Sea (ok Bay) Trial

Today it was finally time to take the Dorsett over to Newport Dunes on the back bay to give her a test. Reading the forums about loading-in at the Dunes suggested that you don't do it on a weekend and no matter what don't do it on a Holiday... but my boat is ready!

My son and I drove over at about 11:00 A.M. and paid the load-in fee. We parked the boat and got everything ready for load-in. We loaded our gear, removed the tie downs, inserted the drain plug, turned on the batteries, primed the fuel line, and discussed our launching strategy. (Thanks to Mike Whitehead of the Daily Pilot for the checklist.)

We pulled our trailer around to find there was no one in line. Six ramps and only three were occupied. So we pulled up, backed in and I hopped out and my son took the wheel. We loaded-in like pros and I tied up the boat. I hopped-in the boat and when the moment of truth came, I pressed the choke button, turned the key and she fired right up!

After letting it warm up for a minute I threw it in reverse, did a nice 2-point 360 and idled away from the dock. The sea-trial was going great... until I cleared the dock area about 100 yards out. I decided to push the throttle down as I was still just idling... then the motor died. I restarted the motor, revved in in Neutral to 2500 rpm (to make sure it would spin up) and put it in gear. As I pushed the throttle up it died again. I did this 3-4 times. I went to the back of the boat to stare at the motor (like I'm going to fix something out there) and I noticed there was no tell-tale coming out of the motor. Which meant the cooling system was not working. I put my hand on the side of the lower housing and it was hot, hot, hot!

Tell-Tale
The Scott McCulloch motors have a tell-tale which is a stream of water that spits out of the side of the motor so you can see that the cooling system is circulating. The motor has a water pump in the lower housing with a rubber impeller that circulates water up to the top to keep the motor cool. No circulation, no Tell-tale, no cooling.

I decided the sea-trial was over and I started it again and idled it back to the dock. I called my son who was almost home (to store the trailer for the day) and told him to come back and to tell the family to cancel the dock rendezvous we had planned. When he got back we loaded her up and took her home.

Scotty, We need more Power!

It seems the Flying Scott likes lots of juice when it is  starting. So if one battery is good, two must be better, right?

I decided that I would upgrade to dual batteries and install a Blue Seas Systems Add-a-Battery. This will allow me to use both batteries if needed for starting while isolating the batteries when running.

This also has the added advantage of charging my "starting" battery first and when it is fully charged it switches over and charges the "house" battery.

I don't have anything connected to the house battery so right now so the second battery is just an extra starting battery, but I'm sure an iPod docking station isn't too far fetched. The installation was quite simple and this setup should give us a little extra power when we need it.

Note: the black cables you see in the photo above are all positive (+) cables. (The auto parts store didn't have pre-made red cables to I bought black and wrapped the ends with red electrical tape.) The small black wire coming off the ACR is a ground (-) wire and goes back to the batteries with the three positive cables but it is hiding it in the photo.

The illustration on the left is the recommended setup. The illustration on the right is my slightly modified setup.

• Instead of connecting the ACR at the battery posts, I connected it on the live terminals of the on/off switch. So the "hot" lines coming out the top of my switch are actually connected to the same post on the on/off switch as the batteries.
• My picture only shows three cables coming out of the bottom of the switch. I do not have the "house" power line (seen in the diagram on the right in gray). This would be added later if I add a house circuit.

Carter Carburetor N-3008S

The Carter Carburetor N-3008S on the 1960 McCulloch Scott has a idle mixture needle and the high-speed performance is determined by the adjustment of a fixed type metering rod.

There's not much information on this carburetor on the internet. My guess is this was a design unique to McCulloch's specifications for the Scott 60 and 75 hp motors.

Model N-3008S Parts:

Flange gasket	1A-93
Nozzle	12-538
Float & Lever Assembly	21-163S
Bowl	23-59
Inlet Needle & Seat	25-399S
Metering Rod Spring	61-612
Metering Rod, Standard	75-1481
Metering Rod, Lean (High Altitude)	75-1506
Metering Rod Pin	150-260

The metering rod pin (seen in the illustration as #20) was bad on one of my carbs. The head wasn't round and it allowed the metering rod to jamb next to the head. I replaced the bad pin with a homemade pin that started life as a nail.

Getting the Scott to Fly

So its May of 2013 and Summer is just around the corner. Time to get the Scott running. The first order of business was to seek help from the members at  FiberGlassics.com. This is my journey as I was led by their advice.

