New Guts - Part 4

[Mike Garside]

Once the engine was in and mounted on the backplate, we used a Mercruiser alignment tool to line up the sterndrive with the crankshaft of the engine. This produced some surprises.

The port mount was in the centre of the bearer OK. You can see that just above the tip of the red cable in the forground of the pic...

[Mike Garside]

But the starboard bearer is well off line. the original engine was obviously not mounted dead centre...

[Mike Garside]

With the position of the mounting bolts marked (we drilled holes through the eyes of the mounts) the engine was lifted out.

We had discovered that, because the angle of the transom was only 10 degrees, the engine actually needs to tilt down towards the front. This meant grinding down the bearers so that plates could be bonded onto them...

[Mike Garside]

The plates were then bonded onto the bearers...

[Mike Garside]

...and then they were glassed in with chopped strand mat and polyester resin.

[Mike Garside]

That's it for now folks. There was a fair bit of tidying up to do after this little lot but the next installment will see the engine go back in and all the bits and pieces connected to make it, I hope, work....

[Brian]

I don't know what everybody else thinks, but I am finding this fascinating. It's a lot more "technical" than I thought!!

[Keith Hart]

It would be a lot easier bunging an outboard on the back!

Keith (outboards should be compulsory) Hart

[Viking]

Keith
I've heard Thewavehumper is buying Mikes old engine and the two of you are going to fit it into your boat. He reckons you can make an insurance claim if it all goes wrong.

Mike you could submit the picture to rib international (DOES IT DESERVE UPPPER CASE) and they could finally have a practical article

regards
Britt