1980 HydroStream Vamp resto-mod

@5nahalf of you're not already on it, go check out the Single Outboard Speed Boats group on Facebook as well as the Scream And Fly group and the Hydrostream groups. Lots of knowledgeable guys on them. Also www.screamandfly.com has a lot of info.

 

im on scream and fly and the hydrostream groups, I will check out single outboard now though. Thanks!

 

There's some guys on there that have been in the Hydrostream/Mercury game for a loooooonnng time. My buddy Pete "Fernly Wood" bought his new in the mid 70's and still has it. Original gel and interior still in beautiful shape. It's amazing how things last when you keep them outta the sun when you're not using them.

 

Thinking about ordering a few more electrical parts for this motor as "insurance". It has the original starter and solenoid right now, the solenoid works just fine, but the starter takes a couple turns of the key to actually fire up. You turn the key and the solenoid will click and the motor turns a tiny bit. After 2-3 turns of the key the starter will kick on.

But, for $80 I can get a starter, solenoid and a helicoil kit to repair the stripped out bolts for the starter.

 

Switch boxes have arrived and are installed, now I am just waiting on the trigger to show up so I can put that in and get it all back together and try to start it.

 

ok, all new parts are in! But that starter motor is just dragging too much to get good crank speed to get spark going. I got a little bit of spark to happen on one plug, but I am going to have to put in a new starter. I am going to hook up a second battery to double my power to see if I can just force enough in there. I am also going to pull the boat out and hook up the brand new boat side harness to the motor. Good chance the power wires on the test harness are shot after 45 years in service.
So, more parts on the way!

This motor is going to be fresh and new by the time I am done with it.

 

Little update. I have bypassed the factory boatside harness and am just using my push button starter I use for compression checks.
I get spark on all cylinders but 2. I swapped plug wires, still no spark, I swapped switch box leads, still no spark. I need to ohm out that coil pack and see if its faulty. It might be a intermittent failure on that coil with a bad part inside it. But I might order all new coils for this thing.
Starter motor is still dragging the battery down, I have the charger on to keep it going, but I have to wait 5-10 minutes between spark tests or there is just not enough power to get spark.

 

Sometimes just taking them apart, cleaning everything up and re-greasing the bushings with a thin hi temp grease will get them spinning better.

 

One new coil has been ordered. I ohmed out the coil thats not firing, and it tests good there, but there might be something else going on inside it.
While I really should wait till the starter motor shows up to be ordering more parts, a coil is pretty cheap and easy, but also a 5 day wait for shipping. Would hate to need a coil after putting in the starter motor and have to wait 5 more days to get it.

Im pretty much firing the parts cannon at this motor. But with something thats been sitting for a few years and is 45 years old, im sure there are things that just need to be replaced.

 

And now I have spark on number 2.... Im going to pull all 6 coils off and clean the grounds and make new signal cables. There is a ghost somewhere in this motor and its hiding really well.

 

Pulled all the coils out to clean them, this rubber boot was loose, and when I peeled it back I found the ferrite on coil #2 shattered into parts. So that could be my intermittent spark issue there. One of the other coils felt a little crunchy too (#4), so it might be time to just order the remaining 5 coils now.

 

Just pulled the boot of coil 4, its cracked also, so just ordered all the coils. I will just put in fresh and be done with it.

 

Paying up front beats walking home drifting aimlessly.

 

ok, ETA for the ign coils is the 20th. Should be the last of the parts to get this motor going.

This weekend parts for the control box will be here though, so I can spend some time on the boat swapping from the big control to the small one. The control needed a new high idle lever, wont really be used, but its better than the jagged metal that sits where the old one broke off. Also needed a neutral detent pin that went missing when the last owner opened it up. New control does not have a place for trim controls, but I do have that nice surface mount one I can use.

Old on the left, new on the right

 

So funny story about that. My fishing buddy (who I have talked about here before) used to have a jon boat, he had a gas motor but was very against using it due to pollution, it was a 4hp that I now I have for my mini boat. Anyways, first time he invited me out on it, all we had was his trolling motor. Wind was pretty heavy and blowing away from the boat launch, we launched the boat and went around part of the lake, then the trolling motor started acting up. It would work sometimes, then stop all together. We are on the far side of the lake now, wind blowing, and the trolling motor goes out completely. I had to use 2 oars and row boat our asses against the wind back to the ramp. He couldnt do it because he has issues doing manual labor for more than 2 minutes.
We get back, turns out he has been charging his lithium battery with a lead acid charger because he didnt want to buy a lithium charger. Well, he had cooked the battery charging it the night before.
That was the first and last time I went out on one of his boats that I did not personally check for seaworthiness.

 

^^^^^^


Another case of the best intentions and actually working being two different things.

"...he has issues doing manual labor for more than 2 minutes..."

Both quite common nowadays.

 

All new wiring on this baby now (still need to install the solenoid to starter wire when the new starter goes in), just put on a new vacuum line that was puking oil all over the coils, and installed the wire support bar. The wire support bars are broken on like 90% of these motors, they are cast aluminum and tend to snap off pretty easy. But they are important so that the wire harness is not being supported by just the plug.

 

New coils are in, but looks like my starter motor is delayed/lost in the mail. New ETA for that is next week maybe. So while I wait for that to show up, Im going to get the new throttle control box installed. I just need 4 long stainless bolts for it.

 

Damn...
I didn't expect that much wiring in a boat engine.