TOPIC: Power Lift

So far so good fellas. Got my clamps cut off, sanded everything nice and smooth, cleaned well, primed with self-etching primer, 4 coats of rattle can black. Got everything back together, everything works and fits well, and got upper and lower bolts in both the clamps and the trim brackets. Started to put the rest together, but needed nourishment, so took a break for a grilled cheese sandwich, and now will get back at it.

Hope to mount the jack plate on the boat today, get my trim cylinders back on, fill the trim system and bleed it. Need to do the jack plate too, but it can wait for now. I need to get it wired anyways.

More later (as long as my shoulders hold out...)

Frank

Got a clearance problem. What about taking out the steering spacer, inverting the shouldered bolt, cutting the top off, and getting the hydraulic cylinder higher. I got just enough room with the bolt inverted to mount the steering cylinder, and have a lock washer and nut.

Sure would appreciate and ideas, suggestions or pointers. Bottom line is I am not willing to give up hydraulic steering for a jack plate!

Thanks folks.

Frank

Frank, is the bracket for the hydraulic steering threaded, or drilled for a through-bolt?

If it was a through-bolt you could take out the spacer and bolt up directly to the cowling, while retaining the 'captivated' feature in the cowling for the bolt (or nut, depending on which way you install it).

If the bracket is threaded and has to be fastened with a bolt thru the top, you could use an allen-head so it'll recess into the cowl. I imagine a regular ol' bolt-head with flat washer would work as well, but it would stick up a bit.

You'd have to test-fit to see if that bolt head sticking up would interfere with anything on the wrap-around cowl, or the front faceplate.

If not, I'd say that anyway you get 'er bolted up that makes it work, outghta do it.

The factory spacer was made to work with a Ride-Guide cable drag link, so there's no absolute need to have the spacer there when using a different setup. The cowling itself is more than strong enough to take the steering load directly.

HTH & post a pic when you get it all fitted up..........ed

Ed, it is not threaded, it's drilled through for a 7/16 hole. I have a few more of those special merc bolts, so will test fit this first, and if it works, just cut off the top. Right now it's nesting in the cowl with the nut that is integral to the special merc bolt. I think it will work, but have Mother's Day duties, plus a guy coming over a bit later to buy my '74 Dart.

Thanks for the help, it is appreciated.

Pics soon!

Frank

No way I can get this to work guys, screws up my steering. Hydraulic steering geometry needs to be just so to work, and I got it to work great, even after I was told it wasn't possible to do. I want my steering more than a power lift. No matter what I do, I get steering and transom top interference.

I need to pull some clamps off another in-line around here, and take the jack lift off. It's gonna be for sale soon. Anybody interested, let me know.

Thanks again for all the help. This sure would have been cool if I had got it working. On the other hand, it's been very educational too. Ya learn sumpin new every darn day, no matter whether ya wanna or not!

Frank

can't you mount the motor a little higher on the jack plate to allow for the steering clearance?

Jim, knowledgeable folks from the Power Cat email service say for an old in-line to use a jack plate, the motor's clamps really need to rest on the top of the jack plate. They say early clamps are too light to support the weight of the motor. That's the only way this could work, but they don't make clamps for my motor that would do the trick. Still, seems strange to me that other go-fast vintage boat guys haven't figured this out. I'd sure like to know. And I can't be the only dude running a vintage motor that wants to go faster...

I'm not giving up my hydraulic steering for a jack plate. I may figure out something later, but right now I just want my boat back. That means another set of clamps (I got a few to choose from), bolt and clamp the motor on, fill and bleed the PT&T, and see how she goes this year. I got other stuff to do too, stuff I had planned last year to get done this spring. I'm physically constrained and can only do so much at a time. That's okay too, long as I can just keep at it!

Hope you and da little woman had a good day Jim. Good luck with everything.

Frank

Thx Frank we did. Had a great day with our 2 boys. Save the jacker for the 1350 when it is done.

More doctors in the morning. I am looking for something positive.
Jim

I sure hope you find some good news tomorrow Jim!

Yeah, we'll see what happens. I just want to go boating, and know the set up I had last year is great, so it's back to square one.

Good luck!

Frank

Frank.


