Go Big or Go Home

Am I Having Starter Problems Again?
I decided to do a mid-winter start up to run and flush the motor and found I have another starting/starter problem. This was the original issue when I bought the boat and it took me a full season and 3 starters, new battery cables, new dual batteries and a new starter solenoid to sort out. Here we go again...

Since dry-docking the boat in September, I have kept both the batteries on trickle chargers to keep them fresh. But when I went to start the motor both fully charged batteries were unable to turn the motor. The starter was able to rotate the motor about 1/4 of a turn and stopped. When I removed the plugs the motor would turn freely. But the batteries could not turn-over the motor!

The Starter Isn't Getting Enough Amps
Wondering if I might have a bad cell in a battery, I took my Jump Starter/Charging station and dialed it to 40 Amps and connected it to the #1 battery. I was still unable to turn the motor. Next I took the Jump Starter/Charging station and connected the positive clamp to the starter relay and connected the negative clamp to the starter body. (These are the two positions the battery cables connect to the motor.) Essentially I by-passed the battery cables. Then I turned the key and the starter spun the motor robustly and the motor roared to life!

One of the symptoms I've had is the starter getting very hot. I'm told this is a result of the starter not getting enough Amps so the loss of amperage in the cables would make sense.

Here are my old battery cables. They were made from a #6 gauge jumper cable with crimped-on auto-parts store ends. (Its the orange and black cable, ignore the arrow it is pointing to cotter pins.)

Go Big on the Battery Cables
I decided it was time to upgrade the battery cables. Originally I had made a set of cables using a set of #6 gauge battery jumper cable purchased from the local car parts store. I cut the clamps off and crimped on bronze battery cable ends. Since I am running a pair of marine starting batteries I should have 2000 cranking Amps and this should be plenty to turn this starter/motor. I did some research and found there are several factors including the diameter of the cable, length of the cable and the quality of the connections that work against long battery cables. I have all three going against me.

I found a website that recommended to get 100 Amps through a 15' cable you need at least a 1/0 gauge cable. Not 6, not 4, not 2, not 1 gauge... 1/0! And they suggested 2/0 to be safe. I found a seller on E-bay that makes custom marine quality cables and ordered a pair of 2/0 cables for just shy of $185. They called and warned me these cables are 5/8" diameter each. When the cables arrived they were impressive (and heavy). I worried I wouldn't be able to run them around the motor under the cowl.

The Installation
I spent the better part of a day re-running the cables and neatly attaching them to my batteries and to the starter solenoid and starter. Guess what? I turned the key, the starter spun the motor and she fired right up!. The moral to this story... a #6 battery cable is like a straw and two 1000 Amp batteries are like a fire hydrant. The 2/0 cables are likely over kill but they are more like the fire hose I needed.

The battery cables on my 15' boat are 15' feet long! The positive cable starts a couple feet from the stern on the port side of the boat at the battery on/off switch. The negative cable is on a ground buss on the back side of the board where the on/off switch is mounted.

 

The battery cables go back to the stern and across the transom and they are attached on the starboard side of the boat where they then pass through the cable hole in the splash well.

From the cable hole they they continue back to the middle of the boat along with the fuel line, electrical harness along with the steering and throttle control cables.

They pass into the motor housing along with the fuel line and then around the front of the motor and down the starboard side of the motor.

 

The negative cable runs under the starter is grounded to the motor at the starter bracket.

 The positive cable goes all the way back and is attached to the rear side of the starter solenoid. 

In all that's a 15' journey for the amps to travel.

1960 Dorsett Belmont - Newport Harbor 2013

Summers over and we took the boat out of the water for the season. Here is our slideshow from many outings enjoying the Newport Harbor this summer.

Sharpe Family Photo Summer 2013

Sharpe Family Photo Summer 2013
a.k.a. the "Meerkat Family Goes Boating"

When we were all actually together this summer, unfortunately the motor was still in the final tuning stages and the boat wasn't out on the water. So this image photo is merged from two photos. The first is from when we all jumped into the boat in our back yard last Christmas. With the camera propped up on a ladder, Kylen set the timer and scrambled into the boat. We all popped our heads up and click, Meerkats! Using the magic of Photoshop, I cut out the background and laid the image on a photo we actually shot from inside the boat while cruising the Newport Harbor this summer. As far as I'm concerned this is Christmas Card material.

