# Who 'Noe II - Part two (pic and text intense)



## Kemo (Jun 22, 2008)

Well, it’s been a while.  Between work, no money and waiting on parts I think I’m finally there.  In case you didn’t see my original post, here’s the link: 

http://www.microskiff.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1243358541

Comments are above pics.  Click on pic for larger view.

I just can’t believe how much work I was doing for a “retired” person.  But it’s over for now, and I’m just waiting for the money to start showing up in direct deposits.  Well, first things first.  These are the guides I used when I had my highsider:










The LT25 needed bigger and wider, so I put these on.  I did not glue the caps in case I want to put lights up there later:










To help keep them in place, since I was only using one u-bolt per side, I used some blocks of cypress I had with a groove in it (I have a lot of this stuff):










Here’s a close-up of the mounting:










Before mounting the new TsG Manual Jack Plate, I had to do something about the holes I had drilled for my home-made fixed plate, which didn’t work out.  Since my LT has a plywood core transom, I measured the thickness of the wood part and cut some pieces of dowel to insert into the wood part.  I mixed some epoxy and coated the insides of the holes well, then coated the dowels thoroughly and pushed them into the holes, leaving the glass on both sides of the holes open:










Once the epoxy began to set up, I drilled the holes for the new jack plate.  After the epoxy had had 24 hours or so to harden, I filled in the small portions left on the inside and outside of the holes.  I used MarineTex on the inside, and 5200 on the outside.  Here’s the inside:










Then I did a dry fit of the jack plate.  The blue tape you see is painter’s tape I used it to keep the 5200 from sagging and running out of the holes:










The tube you see in the top of the jack plate is the tube (only) from the adapter kit I bought from Ezy Glyde.  (Another reason for having TomC do your jack plate.)  There was a pic of it in the original post, but so you don’t have to go back there, here it is again:










Now for the really fun part – converting the tiller motor to remote.  OK, so you might have to go back to the original post to see some stuff, and I didn’t want to re-post so much stuff.  Open it in a separate window if you want to go back and forth, as some of this may not make as much sense without the original post.  Starting here, top cover and lower covers removed.  The lower covers are split, and on my motor they didn’t come off easy, but they came off a lot easier than they went back on:










This is the port side of the motor.  The arrows (compliments of PhotoBucket) are as follows, starting at the top and moving counter-clockwise – (1) the tiller un-bolted and propped up, (2) the arm on the motor where the tiller had been attached. And (3) the wire from the kill switch to the ignition coil.  The tiller cable to the throttle and kill switch wires are still attached, which is why the tiller is propped up:










This is the starboard side of the motor.  The arrows are pointing to (1) the actual shifter, (2) the throttle cable running to the tiller, (2) the external shifter handle rod that runs under the motor to actuate a lever that does the shifting at, (1) the actual shifter:










I can tell you, from my now hard-earned experience, that it was easy to disconnect the throttle cable from the throttle mechanism, but trying to fish it through, up and over the motor to where it ran into the tiller was not for the faint of heart.  And removing the shifter handle rod from under the motor was also difficult.  I was careful to try to do everything I could so as to be able to convert it back to tiller again if I ever wanted to.  Well, I don’t ever want to.  If some day someone else ends up with this motor and wants to convert it back to a tiller, they’re going to get a box containing all the parts they need, and instructions on taking it to a qualified (and experienced) mechanic.  In the previous pic, you can see that the ground wire had a lug on the end, but the other wire was “hard-wired” into a connector on top of the coil, so it had to be cut.  (Sorry, no arrows.  Just look closely.)

By this time, I had greasy, sticky stuff all over my hands, and didn’t want to touch my camera, and didn’t want to get cleaned up, so there are no pics of this ordeal.  But here it is after removal.  The kill switch is removed from the tiller:










The throttle cable and kill switch wires ran through a grommet in the front panel behind the arm that the tiller was attached to.  The grommet did not want to be removed from the front, no matter how hard I tried.  So, I pushed it through, but then had to get it off by forcing the throttle cable brace (once attached to the throttle mechanism on the starboard side of the motor) through the grommet so that the cable could then be pulled through the slot in the front panel.  More greasy, sticky stuff, so no pics of this ordeal, either.  But here’s a closer view of it on the floor:










Beer break.  Actually, more than one.  No turning back now.

