TOPIC: 1962 Sea King

Figured I'd start a lil thread and share my "project" with y'all. it aught to be worth a good laugh for most, since i'm sure rookie mistakes will abound. in exchange for the entertainment, i hope to get some advise from everyone as i stumble through this.

To be brief: i found a decent looking boat on Craiglist in the barter section. i wasn't looking for a boat, but i took a look at it anyway and fell in love with it. did some horse trading and ended up with a 1962 Sea King 16' fiberglass boat in the garage. It came with a 1959 Evinrude Big Twin 35hp on it, but the motor was a short shaft and i have the 20" transom on my boat. Plus, 35hp was borderline too small for what i was wanting to be able to do with the boat. The boat was also missing a few minor pieces (bow light, etc).



I was again looking on craigslist and found an ad for another 1962 Sea King, this one had the bow light + other trim pieces i wanted, a 1958 Johnson 50hp and a 1969 johnson 25hp motor on it. after a bit of a drive, new trailer lighting and hacksawing a fender off of the trailer while in the parts store parking lot, we made it home. (the pic is pre-hacksaw)



I've managed to mount the fat fifty on the boat and did some looking it over. (this is turning out to be a good family project too!)



nevermind the betty boop stickers.. they're going away. soon. very soon.

anyway, there's a couple minor things that need attention about the motor so far. the release cable is broken.

and the pin that holds the motor in the tilted-forward position is seized up (any tips on un-seizing without damaging things?)



but overall it's looking like things are going to work out swimmingly!

Today i finished the motor stand i was working on. put it on wheels and all so i can push it around the garage as needed. at one point i had the 50 on there too, and all seemed pretty sturdy... thoughts?

Riceman, sounds like a good project for the family. A little advice. You might want to invest in some jack stands to support the trailer and other projects. You can never be too safe. As far as unsiezing goes, any penetrant will do. Liquid wrench makes a good one. LPS is also good. WD 40 is for lube, not very good for unseizing. Then use a pair of vise grips and work the pin slowly around so more of the penetrant can seep in. Always feel free to post a request for advice. All of us here are happy to help. Your daughter is adorable! Mines turning 21 this June.

I've been spending more time cleaning/organizing the garage as of late, but i did get a chance to look into getting the electric start for the motor installed and working. Turns out it's going to be more work than i thought (i don't know why on earth i thought it would be plug-and-play... dang optimism =)

Quite a bit of corrosion and deterioration present... from the helm end of things


to the junction box



and in between (literally, in the middle of the run from the helm to the juction box)



I already hit up my buddy who has a bead blaster to clean the junction box up. i'll repaint that tomorrow. i also picked up a new solenoid relay. turns out the solenoid relay is the EXACT same one oreilly's had listed as being for a 1962 Ford F100. grabbed some length of wire, so once i get the relay box back, painted and installed, i'll start running new wiring from the box to the helm. for some reason, the wiring from the box to the motor was in good shape minus the few inches closest to the junction box. phew. glad to be able to save the plug at least.

Back behind the tilt lock pin is a screw that is holding a cover plate in place. The spring may rusted up. I just threw a part of a Gale way today that had a working pin, however I can go dig it out of the scrap bin. If you need

TT -

Considering where this motor spent the last few years, it wouldn't suprise me if i end up having to destroy the pin to free it up. honestly, though, i haven't given it a shot yet. if you had a chance to nab the working parts you have, it wouldn't hurt my feelings =)

bought some wire from the local boating store and i managed to get the j-box to helm run re-ran. i thought the wiring harness from j-box to the motor was going to be useable but, on further inspection, no such luck. looks like the wires inside the compartment are going to need replacing too. not too suprising. they're good enough to use for testing the motor until i can replace the harness.

I did determine that i have a bad switch too. not sure what it's called, but here's a picture



anyway, got the motor turning over... man, it feels/sounds like it's got some good compression! i'll have to slap a gauge on it to figure out just how much but, for now at least, it should run. got some fuel flowing and tried to fire it up. Best i can figure, i wasn't getting any spark. took a look at the plug wires and found this:



that's ends of 2 different wires... somehow "cram it in there and put some silicone on it" passed for legitimate repairs on spark plug wires for one of the PO's.

