It’s painted red, the stripe was white
It was eighteen feet, from the bow to stern light
Secondhand, from a dealer in Minnesota
I rode up with daddy, when he went there to get her
… Put on a shine, put on a motor
Built out of love, made for the water….
What a unit . Thanks for sharing
Notice the tie downs on the trailer, strap steel with a wing nut, the trailer is made with a channel in it so the entire keel sits in it, that boat aint going anywhere going down the road.
The nephew did tell me it was a sob to load and keep straight, I told him now that it has power tilt and trim to not back in the trailer so far and power load it to see if that helped, back then the motor didnt have power tilt and trim and it would raise the bow every time you added the least bit of power making it difficult to see over the top.
I also love the fifties style fenders, cant be many of these around anymore.
I also told them to find an old Apache pick up or wagon to pull it with, the nieces eyes lit up but hubby shut her down real quick reminding her they just got done building a house lol.
Nice rig!!
Oooh, they need to paint the Suzi cream to match the boat!
It’s painted red, the stripe was white
It was eighteen feet, from the bow to stern light
Secondhand, from a dealer in Minnesota
I rode up with daddy, when he went there to get her
… Put on a shine, put on a motor
Built out of love, made for the water….
Nailed it! 
It’s painted red, the stripe was white
It was eighteen feet, from the bow to stern light
Secondhand, from a dealer in Minnesota
I rode up with daddy, when he went there to get her
… Put on a shine, put on a motor
Built out of love, made for the water….
Ran her for years til the transom got rotten,
A piece of my childhood that’ll never be forgotten
one of my favorite songs of his 
Dang that boat is cool, Sheldon! One of those times when there is no question the motor needs to be white.
Thanks everyone!
Who sings that song you guys are quoting?? Sadly I have never heard of it.
Thanks everyone!
Who sings that song you guys are quoting?? Sadly I have never heard of it.
Alan Jackson. Drive.
That restoration looks great Sheldon
That boat really needs a white Kiekhaefer Mercury. Just for the sound and the delicious smell of 2 stroke oil.
Grouse, I have to agree with you!!
Okay folks, I have a doozy coming in,,,,for the third time and the sad part is the gentleman lives four hours away.
I have never seen anything like it before and I cant wait to get my hands on it as it is from what I gather, a quality control issue where a human factor is involved and that human no longer works there.
I will call this man Ken, and Ken has been more than understanding about it.
I even got the company to compensate me for his fuel costs to and from my shop twice!! including my labor!!
I really want to go fishing with him and his wife, sounds like she is a fishing machine!!!
Stay tuned folks, this could be one for the books!!
Once this is resolved and it will be I promise you I will give a huge shout out to the company who I have stood with and they have stood behind me for many years.
Ohh getting my popcorn ready……….
Okay bigcrappie here ya go.
First, I have to give a shout out to a new customer from Illinois and thank him for his patience, understanding, and giving me a chance to work for him, I will call him Ken and I gotta tell ya, Ken is a great guy!!
He brought his ailing Merc to me after following me on this forum in hopes that I could save it, well, I did, three times!! but it wasnt a fun battle but we won the war and I hate it he had to come back twice more.
The first time it showed up what a mess, Corroded battery cables, ailing battery, two out of three CDM modules not firing well, burnt out voltage regulator and associated wiring and a warped cylinder cover just pouring water out of the top and all over the spark plugs.
So it got a new stator, new trigger, four new CDM modules, voltage regulator and harness, and of course a new cylinder cover, gasket, poppet valve, and thermostat.
I even gave the motor its own dedicated battery and we added a battery solely for his electronics.
Three runs on the dyno and it performed perfectly, he came and got it and about a week later I get a call, a call that I hate getting!!
He was broke down on the water, two dead trolling motor batteries and a motor that wouldnt fire at all, but it did the last try and was barely able to get him to the dock.
This was on a big lake on a windy day, I can only imagine the stress.
Ken brought it back and I found the problem immediately, the dang link arm from the trigger ring to the control arm was disconnected and the timing went full retarded, producing spark mind you, but way after top dead center, wth!!
I know dang well I had it snapped in place, but after a couple of calls to my tech help line we figured reusing the ball and socket may have finished off the fit required to keep it in place, hmmm, new one on me but anything is possible so I replaced it with a used one as I didnt have any new ones on hand at the moment, I made sure it fit tightly with a rock solid snap that you could feel.
I rechecked the timing at idle and full throttle on the dyno, sent Ken home again.
And a week later, I get another call, CRAP!! yep, from Ken,, sigh, it ran twenty minutes this time, but this time instead of the link being disconnected, the entire arm is broken off!!! GGGRRRRR!! WTF now!!!
