A LITTLE MORE DONE......

New diaphragm, bowl o ring and fuel lines with stainless Tridon clamps installed.

I could smell petrol....two out of three hoses were leaking, as well as the pump diaphragm .

Old diaphragm and O ring on right, new on left.

I thought the engine used a lot of fuel last Saturday......I was warned this is a thirsty engine! I guess torque comes at a price. Anyway, on trying to start the engine in a tank of water in my drive I could smell petrol quite strongly. Turns out every hose on the fuel pump was leaking fuel, as well as the diaphragm. My local outboard guy just happened to have a new OEM diaphragm and fuel bowl O ring in stock! I used some 1500 wet and dry paper and a sheet of glass to polish the mating surfaces of the pump body. There was a slight watermark that polished out easily.

Still functioning ignition switch showing burnt wires. Other end on battery was toast too.

Last weekend I also removed all the very bodgy wiring from the boat, and rewired it with proper tinned marine grade cable. Original ignition wire was 20 amp, I went up to 25 amp and fitted a manual reset 25 amp circuit breaker in the dash panel. I also removed the original[I think]port and starboard navigation lights, and cleaned up the mounting areas ready for new LED ones to be fitted in the future. The cheap incandescent anchor light on the foredeck will be removed too and replaced with a modern LED version. The nav lights will be powered by a small AGM 12V battery I have, more than enough for an overnighter in Summer and very light weight. I'll be wiring all three nav lights  to a merit plug and fit a socket to the battery case. That way the nav light wiring can be packed out of the way when not needed.

I'll leave the cranking battery just for the motor. Speaking of electrics, my parts contact nearby had an OEM rectifier available, I also fitted this after modifying the connectors. The rectifier that was on my motor wasn't original, and looking at the state of the under deck wiring I'm not surprised it short circuited in the past!

Bilge cleaned, floor scrubbed

Original back to back seating removed and won't be getting refitted. 

I also had time to remove the original style back to back seating. They were far too low for my liking, as well as being too close to the dashboard, especially for my 6'1" 120kg frame! I'll be using the original mounts as a base to attach timbers to, making a support frame to hold a sheet of A bond formply to as a base for a pair of modern, folding vinyl seats on swivels. I picked up a sheet of ply 1200X600 for $10, and a pack of 50 45mm 8G stainless deck screws to assemble it all. The flimsy 50X20 crossbars will be cut out and replaced by 70X38 radiata pine ones, sealed with resin. I'll leave the space under the seat base free for extra storage and to make cleaning easier. The stainless battery box in the top photo is original I believe but is only designed for a nine plate battery, the 11 plate I got with the boat is working fine so I'' just turn it 90 degrees and mount it on a piece of timber in the steel tray until it dies. I can't use an AGM battery as the alternator isn't voltage regulated, and though a lead acid battery will cope with a high charge rate the AGM's won't. I guess in 1968 there was no such thing as absorbed glass matt sealed batteries eh!

The floor could use another application of flow coat, but that will the last job I do.  I'm not a fan of carpet in fishing boats, fish scales and squid ink is hard to remove from carpet! This week my new LED submersible trailer lights arrived so that's another job to do.