Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I'm new to this boating thing and the forum. I moved to east TN where there is plenty of water to go around, so I thought I'd buy a project fishing/camping/whatever boat. We are slowly making new friends here, but thought this would be a perfect way to get out and about. My family loves the water, any water.

I'm currently trying to get it ready for the spring, and thought this might be a place I could learn a thing or two. Some might say she isn't a looker, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So far I've cleaned it up some since it sat for almost 2 years. I have no clue what it really is. The guy I bought it from said it was an 18'. The registration card shows a 20' yukon. I've never heard of it. It has a 1980's-ish 85 hp Johnson. He used it for a fishing boat, so it was already part of the way to what I envisioned. It came with a bimini top, and a fairly nice trailer, that I could probably sale for what I gave for the whole package. The floors and carpet were replaced a few years back, and are solid. I'm gonna move the seats around for a better fishing set up. I want to swap the foot controlled trolling motor for a more simple hand operated model that I can mount out of the way a little better. I'm more used to them anyway. I removed the old force controls that went to the previous motor, will probably relocate the johnson stuff in its place. This brings me to my first question. He used a screw driver as a key for the johnson, but the force has a good ignition switch and I have the key for it. Can I swap the good force ignition switch for the bad johnson ignition switch? I plan on cleaning the whole thing really good. I hear A/C coil cleaner works well for the toons, what say you? I have a connection to a heat/ac guy that says there are different kinds. Some acidic, some alkaline. What do I need? I then plan on coating in shark skin. I will also be replacing any and all rusty crusty hardware with new stainless stuff. Luckily I work for a fastener distribution company, and my branch deals with the marine industry. Most of my customers deal with aluminum bending and welding, so I'll be using that resource in the near future. I've got a couple issues. The whole transom mount thing is a little flimsy for the 85 hp johnson, so I'm gonna have to do some bracing/repairing/fabricating. I think I've got it figured out for a fix though. Pics will come when I get to this point. Lastly, the engine doesn't run. It has good compression, but no fire to the plugs. Where should I start on fixing this? I can work on stuff, but electricity is not my forte. Thanks in advance for any help or input.

Good luck.
You definitely came to the right place for advice.

Well, I'd like to think so, but no answers to any of my questions yet.

I would be more than happy to give you all the advice you need, but I don't have any.
I am NOT mechanically inclined.
Good luck.

Thanks!

Well, here is a pic of the trolling motor removed and a couple of the seats moved to the front.

Well I may can help a little with the ignition / key switch questions. I recently started working on a Johnson 30hp motor myself and it had no key. It was just easier and cheaper to buy the switch online and replace it. I'm pretty sure the Mercury one will not be plug and play. You could probably make it work but your gonna have to splice wires etc and it will be too much of a hassle personally. On the spark, are both plugs getting spark? If it's just one, then a coil may be bad. If that is the case, change the coil around and see if it fires the other plug and if so, you have your answer. If both are not firing, then the power pack may have gone out. In my case, the power pack went out and I had to buy one of them too. Now once you have compression, spark, then its on to fueling. If the fuel pump works and the carbs are clean it should start up and run. Good luck.

In any case, find the HP / Year / Model number if possible or at least close and got to this link to find parts you need. If you don't like their pricing, google for better.

http://www.iboats.com/Johnson-Outboard- ... _id.271265

Teddy

Thanks alot! I'll let you know how it goes when I get to that point. I'm currently still "working" on the transom area issues. I've found a nice piece of scrap aluminum bar that I've cut in half. So now I have two pieces that are about 20" long x 6" wide x 1/4" thick. I'm gonna bend those to match the curve of the logs. Cut the welds and structure that is welded to the logs, so that it makes a slot to slide the bent plate into. Weld and sand the cracks that are present. Weld the plate to the log, and the structure to the plate. That will give all that stress back there a much larger footprint to spread out on. I'll then weld a couple of pieces of angle aluminum to the sides of the transom where I will bolt it to a piece of square aluminum tube that will mount to the structure above the plates I weld in. It won't be perfect, but it will be a lot stronger than it is now. I'll post some before and after pics once it's all done. Thanks again for the help!

Update for anyone interested. She's on the water!

That motor is going to have coils and a power pack. They may need to be replaced if you are not getting fire to any plugs

tenNesseeCat wrote:Update for anyone interested. She's on the water!

Wow. What did I miss?

Coldbrew wrote:Wow. What did I miss?

hahaha, yea it kinda went from a work in progress, to on the water pretty quick. 90+ degree heat kinda forced my hand there. I've still got the re-enforcing stuff to do, but i've changed what i'm going to do. I had a welder take a look at it, and he seemed hesitant to weld on toons that old. I've got some angle and square tube aluminum coming that i'm gonna use to add some strength is some places. Other than that, I got the radio working. Installed some new speakers. Moved some seats around. Got her to fire up. Rebuild the water pump. Fabricated some break lights for the trailer. Got her wet, and took off. I stayed fairly close to the boat ramp on the test run. Once she ran for for about an hour with no issues, we took off. Tested her out with about 1,000 lbs of people on board this past weekend, and learned some things. We had fun though. Found a nice spot to tie out, and a good spot on an island to camp. She's still a work in progress, that we are enjoying along the way.

My daughter loving it, and the beach spot we found.

Good times on the water! That's what it's all about. Enjoy and keep us updated.

Glad to hear it up and running. Enjoy....