Its time to Re-power

[C Buchs]

Okay Imho:
1. Determine repower budget & purpose. Are you looking for power upgrade? Pulling toys & kids? Or wanna go home faster...

2. The doesn’t “need” more than a reputable, fuel injected 75-90hp. Although I don’t have regrets I have 4 cylinders to feed vs 2 or 3.

3. Purpose of jackplate/extension. - I Love Mine - but I ended up needing to go with power steering. Mod + mod +...= $$$

But my transom is cleaner & covered reclaimed real estate. Great for swimming, snorkeling/diving etc -God I Wished I lived in FL to enjoy this more ...

That’s my 10” Al jackplate that you Must: Prime & cover with metal compatible bottom paint. That wood has been long replaced with tred top starboard - but you get the idear

current setup with special blued jackplate

Is there a offset "sweet spot" anyone has found for how far back you can bump without having to go to power/hydraulic steering? 6"? 8"? 10" seems to be over the line for sticking with factory setup from what I've been reading. Gazmn, can you re-link pics of your setup? Thanks!

- Devin

We were looking the steering over last night and we think we can do a 6" jack plate by using a longer connection rod to the outboard.

I know a few have gone bigger, but I can't find any good pictures of the steering linkage. Can someone upload some?

I'd also love some first-hand experience. Can anyone provide some opinions?



Jeff

[mtnman711]

To clarify, Jeff and I are working on this together - those are our boats together ready for surgery

We got the motor off mine last night and pushed the ETEC 90 up to it on a stand to get a sense of space and standoff. As Jeff said, 6" appears to be a safe bet, just trying to get assurance from someone who's done it.

Without further input our current plan is to order a 6" manual jackplate and 5 degree wedges (with beveled hardware) for each boat, most likely through Bob's Machine, over the next few days. I've tried reaching out to Bob's for some advice from them but keep missing their tech support (I've called and emailed). Hopefully we can touch base with them soon.

Any input would be appreciated!

- Devin

[Inquisitor]

Gosh! White motors look so nice on the back of our Mac's. Wonder if I can paint mine.

[mtnman711]

Haha! Yeah, I'm excited to get it buttoned up and see how it looks in all its glory We're hoping to get the boats cleaned up and shined up while we're at it to match our shiny white motors

[Seapup]

We were looking the steering over last night and we think we can do a 6" jack plate by using a longer connection rod to the outboard.

I know a few have gone bigger, but I can't find any good pictures of the steering linkage. Can someone upload some?

I'd also love some first-hand experience. Can anyone provide some opinions?

I put a 6" jackplate on my when I switched from the honda 50 to suzuki 90. I had a 2002 with stainless steering syetem, I think the older were aluminum and a different setup. If I remember right I used rectangular aluminum tubing about 2" tall and 4" long and bolted it to the end of the original steering bar to extend an drop it where it attached to the rudder crossbar. That gave the extra length and rise needed. On the 6" setback I think I raised the motor 2-3" to run right, so linkage had to be raised and lengthened. The angle of the lengtherned steering bar reduces full stering to the motor so docking can be more difficult.

Eventually I ran the steering cable straight to the motor, felt it was a more solid setup with a 90 and eliminated the reduced motor turing radius issue. That worked so well I went to a 10" jackplate when I switched motors again to a little 20hp.

[mtnman711]

Great feedback, Seapup! I've seen running the cable straight to the motor mentioned a couple times but I haven't looked at the mechanics of this yet. What's involved with that and what are the downsides?

Thanks!

- Devin