The more I look at that switch it looks as if it is a micro switch (see link below)....something that was not made till the late 60 or early 70s See the red base on the one it the photo and the one in the link

where does the wires hooked to it lead to, and what was the arm (or button) pressing

www.amazon.com/Straight-Hinge-Lever-Basic-Switch/dp/B0050HKB8O/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1330157676&sr=1-2

i can snap a few more pics of the switch if that'll help clarify things. I'm not real familiar with boat jargon yet, so forgive my description... the shift linkage (vertical white thing behind my fingernail) has a lobe on it that would only press the button on the switch when the shift lever was in the neutral position. the solenoid relay circuit ran through the switch. based on what i can tell, i'd say the switch is supposed to be normally open, and the lobe on the linkage pushes the switch, closing the circuit. this would make it to where you couldn't use the electric start to fire the motor up unless it was in neutral. makes sense to me. while troubleshooting, i removed the wires and put my meter on it. the circuit stayed open even when the button was pushed. bad switch as far as i can tell. was this not standard equipment in '58?.

In 1958 they used a mercury switch for a safety. That micro is not water or oil proof.

www.crowleymarine.com/search_results.cfm

www.marineengine.com/newparts/part_details.php?pnum=OMC0376867&ptype=&Engine=&Model=

I mad it back to the scrap pile and got the pin out for you. The spring is gone (rusted away) however most hardware stores have one that will work. It will have to fit over the shaft, and be smaller then the large part of the pin

to get your out remove the screws shown in the photo


knock the pin out. Take a drill that is 1/32 larger then the pin and clean out the hole

If you pin is good get all of the old parts of the spring out, fill hole with a good silicone grease and replace

BTW you do not want to get a spring that is too strong. You have to pull it out with your finger while holding the motor up with one hand

been busy, but did manage to make some headway with the project. got myself a donor 1965 60hp with a pretty nice looking powerhead on it. removed the powerhead off of the '58 and went to set the '65 on, only to notice a broken-off bolt... arg! now it's soaking in PB Blaster and i'm headed to get myself a set of easy-outs (how i managed to be a shade-tree mechanic this long without a set, i don't know). that's fine, since i've got to wait for the necessary gaskets to come in anyway.

while i've got the powerhead off, i got to thinking... is there anything i should be looking into at this stage that will be a pain to get to (or completely inaccessible) once the powerhead's on? everything i can see looks decent. clean, free from any markings and such that would indicate problems. but this is also the first outboard i've ever worked on, so i have no idea what i'm looking for/at.

Take a good look at the crankshaft seal. It may not hurt to just replace it anyway considering the age and probably not replaced before.

Bob

i took a look at all the seals and anything else i could think to look at. the motor looked pretty dang clean on the underside. no leaks, seepage, etc. all is well. it's kinda sad to say that this is the only motor i've ever seen (boat, car, whatever) that was used but still this clean.

got the broke off bolt out, replaced a missing stud and mounted the 60hp powerhead to the 50hp lower. other than the different colored paint it actually looked like it belonged there! decided to hook gas and water to it and give it a test fire... it fired up and ran like a champ the first time i hit the key. actually startled me; not at all what i was expecting. anyway, ran it for a minute and shut it all down. now that i know i have a runner, time to dig into the lower half and reseal, relube, etc. as needed.

tonight i bought the rest of the elecrical wiring i'll need to complete my wiring harness from the junction box to the motor (and to the components within). the factory harness had quite a bit of rot on the insulation on the wires so i'm going to end up tossing that. a buddy at the local machine shop has made me up a piece of nylon to fill the hole the quick-disconnect would've gone through and put enough holes in it that i can run all the necessary wires through it. the plan is to poke the wires through the nylon block and then put the terminal ends on 'em. a little bit of silicone should seal the wires to the nylon and the nylon to the casting. no more quick disconnect action but, with only 8 total wires involved (and 2 of those not even in use until i get ahold of a generator kit), i'm willing to take the extra few minutes to disconnect the wires if i ever needed to remove them. beats the heck out of paying up to a few hundred bucks for a used (maybe also dry-rotted) setup (IMHO, anyway). even if i did buy another one, it'd be too short for where i want to mount the J-Box, so i'd have to modify it anyway. i'll take pics of the nylon block and the before and after shots of the wiring once i get into that.