So for a third time this rig is back in my shop and while I was waiting on him I called my vendor from whom I buy ninety nine percent of my charging and ignition system parts through, CDI Electronics and Ken’s parts came from them and I have become friends with a tech there over the years and we hashed this issue out of what was going on.
After I got the flywheel back off and confirmed what was going on I had another trigger on the way overnight UPS.
The issue was human laziness in the QC department and that issue was addressed immediately with that issue no longer there, thankfully not many parts got out the door once it was discovered.
There is a fitment gauge to ensure that the trigger ring has the proper clearance so it wont grab the trigger itself when things warm up, we are talking about five thousands clearance between a spinning part and a moveable part where operating speeds exceed five thousand RPM’s!!
That fitment step wasnt being used,,, it is now!!!!
What happened was the inside diameter of the trigger was too small to clear the trigger ring on the flywheel, after running and clearances got to zero the trigger ring grabbed the trigger, the first time it popped the ball out of the socket, the second time it welded itself and broke the arm off killing the motor instantly.
Oh, and I performed a clearance check on the replacement trigger, perfect!
So my second shout out is to CDI Electronics, the tech there, and the management as they reimbursed me for the parts and treated me well enough I was able to reimburse Ken for his extra two trips that should have never happened!!
So now Ken and his lovely bride are back on the water with a tuned to the hilt Mercury, WHEW!!
busticated-scaled.jpg
trigger-ring-scaled.jpg
A couple of scratch your head moments seem to always find a way to my shop weekly, anymore after Ken’s ordeal its getting comical at times.
I hope the twelve second video posts, fuel saturated oil out of a 50 HP Honda that is trolled way too much, this is a downfall of fuel injected motors as not all of the fuel droplets get burnt and they end up going past the rings and into the oil reservoir, and if you stir it long enough you end up with pudding.
The other pic,iff’n your motor starts using too much gas many things can cause that, this one was simple, it was being choked to death, the pic will explain it.
The third pic, I hate the new gas tanks!! they will allow air in and not out, and folks get complacent in leaving the vent open, overnight, during the rain, tied to a dock for days on end, etc.
I could not believe the fuel pump still ran, its filter was plugged and so were all three injectors, this rig gets used twice a year to put docks out, and to pull docks back in, terrible waste of a boat if you ask me and our tax dollars pay for it.
I should explain, the six gallon tank was half full of water and it ended up in the VST, after many failed attempts at chemical treatments this is what was found once it was brought to my shop.
yuck-scaled.jpg
zoom-tweeet-scaled.jpg
Trying the vid again, its file may be to large.
Give me a sec, I will post on my youtube channel, be back in a few.
Trying the vid again, its file may be to large.
Give me a sec, I will post on my youtube channel, be back in a few.<div class=”ido-oembed-wrap”><iframe loading=”lazy” title=”Fuel saturation” width=”850″ height=”478″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ex39po__kB4?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen=””></iframe></div>
And I thought mine was bad!
All very interesting stuff of the outboard world ! Sounds the mercury was bad luck more than bad mechanicing. Did that thing sit a long time to make its condition that rough ?
awesome job Iowaboy!!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. It’s appreciated.
Good job Sheldon!
You’ve earned your spot in Heaven many times over Sheldon.
There are very few mechanics of any type that will take the time to properly diagnose and resolve an issue BEFORE just throwing parts at it. And even fewer who work as hard to take care of their customers.
We are extremely lucky to have you here at IDO.
Andy, the motor just needed a lot of attention that it had not been getting the past 20 plus years, according to the owner no one in his area could make it run right and it sounded like one of two things, they were just trying to sell him a new motor, throw parts at it or, they didnt have anyone who knew the old two strokes and this one is a 2000 model if I remember.
Thanks for the kind words all, I am lucky to have several techs that have been around the block a time or ten and I am not afraid to reach out to them when I have something I havent seen before.
A couple of reasons I reach out, one, time savings first and foremost, sure, given enough time I can figure out stuff but when I’m slammed busy I dont have the luxury of that time and its hard to charge someone for four hours work when it should take two.
We also get to compare notes, its funny how the dynamics in the repair fields are different state to state, I see more fuel problems than most due to local lakes being wake free and tanks of fuel set for months before they get used up, a tech in another state may see motors with way more hours that see parts failures I wont see for several years until those motors get over 500 hours on them and around here thats rare to see, I service several motors with computers on them that are over twenty years old and they may only have sixty hours on them.
AK guy, I share what I know willingly, just paying forward all that I have learned over the years and the efforts people who have done that for me and if it makes you a better boat owner and you can take care of your investment ensuring many trouble free years my goal is accomplished, just remember to pay it forward too please.
Mojo, thank you, I hate being that guy on the water or on the road, been there too many times in my younger days and I want to make sure my customers are not that guy on the water or on the road, that and if I do one thing right in my life it is to do the best I can with what I have been given talent wise.
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