanted to part with it.

So when I met her it had sat outside uncovered for a couple years at least.

We got it registered and read the manual and got her running with no problems. Took it fishing a few times and it was pretty awesome.

Of course having sat with no maintenance for so long there are issues but it was the end of the season pretty much by the time we got it out on the water so I figured I would cover it up for the winter and address them in the Spring.

Well Spring has sprung. My original intention had been to bring it to a marina and have them do a full service on it and fix the items in question and perhaps perform the upgrades we wanted but............ in Oct of 09' I became unemployed so I really need to try and do this myself. I have a friend who is fairly mechanically inclined to help. But neither of us has much boat/outboard knowledge.

So the issues:

The wiring is confusing cuz there is like this big wiring harness but none of the wires are labled as to what does what

the power tilt/trim stopped working on the last trip I am thinking it's a wiring issue and if we use a multimeter to discover which wires power the tilt/trim we might be able to clean them ???

I can fill the livewell but I don't see how it drains. Button on the dash fills it. But to drain it??? Do I need to track down the + and - wires to the pump and reverse them? Would this make the pump suck water out instead of in?

Has a fish finder installed, screen is all full of moisture, won't power on.I think it sat outside too long. Should it power on no matter what? Is there a way to make sure it's the finder thats bad? It's a Hummingbird Wide Optic Serial # 5459960 If it is broke can I buy another one and hook it to the existing wiring? Not sure if it's universal or not?

Motor runs, but hasn't been serviced in who knows how long, so I would like to tune it up change fluids to avoid any problems in the future. What can I do myself?

The decking is getting "squishy" in places. When I first got the boat it had been sitting with a foot or more of water in it for who knows how long. I want to replace the decking with new decking with new carpeting on it. I know how to do the pieces I can reamove with screws on the seats and the livewell but the floor looks like it was put in and the seats/console/livewell were put in on top which is an issue since wherever those pieces meet the hull on the sides they are riveted in so I am thinking I need to drill the rivets out, pull that stuff, remove the old floor the reinstall and re-rivet the stuff back in. Tips on this? I can get Marine carpet locally but I was wondering what I can use for the decking? Can I use pressure treated plywood? Maybe paint it with something to make it even more waterproof? Ideas? Thoughts?

BTW it's a:

16' Starcraft aluminum boat
25hp mecury outboard

I included some pics of what I am talking about. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Also if there is a better place to ask my questions just point the way. Thanks
 

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welcome and nice rig

PT wood will cause aluminum to corrode. go with white wood and some good sealer (thompsons)

get you a service manual for that motor. I would replace the impellor and change the lower unit oil. both are easy especially with an instruction manual

your dead on with the consol. just drill the rivits out

check the connector on the back of the fishfinder. chances are anything electrical has corroded over sitting that long in moisture. chase all your wires check for corrosion at the terminals and see if the corrosion follows up in the wires. If not you may get by with just cutting the ends and installing new connectors

more will chime in soon goodluck with it
 
We tested with a voltmeter and there is power going into the humminbird base so I think the unit is bad so I will try to find a unit that uses the same base to replace it.

We are getting power to and out of the tilt/trim relays so I guess that is beyond us to fix.

I am thinking the boat will have to go in to have the power/tilt trim fixed so I will talk the gf into paying to have them do a motor service.

Pressure treated ply will ruin the aluminum? What about using reg ply and sealing it with some kind of epoxy? I only wanna do this once so I want it to last another 20yrs at least.

I would use marine ply but I don't think I can find it in this area?
 
If you want the wood decking to last, then don't use thompson's. Use a epoxy, fiberglass the decking, use a good ply and put multiple coats of spar urathane on.....many options... just look at a few of the builds and you'll catch on. Oh and :WELCOME:
 
So not PT plywood? Can I do good plywood with an epoxy coating? Don't want to fiberglas anything. The current decking is just ply not epoxy on it or fiberglass. Has lasted 20yrs. Perhaps it's marine plywood? I don't seem to have that available locally.

I have found many suppliers online for carpeting, any specific recommendations on what to look for?

I also want to put a trolling motor on. I can't afford a front mount. Seems to be some good options in my price range for transom mounted ones in 40 or 45 pound thrust. I just want to use it to move us along shore while casting not to actually troll. So for my size boat can I get away with 40lbs thrust or should I go higher?

Alsothis may seem like a dumb question but I am assuming when the outboard is running it does not recharge the battery like a car. Right? I need to periodically put the battery on a charger. Right?
 
A 40# or 50# will work fine. With the tilt / trim check your connections at the pump. There is an electric motor that power the small pump. You should be able to take this off and check your connections goin into the housing. Chances are it wil be somting simple, bad loose connection or broekn wire.
 
On the tilt/trim, check your wires going into the tilt motor itself. I had power going all the way through the relays, but the wiring got caught/cut on the way from the relays to the motor. Easy fix, and saved me $.

For the motor, I'd change the impellor and lower unit fluid as mentioned. You can do this yourself pretty easy - not too may skills needed.

As for marine plywood, I am told the only difference is that it has less voids for moisture to accumulate. I'm going with regular ply and coating it with Thompsons. Mine will be garaged/covered all the time anyway, so I hope it will not be bad. If it is, I'll rebuild again :) Don't use treated wood, it will pit and corrode the aluminum. Don't use regular drywall screws on the decking, they will corrode quickly as well.