also tonight, i picked up some cable from Lowe's to replace the steering cables on the boat. i've seen where someone recommended sealing the ends with silicone to keep moisture from rusting the cables. i'll be doing that and then maybe throwing a piece of heat-shrink over the silicone for a little extra protection. ran the cables and started to tighten things up. not really sure how to correctly lock things down correctly and in a way that makes sure that everything's aligned. i posed that question in the main forum.

that's all for me tonight. tomorrow's sure to be a FUN filled day, what with 2 kid's birthday parties to go to. hopefully the parents have a stocked beer fridge somewhere =)

an update:

got the wiring pretty much finished. this is what i started with:

then i removed the wires and installed this:



and when it was all said and done, i had this:



i'll seal it all up with a lil silicone when i'm completely done. i've also got to find something to cover the wires with that looks nice. any ideas/suggestions?

i also made the discovery that the controls that came with the boat aren't going to work for me. i've got this setup



when you try and go in reverse, the lever hits the armrest thing (don't know what it's actually called) and prevents you from doing anything but idling. i think i need to look for a setup like this (correct me if i'm wrong):

last thing is the steering. i went ahead with this setup (i posted about it seperately in the main forum). hopefully this will allow minute adjustments on the fly without needing tools. we'll see, and i'll let y'all know how it turns out.

moderators: this thread should probably be moved to the projects section, i'd think. thanks!

Many times the outer rubber sleeve on the heavy wiring harness that attaches directly to the motor is rotted and/or ripped. I replace that rubber cover with a equity heavy large diameter shrink tube from McMaster Carr www.mcmaster.com/#shrink-tubing/=gux5a9 You can get it in 4-ft. lengths. I got the tube size that starts out at 2" dia. and shrinks to 1". This worked fine but next time I will get the tube size that starts at 1.5" and shrinks to 3/4". I also purchased the shrink tube in the material of Flexible Polyolefin for more flexibility over the standard PVC shrink tube.

This is a photo of a wiring harness that I replaced with the Polyolefin shrink tube.

Click on the imiage twice for a close-up

Greg Anderson
Wisconsin

Excellent stuff Greg, I'll have to remember that for the '67 80hp that needs new outer shielding.

Bob

I have a few of these control boxes with cables available. Let me know if interested

bfmccasper - i got a box from another member only to find out that the cables i have are the newer style and i need the older style... you don't happen to have a set of just the cables in a 12' length that are in good shape and aren't needed, do you?

Time for an update: got all of the wiring finished and even put in a fuse block. so far everything's working. had a set of air horns lined up, but they turned out to be non-functional, so that idea's busted for the meantime. finished the steering cable, waterpump, etc etc. it's actually ready for the water as-is. i did run into a snag with the windshield though. need some bolts i am having a hard time finding before i can re-mount it to the boat. got everything ready to go to the water, called the insurance folks and they said they couldn't do same-day insurance activations. bummer! not worth the risk, IMHO, so we spent part of the day today cleaning the garage up and straightening things up in general. perhaps one day after work this week we'll take it out. all we have to boat on around here is rivers and i'm not a big fan of rowing, so i may wait until my buddy can take his boat out too, just in case. there's always a few misc small jobs to be worked on anyway, so that works out. i'm really anxious though!

my goal with the boat is to get it water-worthy and run a season or two, working all of the kinks out and doing things like figuring out where i want the seats that i'm building to be, where the best location for a radio or a couple holder is, etc. (basically drill all of the holes that will need drilling and fill what needs filling). then i'll take it all apart, split the deck from the hull and rework all that needs reworking. pretty it up and patch ALL of the holes the PO put in the poor girl (there are lots). so, before you comment on my zip ties or something like that... i'm not done done. i'm just done for now.

i forgot the best part: i went to drain the fluid out of the LU and replace it. pulled the drain plugs and NOTHING came out! took a look at the gaskets for the plugs. there were none. the PO did squirt a little orange silicone around the edge of the hole first though! i swear... this guy must've really hated this motor. EVERYTHING is fixed with orange silicone. cracked spark plug boots, cracked fuel lines, etc.. and now the drain plug gasket. what the heck?! anyway, got new gaskets, refilled with fluid and now it's ready to go!

