Home Small Boat Forum

Welcome! Need support, you got it. Or share you ideas and experiences.

Re: homemade outboard

Looks like you have made some good progress, I am not surprized that the nut by itself is strong enough to hold the prop. But I will point out something here. thing 1. You definitly need a way to lock the nut from comming off the shaft. drilling a hole and using a cotter pin is the most accepted way. Props have been known to spin off. Using the nut to actualy grip the prop to the shaft is not a good thing, The nut is just suposed to compress the prop into its seat. ( the pin I mentioned ) letting the pin do the work of turning it, not the nut. Fora few hours use, I would say your current method is fine, But for something built for regulare use, I would strongly suggest a little more time and attention to the prop connection.

About the fiberglass cast. I was only sugesting you cover the area of the hole you cut in the bottom, It seams you covered the whole lower end with fiberglass. I am more then just a bit confused with what happened and why. I have never had fiberglass leak as you discribed. All the ABS joints should be sealed with silicone, leaving only the stuffing box and the access hole to leak. Ow,,BTW, I dont know how true it is, by my father says all stuffing boxes leak to some degree.Its part of there design. Using the piece you cut out and a 8 inch or so piece of mesh cloth with a little resin should seal that access hole up no problems. from your discription, it seams you actualy had holes, or leaks through your mesh fiberglass cast thing. This should not be. It may reguire a second coat of resin to seal it all up, However , like I said, You seam to be covering much more area then I had envisioned. That abs should be watertight to start with, so there should be no need to cover so much of it.

Looking at a boat now are we..1200 does seem a bit pricey, but not that pricey for the boat I saw in the pictures.It isnt the steal I got, but it isnt that bad. If you dont want the motor, you can probably sell it to recoop some of your cost. ( or even keep is as a stanbye in case of mecanical failure ) I do not know teh going rate for john boats in Ca, but around here, just a boat around 14 foot or so is buyable for 4 too 500 on a trailor usualy. I shoped for months before I found teh steel I got, SO I wish you luck in your boat hunting.

The 15 inches you have will qualify that as a short shaft. SHouldnt be too much of a problem finding a boat to mate that too.

I sure hope you plan on installing a manual pull start to that bad boy. relying on a fresh batterie pack in your drill could be a downfall out on the water.

Guess thats about it for this installment of "the Back yard Outboard home prodject mechanic " catch up with you laters.


This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  VH Audio  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups


You can not post to an archived thread.