Don't know much about the carpeting, I do know that I had 2 types in my boat. The regular stuff catches every hook it sees. The original stuff just lets hooks pull out easy - i guess it's loops vs non loops in the carpeting.

Nice boat and Welcome!
 
If you want the wood to last for 20+ years of no maintenance... don't use wood. :lol:

There isn't a single ounce of wood to rot in my Triton and I wouldn't have it any other way. My Polarkraft is soon to not have any in it, either.
 
Quackrstackr said:
If you want the wood to last for 20+ years of no maintenance... don't use wood. :lol:

There isn't a single ounce of wood to rot in my Triton and I wouldn't have it any other way. My Polarkraft is soon to not have any in it, either.

I'm with ya there .... besides rot it's like having an extra 1 - 1 1/2 people in the boat ALL the time but .....

I would recommend using wood for a first build, it's easy to work with, making hatches yourself is a LOT easier than with aluminum. The extra weight ** down low** makes it more stable for decks on the small/narrower boats and even many larger ones. We found that out last summer when we stripped the wood deck and floor off my buddy's 1860 Lowe and replaced them with aluminum. Moving one of the batteries to the front helped a bit but it's still a bit more 'tippy' than it used to be but it's not real bad to me, he just wasn't used to and didn't expect the difference.

Only wood on my '74 1644 MonArk rebuild is the (beefed up) transom board and I wouldn't doubt that even being a bigger heavier aluminum boat with a larger motor it will still be lighter total than my 1436 PolarKraft was with the wood floor and decks. She was heavy for a small boat but she was rock solid and a good 'log jumper' for getting up the flooded creeks in the Spring.

The best advice I can give for an older boat is to rebuck *every* rivet in it if you get the chance (Like reinstalling floors and decking). It'll feel as solid as a new boat and if it's over 15 years old every rivet has loosened up somewhat from the boat flexing and (especially) from riding on a trailer. It'll fix a lot of the seeper leaks and prevent potential ones in the near future. All it takes is two guys, a twelve pack of beer and a Saturday Afternoon (Beer optional) Seal up all the wood with a good urethane spar varnish and don't forget to hit the edges again anywhere you cut a hole (Like of a seat base plate).
 
On the tilt the wires go from the relays to a big rubber coated wire that goes into what I assume is the motor, I don't believe there is a pump I don't think it's a hydraulic tilt I think it has an electric motor in there I will take some pics tommorow to show it in more detail.

So plywood and uerathane spar varnish. Carpet with no loops.

What is rebucking rivets?

Also I am thinking of getting a pneumatic rivet gun for reinstalling the rivets I take out. So "bam" rivet goes on and thats it it's waterproof? nothing special I need to do?
 
You will need solid rivets, not pop rivets, if you are talking thru hull rivets.

There was a thread started on here about a week ago about installing/rebucking solid rivets. You might try a search for it.
 
"On the tilt the wires go from the relays to a big rubber coated wire that goes into what I assume is the motor, I don't believe there is a pump I don't think it's a hydraulic tilt I think it has an electric motor in there I will take some pics tommorow to show it in more detail."

It should have three large wires inside the big rubber coated wire that go into the tilt motor. Where they enter the little electric motor there should be a nut style fitting going into the houseing for the tilt motor. At the bottom of this there should be one or two hydraulic lines leaving the motor going to a hydraulic piston. You should be able to remove the motor only (not the resovoir on bottom of it) and check you internal connections.

As far as it not being hydraulic, I have never seen one that isn't. Thats not to say there is no such thing as an all electric tilt /trim, I just aint ever seen one.
 
You are right it is hydraulic. I have attached some pics. So I take the outboard off to get at the motor for the tilt??
 

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I was able to check my tilt motor without removing the motor. If you have a multimeter, you should be able to test the motor. Might have to google how. One thing I test is continuity, generally a working motor will a connection all the way through it on the wires (just find the common ground). My multimeter has a beeper on on a setting - so it beeps when there is a connection.

If nothing else, just find the wires and touch them off to a working battery. The motor should be 12 volts and it should move the motor. If it doesn't move, then it might just be the motor is bad. But I doubt that would happen - seriously, how often do you use the tilt/trim. I guess it could corrode though.

Good luck, sometimes it just takes digging in to find the problem.

:?
 
akthor said:
You are right it is hydraulic. I have attached some pics. So I take the outboard off to get at the motor for the tilt??

That's an aftermarket tilt and trim made by CMC and IMO better than the factory one because it is also a jackplate which sets the motor back from the transom where it'll perform better. (If I remember right it's a 5" setback) I've been looking at one for my '98 Evinrude 25HP but it's not in my budget for this year. ($500 new at Cabela's) Unlike a stock T&T it gives you the option of raising the entire motor up so the cavitation plate is above the bottom of the boat an inch or two where it will run faster and get a better holeshot (Plus gain a couple of inches of clearance) without the bad side effects (Cavitation and overheating) because of the 5" setback.

It's a keeper .....
 
Thanks guys all good info. I really want to keep the trim cuz it was nice being able to tilt/trim the motor so that the boat planed the best depending on how many people were in it. I will look at the manual and so what is what I leave for Mexico in two days so I might not get to this till I get back. I am sure I will have more questions though.

I am thinking there isn't any foam under there but we will see when I pull up the old wood. Is there a source for replacement foam?
 

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