Way to go! Can't wait to see the splash pics!

Bob

By the way, a big thanks to talltexan for the pin! much appreciated!

maiden voyage is DONE!

ran into a couple hiccups along the way, but managed to not sink and that's awesome! found out that the fuel lines from my tank were loose at the connections. not loose enough to leak fuel, but loose enough to allow air into the line when drawing fuel into the motor. not sure why this didn't show up during the testing i did at home. took a good 20 minutes at a busy launch to figure it out. not fun. while i was sitting there glogging things up, i did have a couple people comment on the age and cool factor of the fat fifty on the back, so that was nice.

got the lines fixed and headed away from the dock. had to stop and adjust the shift linkage so it would stay in gear. got that done and mosey'd out of the bay into the river. at WOT (per my controls, anyway) couldn't get her to come to plane. found out that the controls don't pull enough cable to get the throttle to WO. pulled the linkage off and had my buddy run the throttle while i steered. it worked! came right to plane and everything. doesn't move real fast though. not sure if that's just my perception or things, or what, but it sure seemed slow. then again, i've only ever been a passenger on a boat. my buddy manning the throttle said he felt like we were cruising right along pretty briskly.

so here's what doesn't work: the speedometer (tested with an air compressor and it moved. never read above 10 mph while on the water though. not sure if the pitot needs adjusting or what). the release on the motor for tilting it up and out of the way (i forgot to replace the broken cable). fuel lines are possibly in need of replacing. throttle cable won't reach WOT. my second tank leaks around the area where the fuel lines hook up, so it'll need sealing before put into service. also, not sure why the boat is as slow as it seems. also, i have a curious rooster tail-esque spray from the rear of the boat (possibly from pitot. see pics).

what does work: the boat! now it's just down to adjustments and fine tuning!

here we are just before leaving the driveway:

my buddy manning the throttle. notice the spray on the starboard side.

pitot tube and depth finder setup

forgot to mention: the lower half of the LU housing was cracked in a couple spots and i noticed it leaking out some of the gear oil (at least i found this before hitting the water). i posted about this in the main forum, so i'll keep it brief. JB Weld patched things up. the hunt is on for a replacement for it, but until then this will work.



nevermind what looks like a leak around the screw. i just did a crappy job cleaning it up before snapping the pic.

so after the first outing i took another look at the cracked skeg. leaking again. drained the oil and found water mixed in. time to re-seal the LU. got a replacement skeg on the way now, so i went to the local marina and asked about ordering seals for this thing. they tell me that no kit exists, so i would need to order the seals individually. they wanted somewhere between $75 and $100 for all of the seals and o-rings. figured i'd go ahead and replace the impeller since i'd be that far into it. $60!

instead of ording EVERYTHING, I decided that i'll put a lil air pressure in the LU this weekend and see what leaks before i try and talk the wife into another $150 in parts. maybe i won't need to replace ALL of them.

having a hell of a time finding cables (that aren't $100 a pair, anyway) for my two-stick control box too. for now i'll just rig the controls with a piece of plywood to get them spaced up high enough out of that pocket so that they're usuable. if all goes well, i will have it back in the water this weekend. if not, then next weekend sometime.

on a positive note, i did score a decent purchase today. not quite the style i was after but, for $25 total, i couldn't argue too much...

Riceman
You are out on the water, driving a vintage boat,sporting a vintage outboard. You are miles ahead of the average Joe. Good for you.
Doing all of the work yourself and finding out what does and doesn't work. This is a great hobby right? We are all right behind you. Go man go.