The choke handle runs through a rubber grommet in the front panel.  The hole in it for the choke is “D” shaped.  The kit I bought for this conversion contained a new grommet with two extra holes in it for the new throttle and shifter cables.  There were slits cut in the new grommet from the cable holes to the outer edge of the grommet so you could slide the grommet over the cables and into the holes.  But, duh, the hole for the choke did not go all the way through the grommet, and there was no slit for it.  The instructions (such as they were) said to cut it out and make a slit with a knife.  I could only keep asking myself, “Why?”  If there was supposed to be a remote choke, why was there nothing in the conversion kit for it?  Here’s three pics of it (couldn’t get good shots of black grommet on white background).  Last pic is after I cut through hole for choke and cut slit:




























These are the ends of the throttle and shifter cables.  I didn’t notice the difference in length until I started to connect them, but in hind sight, it should have been obvious:










The bad part was that I had to take apart the shifter control box and swap the other ends because they were backwards where they were attached to the shifter/throttle control.  Time for more beer, and some food.

Onward and upward.  Started the starboard side of the conversion.  Followed the instructions that came with the conversion kit.  All went well, for a change.  Again, greasy sticky stuff, so no pics of step-by-step.  Lots of arrows on this one.  (1) adapter for shifter that fits over original throttle lever, (2) adapter shifter rod, (3) throttle cable, (4) clamp to hold cables in place and (5) shifter cable.  These parts (except cables) came with the conversion kit.  The clamp for the throttle cable was bolted into the original hole where the tiller throttle cable was connected.  The clamp for the shifter cable was bolted into a hole that was unused, but already there.  The slots that the cables fit into were also unused, but were already there.  So, at least the block was the same for a remote engine as for a tiller engine, or else this conversion would not have been possible:










OK, I’m on a roll.  Now, the port side.  All that needs to be done here is the remote kill switch wiring.  I didn’t have a lug for the ground, so I cut off the one I had saved earlier.  Couldn’t stand it.  I soldered (rosin-core solder) the wires and used heat-shrink to cover the connections.  Also moved the bundle of wires (orange) that went from the coil to the CD unit to a more strategic location:










Now it was time to re-assemble the lower covers.  It took me over two hours, and included a lot of cursing.  And, finally, more beer and more food.  The next hardest part was trying to figure out how to attach the control rod that goes from the steering rod (that runs through the tube in the jack plate) to the motor.  This was pretty much an exercise in futility.  First, it would turn right but not left, then vice-versa. OK.  That’s enough.  I spent half a day on this, as I had parts to do this with, but they not made for my motor, with its tiller-mounting arm as the only thing to attach it to.  Finally, I came up with something.  I am not happy with it, nor am I happy with Ezy Glide’s “new and improved” steering control arm.  I expected to lose some turning radius, as this is common with stick steering.  But I have lost more than I should have.  I am looking to improve this somehow, but for now I will use it and keep looking.  Tom C is helping me come up with a solution.

I covered the wires to the remote kill switch with white heat-shrink with the idea of shrinking it.  But the time needed to shrink it was not worth it due to the overall length.  Still, it makes a nice cover for the wires.  I’m going to add some more wire ties to tidy it up a bit.  










Now, I was not happy with the way I did the original wiring.  Seemed like a good idea at the time.  So I changed everything around.  I actually did most of this before the conversion from tiller to remote, and most of it was done while waiting for something or because I only had a short amount of time and just wanted to do something to the boat to get it finished.  I cut a small piece of quarter-inch star board and mounted my fish finder.  Re-worked the wiring and took off a lot of the PVC pipe I had put in earlier and added a piece to run up to the fish finder.  The plugs that connect to the fish finder were too big to fit through a 90 degree elbow, so I used two 45’s on each end, slipping each piece of PVC over the plugs one piece at a time.  No pieces of PVC are glued, so I can take it all apart again if I need to.  Here’s some pics:




























Mounted the Tiny Tach on the inside of the transom, and ran the wires per the instructions.  I did the wrapping of the pulse lead around the plug wire, and wrapped the whole lead to it.  I did not cut off any excess.  No pics of wrapping, but here’s a pic of the tach:










At this point I took the boat outside and put it on the hose and muffs to check everything out.  The tach worked great.  The shifter and throttle controls worked great.  The idle speed did not, and had to be adjusted.  Again, more hindsight.  I wish I had done this while the lower cover was off.  I managed to get it right around 900 RPM after several tries, but the clamp was now down inside the lower cover, and the new throttle cable ran right in front of the clamp, making it really tedious.  Finally, all was well.  (No pics of the exercise.)