The First Order of business was the starter. While I already had two starters, I came across a listing on Craigs list for a 58-59 Scott McCulloch 60hp for $50 in Folbrook, CA. I have a broken latch on the port side of the motor housing and this one has both levers in tact, so given the price and proximity I had to own this motor.

The 58-59 60hp McCulloch outboard motor (white head) has some different parts than the 60-61 (red head). Most notibly (that I've seen so far) is that the carburators are different and the motor uses three coils fired off a magneto rather than my 60-61 that uses a single coil and an automotive type points and distributor. But the good news is the starter is the same! So I sent my 3rd starter to my buddy and they refurbished it and I bolted it on my motor.

Get it to Spin
Then it was off to O'Reilly's for a new Marine battery, new battery cables, and a new starter solenoid. The goal was to spin the motor with the plugs in.

The members at FiberGlassics gave me several suggestions for the starter including putting a ground strap from the starter directly to the solenoid.

So I made new cables (from a set of 6 gauge jumper cables) and mounted the starter with the new starter solenoid and turned the key. The motor turned about a 1/2 turn and stopped. I pulled the plugs and the motor would spin and spin just fine. (Update: See my post on Feb 2014... there's a problem with these battery cables. I used them all summer but have replaced them.)

Then my buddy suggested I charge the new battery overnight. The next morning I turned the key and the motor started spinning with the plugs in. Sure it wouldn't start, but the "starter" issue was solved. (Really Advanced Marine? What did I do that was different than what you did? hummm...)

Do we have Fuel?
So now we are spinning next up do we have fuel? You will see in this photo the fuel pump is not original. This is a crankcase pressure activated fuel pump and this one only had one pressure line connected the other pressure line had a screw into to block it off. So I pulled the fuel pump off the donor motor and ordered a new diaphragm from Laings Outboard.

I removed the carbs and cleaned them (mine were actually in pretty good shape. Usually old carbs have a lot of gunk from fuel residue but these had been gone through by the previous owner. I did find one significant problem. These carbs are Carter N series PN 3008S and have a fixed jet metering rod. This is spring loaded and rises and falls with the rotation of the cam on the top of the carb. I found that one of the carbs had a messed up metering rod spring and pin. The metering rod was stuck in place next to the pin (rather than sitting on top of the pin and moving up and down). I made a new pin out of a nail head and a small spring solved the problem.

I went to Napa Auto Parts looking for the Carter N gaskets, but all they had was a $30 rebuild kit and I needed 3. So I went with $10 of do it yourself Mr. Gasket gasket material. I made a new fuel pump gasket and three Carter-N style gaskets.

So with the refurbished fuel pump, carbs cleaned, new fuel lines and fresh gas mixed 50:1 with outboard motor 2-cycle oil, I twisted the key again... and she fired to life... sort of.

The motor would fire occasionally but only on full throttle and then it wont start again for a while. It would just turn over but wouldn't fire. Then something funny(ish) happened. The el-cheapo starter solenoid failed locking in the on position sending me running to disconnect the battery as the motor just turned and turned for what seemed like an eternity. I was sure I'd fry the starter. (so much for a bad starter...) I was able to disconnect before I burned up the starter and so I reinstalled the original starter solenoid.

Do we have Fire?
Next up is the ignition and spark. The first thing I did was get some new spark plugs. The spark looked a weak so we replaced the plug wires, points and condenser. The plug wire kit I bought is an 8 cyl kit so I have extra wires.

Edit: I originally bought the Accel 4041 suppression core wires and found out I needed to use solid (copper) core wires.

Here's my parts list. Try the PN's in bold they should be readily available  at your local parts store.

• Plugs:  Champion J6JM, Autolite 303
• Points: Niehoff SE-332B-135, Intermotor MA346
• Condenser: Neihoff DR24, BWD G120A

The spark was still weak so I pulled the distributor cap to clean the rotor and contacts and I found that the carbon brush was stuck in the distributor cap and not touching the rotor. I drilled a small hole through the pocket where the coil wire goes in and was able to push out the carbon brush with the other end of the drill bit. (I re-filled the hole with a drop of silicon.) The spring was rusted and crumbling. I was able to cleanup the pocket and replace the spring. I'd love to get a new distributor cap, but haven't been able to find a replacement.

With everything replaced, I pressed the choke button and twisted the key and she rumbled to life! I spent a little time adjusting the idle screws on the carbs and now the motor starts, idles and revs ups nicely.

Next up the water trial!

This post includes most of what is contained in these postings on FiberGlassics.com. But for more information, here are the complete posts:

• Original Flying Scott... should I even try?
• Help Tuning my Flying Scott 60