Neil -

yes, indeed. great obsess- i mean, great hobby! thanks! i'd better get the wife and kids out in it soon though, before she tires of the boats/parts everywhere! maybe a ride on the water will help ease her frustration... if not, there's always chocolate, flowers, and jewelry!

anyone have a suggestion for how much pressure to pump into the LU to leak test? i was figuring on around 5psi since it's not a pressurized system and it stays relatively cool when operating. but is that too much? not enough? got a better way to test the seals?! i'm open to suggestions.

thanks
chris

Chris,
I watched a U tube video where Frisco Boater checked a lower unit by pressurizing to 10 psi, (I believe) then left it overnight. If it holds the pressure the seals are good. Made his own test rig out of fittings, hose, and a gauge. Seems a little extreme, (overnight) but the guy seems to know his stuff.

Nice find on those seats and pedestals, those are usually pretty pricey! You can always have them recovered later, or get some "slip on" seat covers to match your boat.

Neil speaks the truth, sometimes you gotta keep it all in perspective. I find that there are times when I need to step back, take a deep breath, and break it down to one piece of the project at a time. If my "expectations" start overloading my "capabilities" it's easy to get discouraged. Hang in there, you've made a lot of progress in the short time you've been at this IMHO. Keep up the good work, we're pulling for ya!

Mark -

thanks for the input on the pressure test! i'll try and get that done tonight if i can!

And i didn't mean to come across as discouraged or anything like that, because i'm not! i'm pretty stoked! i just get sticker shock easily, hence the comments about price. most of the sealing up is done by generic o-rings and gaskets, so i'll just head to NAPA with whatever seals are leaking and pick up the parts i need. shouldn't be too bad in the end. the prospect of spending more on resealing the LU than i have spent on the entire boat just kinda suprised me (yes, i have less than $150 "invested" in my project, or at least i will once all of the parts i can't use finally sell).

thanks for the encouragement, and hopefully i'll get some better wet pics this weekend!

the wife saw my mention of the $150 and made sure to pull out the checkbook and show me my math errors. i guess i just stopped counting once i hit the $150 mark, but i didn't stop spending =)

pulled the LU off this evening. redfishpirates was quite helpful in getting a replacement skeg to me! decided to look into all of the seals and see how things looked. put a lil air pressure to the housing, and noticed that pretty much everything leaked. looks like i'm dry-docked for a little while now. good thing i checked though, because i noticed some deterioration in my impeller that i hadn't seen before. that'd have been a horrible mistake. anyway, better safe than sorry. even if it means no water for another week or two. look for some questions on resealing the LU in a seperate thread in the JEGO area.

oh yeah! I forgot! so, i bought those seats and pedestals, but was reluctant to take the wanted ad off of CL, since they weren't QUITE what i was looking for. i'd had the ad up for about a month and the $25 pair was the first responce i'd had to it. so today, 3 days after picking up the first pair of seats and pedestals, i get an e-mail for this pair:

not in as nice of shape as the first pair, but they were the size and style i was hunting for! gave a whole $40 for the second pair there. looks like i'll end up with a set of seats for watching football games in the garage with.

Been a LONG time since i've posted on this thread. been too busy harassing y'all on other threads, i guess. anywho, an update:

Got a replacement LU from another member on here. Mike the Pirate... Thanks for all of the help with that! Bummer is, it didn't work out. but now i've got a TON of spare parts, and that's just as great. Joe at Ferguson-Poole helped out with the seals and impeller, etc for the LU (thanks for the tip, Mark). i'd highly recommend seeking him out to anyone that needed parts! got everything back together and went out for a run at it, only to find that there wasn't enough adjustment in my new-style cables to get the LU to kick into gear and stay there. glad i found this out after only one outing. it's be a huge bummer to have torn up the dogs/gears if i'd been running around with them only halfway engaged.

found this out last week. Mike the Pirate came through again and managed to get me a set of control cables in time for family to get here for a visit from out of town. while awaiting proper cable ends, a buddy at the local machine shop fashioned me out a set in short order and i had a chance to get out on the water TODAY! so stoked. it was my first real voyage worthy of mention! (i did have it out once before, but only for a 1/4 mile round trip to test and tune. nothing extensive, and problems brought me back in early.)