Next, I cut a small square of quarter inch plywood (not luan, but some really good stuff) to mount the bilge pump on.  I put a thick coat of epoxy on the plywood, sanded a spot for it and epoxied it to the floor inside by the transom.  I then gave it a good coat of white polyurethane, and after it dried I attached the bottom of the pump (a Rule 1100 manual) with 3/8 inch screws.  I had a piece of flexible hose, and added a pipe with a hooked end made out of PVC to hang over the transom.  Here’s some pics:




























I had built a gas tank holder for my highsider.  It didn’t work for the LT.  I modified it (this makes the 4th time now) so I’d have room for the bilge pump, and also added a couple of short “nubs” to keep it from sliding back and forth.  Here’s a pick of it in the highsider, one of the latest mod and one of it with the tank in it.




























Well, I had ordered a Racor RAC-120 fuel filter/water separator with see-through bowl.  I waited over two weeks, and emailed the vendor.  They were out of stock.  Another two weeks and no filter.  I cancelled the order.  I am now waiting on one from another site, which, by the way, ended up being cheaper.  It should be here next week.  I do not intend to post anything for it, as it is a pretty straight forward thing to do.  The only other thing I did not post a pic of is the battery, which is a 20 Ah AGM battery from Wal-mart.  It is under the rear seat and difficult to get a shot of.  Brett told me I should have at least 40 or 50, but there’s just the bilge pump and fish finder (about 3 amps, total) and I can always add a second 20 Ah in parallel when I can afford it.

Now, I take my bride out to see my handy work.  She is impressed, but a bit puzzled.  I explained as much as possible, going into far more detail than she really wanted to hear.  Finally, she asked, “If you are going to be sitting in the middle, does that mean I have to sit in the back?”  I told her that it would be nice if she sat back there so I could have her pull the handle to start the motor.  “Do you mean I can’t sit up front?  I won’t be able to see very well from back there.”  She has been so patient with me and this project that I figured the least I could do was accommodate her wishes.  Luckily, I passed by a marine surplus place south of here a few days later and saw a nice chair sitting out front.  I had looked at this same chair at West Marine, with a list price of $150, on sale for $120.  I got it for $70.  And I figure I can use it up front to fish from.










So, there you have it.  With the chair, and the filter coming, I now have a little over $3600 in this ride, including the motor and trailer, which ain’t bad for an LT25 with this setup.  PM me if you want any info on anything I did on here. Now to get it wet and adjust the jack plate for minimum draft.

DO MORE WITH LESS!!!

Kemo


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## Gramps (Nov 1, 2007)

Nicely done Kemo! Is that really a 9.9? How does it push the LT?


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## pescador72 (Aug 6, 2008)

Great Work!


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## Kemo (Jun 22, 2008)

It is actually a 15, not a 9.9. The cover was nice to have when I had this motor on my highsider. I don't have figures yet (tomorrow? I hope) with the jack plate and doel fin, but with me and another person and gear, I GPS'd it at 23 mph, WOT.

Kemo


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## Brett (Jul 16, 2008)

You said you'd been busy, I can see why.


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## Kemo (Jun 22, 2008)

At the end of my post, I stated that I had $3600 in the boat.  A buddy of mine read the post and questioned that amount.  I thought about it for several weeks, and it started bothering me.  So I finally figured out that I had not included the gear I had purchased for the old boat that I transfered to the new boat, nor had I included what I had in the old hull that I traded in (less the trade-in amount).  Those things came to $900.  So I really have $4500 in it.  Still pretty good, though.  My bride was happy with the original amount, so I'm not bringing up this revelation to her any time soon.   [smiley=engel017.gif]

Kemo


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