Outboard motor alteration

[ebb]

Have a Yamaha 8/4 high thrust power start and tilt. I wouldn't know how to run the thing without the manual. Have two questions, please:

It would make it so much easier (in relation to some design ideas) to tilt the motor up into the transom if the two fins above the cavitation plate could be ground off smooth back to the case. They don't seem to be thick enough to have water running in them for a cooling function. Being above the cavitation plate they don't seem to have any function. They do seem to be just above and just below what looks like an added extension piece that may have something to do with the long-shaft option, but they look decorative to me. Sail drives don't have them (or the cavitation plate, I don't think.)

When you remove the top case, the maunal rope option pull is encased in a plastic guard with three bolts. Is this an OSHA additioin that the skipper is meant to permanently remove to make the rope pull viable? Going to need to get that motor started at the worst possible moment!

At the bottom of the long clamp this motor has (almost at the bottom of the well) - and at the bottom of the 1 1/2" tubular hinge that the whole motor turns on - there are four short loops of wires that seem to go from one functioning piece of the assembly to another. They are well attached. My guess these are grounding wires of some sort. They aren't electric. One goes, eg, from a dedicated (special) nut on the clamp to a grease fitting on the hinge. OK, whaaaat's wid this? They look messy, and they'll nearly always be immersed in the water. Can't I take them off?:confused:

Is there a good book yet on the care and feeding of these modern OBs??? Thanks!

[willie]

got one for my yamaha 9.9 4 stoke from them. Have since traded it in on the british seagull, which weighs in at about 40 lbs. Starts 1st or 2nd pull. Yeah, its a 2 stroke, but it runs like the john deere A tractor. Pop, --, pop,--pop....

Anyway, this outfit has any manual you'll ever want.
My 9.9 had those little wires with a bolt through them--I figured they were a ground also. Great minds....

http://search.stores.ebay.com/search/search.dll?query=yamaha+8+hp.+&srchdesc=y&sid=11378941&store=WWW.WYOMINGBEN.COM&colorid=0&fp=0&st=2

[ebb]

Thanks Bill, I'll check it out in the AM. What is impossible is 4strokes 2002, for some reason.

I also have a Silver Century, bought new, that has never been fired up! Is it an Antique yet?:eek:

[Bill]

The Oakland sail expo begins Wed. There are supposed to be factory reps on hand. If so for Yamaha, you could ask them about grinding off that fin. Admission is only $9.60 (Wed - Fri) if you purchase tickets on line.

www.sailamerica.com

[ebb]

April 15th, I'll be there. Can't say I'll be celebrating. Hope Yamaha OB is there. Did hear that 8, 9.9, 15 all same motor, different carb! That's why the weight.:eek:

Go there for the small guy. New anchor, new dink, Ventair 15 (the matress under liner that eliminates mold.) Of course to say hello to Buzz and the Garhauers, and the book writers, and th........

I hear that Sail America/Pacific Expo, whatever, has since last year made it almost impossible for unallined entrepanuers (inventors) to get in, even outside! $$$$

Long range says showers expected Thursday. (Going to seriously mess with the oak trees in this area.)

[ebb]

It's perfectly OK to shave those vestigial fins. The guy had a bunch of OBs there, all more younger than 338s's Yamaha - the fins are all getting smaller, some had just one above the cavitation plate which I wouldn't touch. The challenge will be finding something to cauterize the wounds.

Asked about the wires. Yamaha has the best rep for minimal corrosion. The wires are one reason - there are dissimilar metals all over the OB - and the wires can be reconfigured, ie, instead of them bending out, they can be remounted to bend in.

Aside from meeting up briefly with an auld acquaintance who went off looking for heated towel bars for his Ariel as soon as we entered the tents, the most enjoyable hour was spent with Lynn and Larry Pardey, who, to a packed in and appreciative audience, presented their arguement that the only safe deployment of your vessel in a storm is to heave-to with an orange trisail. They also have a new book out on the subject.

The biggest boat show on the West coast seemed strange to me. The vendors are all packed inside two enormous tents. They are exactly the same vendors with exactly the same displays that were there last year - and the year befor, like a time loop. But the aisles outside between the tents were dead. In the past, this is where the inventor guys were put that couldn't afford to be inside. And this time as you entered after buying your ticket you were greeted by a huge display of house windows and a collection of wet-looking teak garden furniture. After the Pardey's saved my little ship from the raging storm I kind of lurched up and down the booths thinking all the smiling faces were really androids and I was endlessly caught on the holodeck

Outside, the big wide white plastic boats were lined up, some had strange empty pairs of footwear at their side like they had just eaten. There were only half as many boats this year - Benetoes, Hunters, the Passages, and one 49' Valient that had more metal on its nose than a whole Mini Cooper. There was an Herreschof in green and beige and amber varnished 'native woods' built in Japan, a 28 footer twice as wide and with a cabin twice as tall as any H. I'd seen befor. Like it was parked too close to the Hunters and swelled up. Gear was missing, like the sheet winches had popped off, the bronze anchor mount was half missing. My last boat show.

:mad:

[Bill]

But they did have some great heated towel rods . . .;)