TOPIC: Motor activity

Sold 3 motors last weekend.
Right before the downpour!

Was contacted by a gal whose dad passed away, her mom had an engine new in the crate for a project boat that was never built. They sold it at the garage sale before I could nab it. New F model, late one.

What is everyone up to? Winter motor projects?

Billr, nice to hear from you. The motor is still on hold for the moment. The wife wants a wine bar. I'll probably get to it, little by little, before the end of the year. I did manage to adjust the valves. What a nightmare. Next, I think I'll paint the motor and accessories, then start the re-assembly. Then, electrical, then fire he up! After she runs, then it's on to the trailer.

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I assembled and ran my second motor. I skipped the valve adjustment this time, like craig said, a nightmare... the engine ran very rough however. Apparently as a result of no compression on #2. The others have excellent compression. I opened the valve cover and guess what, no clearance for the exhaust valve on #2.
So no way of skipping the valve adjustment on this one. Question: is removal of the powerhead necessary for valve adjustment or can you leave it on?
I also acquired another cheap '62 homelite from germany. I now have four of them. It was 700 km away but I found a cheap transporter via this brilliant website: youship.com

No, You don't have to remove the power head. At least, I didn't. Here's a tip I used. I bought the spacer discs that got me close to the gap I needed. Then I bought a feeler gauge and used that to make up any difference + or -. Tip: don't put more than one disc and one feeler gauge piece under the spring cup. Make the piece the same size as the disc. If you buy the disc close to what gap you need, you can cut the thinner pieces. The thicker feeler gauges are hard to cut. I really got tired of all the "on and off" with the cam, it drove me nuts. They sell digital micrometers at Harbor Freight. Check it with the feeler gauge. Mic one and see how close it is. The micrometer I bought, was right on. And always put the cam lined up with the crank marks every time you take the cam off. Make sure when you finally torque the bolts down, you use the proper sequence.

Hi Bil glad to see someone posting.
I been trying to find a test prop and could not find any so went to Ebay and bought a test prop for a V4 OMC 75hp and have to get it reamed out about .080 to fit the prop shaft on my Homelite. With shiping it only cost me $32. When I get it reamed out will post how it works out.
Mike aka the pirate

Haven't put the boat up for the winter yet, hoping to get one more fishing trip in. Not sure what project will be done this winter as I have several! Homelite is still running perfect and is turnkey. 500rpm idle and 5300rpm wot. Ordered some parts yesterday for the '72 6hp Johnson I was given so I will be getting it in shape soon.

Yep, valve adjustment is a pain on these, I prefer to pull the powerhead and put it on the bench.

Hi, I am a newbie to this site and an AOMCI member who has recently acquired a Bearcat 55. It had been sitting quite a while and was a huge mouse nest under the cowl that caused rust on the upper block and flywheel. The serial makes it a 69, but is has an "A" block (don't know if that is original?). It was slightly stuck (couldn't hand turn flywheel) but freed up easily. Put oil in cylinders, cleaned up the points, changed the oil and hand cranked oil up to the sender, filled the block with water, removed the carbs and cleaned them up. Started it on 24 to 1 mix from a pressure tank i use on old OMC;s. Think the impeller is gone as water I pour down the line to keep it wet runs out of the lower immediately. Seems to run very well, on a stand anyway. Did a compression test after a few min of off and on running, got 190 psi on all 4? It has 40 lb of oil pressure at idle, and is fairly loud mechanically. More noise at the crankcase than the cam cover. I cant feel any mechanical slop in the rotating assembly by rocking the flywheel. The upper shift link is off at the upper end so the leg / power head has to come apart. The lower had about a table spoon of water then a cup of oil in it, feels OK.

It will need:
impeller for sure
Starter drive as it only catches 1 out of four tries.
Gaskets and seals to remove power head.
Seal kit for lower.

Question is, are these available?
Is the crankcase sound typical for these?
Does anyone know what a Colombian S7V prop is?

Sounds like this.
Skip

s911.photobucket.com/albums/ac320/spucky999/Bearcat/?action=view¤t=MVI_0001.mp4

spucky wrote:

It will need:
impeller for sure
Starter drive as it only catches 1 out of four tries.
Gaskets and seals to remove power head.
Seal kit for lower.

Question is, are these available?
Is the crankcase sound typical for these?
Does anyone know what a Colombian S7V prop is?

Hi Spuckey,
Welcome to the world of Bearcat/Homelite's. BillR has the parts you'll need and I'm sure he will jump in here. I listened to your video, engine sounds great. Not quite sure what you're doing to get water to the pump, you should be running it with a flush attachment or running it in a barrel. Greg Anderson shows a simple flush attachment in this thread near the bottom: www.fiberglassics.com/fiberglassics-forums/home/homelite-bearcat-4-cycle-outboards/bottom-end-is-together#59797

You bring up an interesting point about the starter drive. All of mine do that. Seems when properly tuned they work fine but they will give me some trouble on occasion. More of an annoyance than anything.

Took the boat out for maybe it's last outing for the season. I had not set the engine back down since the last trip and knew it was going to startup in cloud of smoke as it had been sitting that way for a month. Hooked up the flush attachment and fired it before our outing and sure enough a cloud of smoke, bad enough to foul plugs. Good call as it may have been a bad trip. Off the get new plugs, went to Auto Zone and asked for Autolite 303's. I don't know what the hell is wrong with parts stores nowadays, they wanted an application. You get the strangest looks when you tell them what it's for! They can't just go get me 303's, has to go by application, told them Crosley and was surprised it was even listed but they were 306's and NLA. Off to Orilleys, again they wanted an application but were able to pull 303's off the shelf using the plug numbers.

Once again the Homelite performed flawlessly (with it's new plugs), a limit of fish were caught continuously trolling 5 hrs at 1.5mph and no fuel to speak of used. My son got a 17" and I was able to land a 18". It was great!

Spuckey,
Go to www.bearcat55.com and contact me.

Dick,
NIce pic!!
Yes the part number in hand doesn't seem to work sometimes.
I've had a few customers go to NAPA and ask for an oil filter, 4104, and be told that crossed to an air filter. Then the 4104 filter says fuel filter and they say it's wrong filter.
Just so everyone knows, WIX makes the filter for them in 24104, same filter. Highly recommend everyone run one.

billr wrote:

Spuckey,
Go to www.bearcat55.com and contact me.

Dick,
NIce pic!!
Yes the part number in hand doesn't seem to work sometimes.
I've had a few customers go to NAPA and ask for an oil filter, 4104, and be told that crossed to an air filter. Then the 4104 filter says fuel filter and they say it's wrong filter.
Just so everyone knows, WIX makes the filter for them in 24104, same filter. Highly recommend everyone run one.

Thanks Bill! In the background is the Homelite purring. Seriously considering making the trek this weekend again.

I've also cross referenced to oil filter to Baldwin. Next time I am in Portland am going to check them out. All of our filters used on the tugs are Baldwin brand so I will be able to buy through the company and may just buy a case of them.