the ends:



my sister woke up early and helped me put 'er in the water first thing this morning. got out on the river and headed upstream WOT and man, she runs! not as fast as i would've liked, but she does scoot. GPS clocked me at 27-28 mph. i would imagine 30 to be possible with some adjustment and better conditions - the river was quite turbulent since the dams upstream are letting way more water by than usual. it was running probably 8-10ft higher than normal. but i'm quite a happy camper!



my sister helped with launching, but was quite uncomfortable with being on the boat. the river was deserted, the boat untested, and a little weight shift = more list than she was comfy with. (see fake smile pic below) even so, she still had fun and mentioned that she was SURE she'd have more fun next time out.





With the boat not NEEDING anything to be out on the water, i caught myself taking a good look at the trailer. i've not paid it much attention up to this point, but man... it looks like it's been in a wreck! i snapped a pic to show how racked it is. notice the dock in the background. it's not normally partially underwater. this will give an idea as to how much higher the water was today.



i also know that the rollers/bunks are in AWFUL shape/orientation. that's a project for the near future. i've got a spare trailer i may be putting the boat on in the meantime while I fix all of the stuff that's out of sorts with the trailer. we'll see. it's nothing that's not do-able.

the one bummer of the day was the underside of the boat. since i was looking closely at the trailer, i noticed the boat too. it looks like someone has run some screws up through the bottom of the boat!! they're painted over and sealed at the moment, so i'm not going to sink or anything, but i'm not sure what they're there for. there's also an amateur patch job nearby. plus, it looks like someone added a 3 inch tall keel to the underside of the boat. it spans from the middle of the boat to about 6 inches from the transom. at least i think it's an add-on. i sure HOPE the factory didn't do that bad of a job on the fiberglass. i'll get some more pics of these items and post them later. i'm going to leave these things be until i get a second boat up and ready for the water. i get the feeling that, once i start, i'm going to be working on the Sea King for a long time getting all the PO's "handywork" corrected. until then, i'm not sweating it!

thanks to everyone for the help and encouragement!
-one happy Chris

Wow, 28 mph is pretty good all things considered.
That boat must weigh 750 - 800 lbs.
Nice job!

i was pretty happy with the speed overall... i do have a bit of a drag-racing background, so more speed wouldn't hurt my feelings. =)

i've never seen the Columbia so full of turbulent waters. i'll bet that if things were back to normal i'd pick up 1 or two mph. not sure how much the drag from the "aftermarket" keel and screws is affecting my top speed, but i'm sure it's not helping things out.

i ran up-river and down river. took the two GPS readings and averaged them. that's how i got my 28. the speedometer decided it wanted to start working and it was reading 25-26 so it's even relatively accurate! not bad for a 50 year old speedo that hasn't been wet in probably a decade.

Very cool thread. Great pics. Love the 1958 Johnson 50hp.

Subscribed.

Hi all -

i've been MIA for a while now... life's been hectic.

I had a chance to make several outings on the Seaking with the family and have made an unfortunate discovery: the wife and kids feel it's too sensitive to shifts in weight for our family to use. My wife describes it as "tippy" to anyone who asks about it and she won't ride in it, nor will she allow the kids in it. i don't necessarily blame her, since my buddy and i were out in it, running at WOT and he scooted less than 12" to one side and the boat rocked enough to about throw me out. being on a busy river doesn't help (i imagine half the problem is the constant stream big waves coming in from all directions while you're toolin' around.

the boat has to go.

there's no use having it if it won't be used. I'll be making another post looking for advice on a bigger and more stable boat to begin seeking out as well as a for-sale ad, in case any are interested.

thanks
Chris

Chris, very sorry to hear that but the family always comes first. There's plenty of other boats out there, of all kinds. Plenty of folks can chime in here. I'm a little partial to lapstrake hulls but that's because i have one and grew up with this boat. She can take some pretty good waves, she's also 18' though.

Bob