Scott Racing Division

Bob McCulloch pushed the envelope chasing boat racing speed records and in 1958 his new 3 cylinder 60 hp Flying Scott was introduced. The Scott 60 was popular in NOA OPC racing 1958 and 1959 where it enjoyed some success, especially setting speed records.

Here are a few photos collected from the web of Scott Racing Team and their 1960's era PowerCat racing boats.

Team McCulloch boats at Carlsbad, CA Source: http://powercatboat.com/35.html

The McCulloch factory was at the LA Airport so a lot of the testing and racing was done in the salt of the Long Beach, CA harbor.

Source: http://www.powercatboat.com/33.html

And for fun... a few modern "racers" with their Flying Scotts...

  

Dick Davis doing 60 M.P.H. With a pair of Scott 75s strapped to the back of his PowerCat.

source http://www.powercatboat.com/video/video.html
 

 

My friend from FiberGlassics.com "Pony Boy" in his G3 with 75HP Flying Scott...
mine wouldn't be running without his help!

The Flying Scott on Route 66

Robert McCulloch, founder of McCulloch Corporation had a love for boat racing, and by the time he graduated from Stanford University in 1932, he had won 2 national championship trophies for outboard hydroplane racing. Being a racer at heart, when McCulloch purchased Atwatter-Scott in 1958 he focused on developing the 60 and 75 H.P. Flying Scott outboard motors.

McCulloch built a skunk works testing facility at "Site 6" on Lake Havasu, AZ (where he also ended up building an entire city). For a glimpse into the facility in 1962, check out the clips from episode of the TV show Route 66 titled "Go Read the River" (Season 2, Episode 23) filmed on location in 1962.

Run It Till the Wheels Fall Off?

When I had the trailer upside down working on the wiring I realized the the left rear leaf spring hanger has broken in half and the rear of the leaf spring is no longer connected to the trailer. 

Given the fact that I don't have any welding equipment, this won't be a "do-it-yourself" fix.So I called a local mobile welder and $250 later my $2 clevis was fixed. Next up... I'm buying a welder.

Keeping it Legal

Along with our old boat we got an old Superior Mfg. Co. trailer. When we first bought the boat the first thing we did was to replace the tires and wheel bearings. Other than that, the trailer has been neglected. 

Then when we were having the gel-coat repairs done, George got his buffer tangled up in the loose wiring and tore out one of the sides of the wire harness. It was time to re-wire the trailer to keep it legal.

See the wires dangling from the trailer? You can almost make out the piece of
string the  previous owner used as a wire tie.

Since we were a little over cast on Saturday morning I figured I could take an hour or two and rewire the trailer. I bought the 20' trailer wire harness kit from Auto Zone and I was ready to go. My goal was to to run the wiring inside the trailer frame to keep everything neat and tidy. As usual I under estimated the time required for the project and spent the next 5 hours messing with the trailer.

First I drilled a 1/2 hole at the top front of the trailer frame and drilled another 1/2 hole at the bottom back of the trailer frame. Then I proceeded for two to three hours to frustrate myself trying to run a single wire down the backbone. First I attached a nut to the wire and lifted the nose of the trailer 5' in the air. Then I added more weight by taping a deburring bit to the wire and lifted again. No matter what, the wire would fall about 3 feet and stop. I knew if I had a barn with a hay loft I could winch the trailer straight up in the air and my weighted wire would fall down to the bottom but the closest hay loft is probably 100 miles away...

So I figured a "fish tape" would do the trick. (A fish tape is a roll of flat wire that you can push down a run of pipe.) But that would require another trip to Home Depot and parking is so hard to find on Holiday weekends I didn't want to leave again. So I went and got the "fish tape" we all have in our bedroom closets... a wire coat hanger. 

The down side to this plan was I would need to drill a 1/2" hole every 3 feet, so I drilled away. But then when I was on my last hole my cordless drill battery died. I so desperately wanted to finish my project that I spent an hour trying to drill the last hole (charge for five minutes, drill, charge, drill). It was silly and I was just frustrating my self. I even considered driving to Home Depot to buy another battery. (I call this heat-stroke logic.) So I put the battery in the charger and went in and took a nap! When I woke up the battery was charged I drilled my last hole and within an hour the trailer was wired.

I still need to add rubber grommets where the wire passes out of the trailer neck and at the tail lights and I need to at least paint the holes where there is raw metal exposed to keep them from rusting. (I actually I need to paint the whole trailer.) But at least the wiring is now all neat and tidy.