First off I would not have cut the thumb screw area off of those clamps. I stated earlier that they are probably needed to support that style clamp. At the very least I would have let that area remain and cut the ends off the thumb screws and put flat spots on the inside of the screws so you could tighten them up with a wrench on the inside keeping the front flush.

If there was an interference issue with the front part of the jack plate. Then the top 2 inches of the front of that jack plate would have been cut off. If you would just cut off part of the front of that jackplate you would solve your issues with the steer cyl clearance and the thumb screws clearance.

Or raise the motor up . You already killed lots of the structural strength designed into those clamps by cutting the thumb screws off.

You are now relying on the trim cyl bolts to support it so why not raise it up 2 inches? If you had to pay a welder in your area less than $40 bucks to weld two inch spacers on the back to "hold up" the motor. Or simply bolt a spacer in there to hold the motor up.

Its all there, and it will work, you just need to modify it just a bit more to make it work. Nothing is easy with this old iron. Especially when you try to use modern tech along side it.

Keep working it will work. Start cutting the jack plate for clearance. Or add a spacer to support the motor higher.

Good luck
Conrad

I have a couple more sets of clamps with thumb screws around Conrad, and will probably start removing a set this week. Guys on the Power Cat forum were the ones that told me I needed them off to save interference with the PT&T. A number of them also suggested I get another piece of 1/2" aluminum plate and bolt that to the motor so that it raises a couple inches higher but the clamps then still rest on something substantial. I may try that. It's only $ right? I already threw away 50 bucks on some "cool" clamps that didn't end up working. Aluminum plate is 100 bucks for a 16X16 piece of 6061, or 65 bucks for 5052. 5052 would probably be fine, but I'm no expert.

I'll also take a look at just cutting off the front of the jack plate. I was looking at things to cut yesterday, but still couldn't get away from the steering clearance any way I looked at it.

Actually there are upper and lower bolts on the clamps Conrad, not just the trim brackets.

I'll keep at it, but it's gonna take a while now, just too many things going on coming weekends, and I still have that puppy problem! I just want to get it done for the ACBS meet in July at this point.

Thanks again for the help. I'll certainly keep ya posted.

Frank

That upper bolt hole in the clamp itself has nearly ZERO load bearing capacity. Those tiny bolt holes on top are only to help the motor from sliding left to right when the thumb screws are used. Lost of thumb screw motors have a bad habit of walking around on a transom if not bolted down .

I think I get why you cut those off now. That hydro cyl moves up and down with the trim doesnt it? When you trim up the cyl rotates down because of the hard bolt to the cowl.

crap.... so the only way to really help this out is raise the motor up a couple inches on the jack plate. Some 4x 3/8th inch plate bolted to each side would support that motor up about 1-2 inches pretty easy.

I figured out what I need Conrad, see here: cook-mfg.net/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=23

This adapter is made for a motor like mine with clamps. I have a used kit on the way from a friend as of today. I will be removing the clamp set from my '63 Merc 1000 parts motor to use it WITH the clamps. We'll see how it goes. I still need to figure out the wiring. Maybe I'll play around with that too, but time is at a premium right now!

Thanks for the help and brainstorming, it is much appreciated!

Frank

That plate your getting will allow a place for the clamps to clamp down on. But you will still have a clearance issue if you dont raise the motor up on that jack plate I think.

That plate by design will still be flush with the top of the jackplate. You may be able to move it up one set of bolt holes to have it stick up and hold the motor up higher. That would be cool and then you kill two birks with one stone.

Conrad

I won't know for sure till I get it Conrad. I have no idea how it works, other than it is sold specifically for clamp type motors. Maybe I can CMC to talk to me about how it attaches. They haven't been too friendly given that I have an old vintage unit they don't support in any way anymore, and I'm not buying something from them!

I'll keep ya posted.

Frank

I do believe this will work. Now I need clamps with screws! I'm working on that, have some cool ones, just need the right bushings. I also have original ones here that I can use too.

May try and get this all together tomorrow just to see if it will work. Based on the hours we spent over the weekend trying to get this jack plate to work with my hydraulic steering, I think this solves my major problem (steering), and gives me more height. We will soon see!

Frank