R & R Starter SB Chevy Twins 255 Formula
07-04-2011, 01:12 PM
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R & R Starter SB Chevy Twins 255 Formula
Re: Restoration project- 1979 Formula 255 Liberator.
Boat restoration and reporting the progress of it becomes a chronology of events. Some are barely worh mentioning, such as a new battery or something like that. Occasionaly something comes along that the knowledge of how a particular problem was solved is worth sharing.
I received my re-built Quadra-Jet Marine Carburetor from National Carburetors in Jacksonville, Fl. and was waiting on the Fed Ex man when it arrived. It's July 4th weekend and I was excited about installing and ajusting it so we could get out on the water.
I put the carb on, hooked everything up, turned on the water to my "muffs" and the starter wouln't connect with the flywheel. All I got was the spin of the starter with no bendix runout to engage the flywheel. This is the starboard engine, one of 2: 260 Mercruisers. I had often dreaded this day because I knew replacing it was going to be pure hell. You can't even see the damn starter ...much less get to it to remove it.
The problem in replacing the starter on this engine is that in the starboard position in a deep vee hull like a Formula and many others, you quickly run out of access room since the starter is in the starboard or outboard location in a spot where the hull is sloping up towards the chine. Understand that the port engine starter access is difficult, at least you can see it and there is room for access beneath it because it is near the deepest part of the hull at the keel.
I enlisted the help of my neighbor and his 21 year old son "Alex" who run a part time marine repair business to sort this out. The first thing we figured was to remove the outside exhaust manifold as well as all of the rear cockpit interior pieces. After removing all of this stuff plus the starboard battery, we positioned an old U haul blanket in front of the engines. We could then access the outside bolt (there are 2: verticle bolts through the starter base that bolt it to the block) which is the shorter of the two bolts.
The longer inside bolt is the real problem here. You have to get a socket and rachet up between the oil pan and the starter to get to the long bolt. Once you position the rachet though, there is no room between the hull and the starter to swing the rachet to loosen the bolt.
Finally after about 30 minutes of trial and error with different combinations of sockets and extensions...it hit me like a flash...AIR RACHET!!! So I got my air tools out and I have a 3/8" drive air rachet that we thought would work. The problem we now had was that everytime you get into that tight area with the air racchet the operating lever would get pressed spinning the rachet before you can get it on the bolt. We removed Alex and the rachet from the bilge and I then figured out how to take the air rachet apart...spin the head around and put it back together so that the operating lever or trigger faced up and did not get jammed into the hull while you are trying to use it. Suddenly Alex emerged from the boat with the old starter.
OK...now getting the new starter in. The outside short bolt went in quickly. Remember...you can't see any part of the inside bolt or where it goes...it's all located by feel. Also think about how you have to contort yourself from around the front of the engine accross the front and underneath the side of the engine. You can barely get a hand in the correct location to put the inside bolt in the hole. After several attempts over a 30 ~ 45 period of trying to do this and having the bolt fall out as he was positioning the air rachet in place...Alex had to come out and take a break.
Sometimes the simplest things become a solution to a hellacious problem. How in the hell to get the bolt to stay in the hole so we could get the air rachet in place. Conventional wisdom says to put the bolt in the socket and just hope that you don't cross thread it...too risky... a cross threaded starter bolt would mean pulling the engine and re-tapping the hole. Again..it came to me like a flash of lightning....CHEWING GUM!!! Alex chewed up a stick of gum...put it on the threads of the bolt and took off to "Bilge Hell" to get it done. As soon as we heard the air rachet spin the bolt home and stop we knew we were good.
The rest is a reversal of re-installing all of the connections as well as new exhast manifold gasket, exhaust manifold, hoses clamps and electrics.
I hit the switch and ZOOOOM...the new starter works!!!!
OK...this is something that any shop would look at and figure "Pull the engine"...spend the money and make it easy. Most of us driveway mechanics shudder at the thought of pulling one of two sterndrive engines just to change a starter. This job could easily get to be a $1250 ~ $1500 deal in a shop. We did it for less than a third of that.
In order to do this...you MUST have an air rachet...and a very flexible, mechanicaly inclined young person that can become a part time contortionist in order to successfully complete this job.
I am suprised that no one has devised a top mount starter set up for small block Chevy marine installations. It's common on big blocks in "Go Fast" sport boats but I have not seen it on small blocks.
So...now I have a new starter on my starboard engine and hopefully I'll spend some time on the water this 4th of July weekend.
Hopefully some one some day searching this forum will benefit from this...so I'll ad these key words for this thread to snag the search engines...Replacing a Small Block Chevy Marine Starter In a Formula Deep Vee hull boat.
Boat restoration and reporting the progress of it becomes a chronology of events. Some are barely worh mentioning, such as a new battery or something like that. Occasionaly something comes along that the knowledge of how a particular problem was solved is worth sharing.
I received my re-built Quadra-Jet Marine Carburetor from National Carburetors in Jacksonville, Fl. and was waiting on the Fed Ex man when it arrived. It's July 4th weekend and I was excited about installing and ajusting it so we could get out on the water.
I put the carb on, hooked everything up, turned on the water to my "muffs" and the starter wouln't connect with the flywheel. All I got was the spin of the starter with no bendix runout to engage the flywheel. This is the starboard engine, one of 2: 260 Mercruisers. I had often dreaded this day because I knew replacing it was going to be pure hell. You can't even see the damn starter ...much less get to it to remove it.
The problem in replacing the starter on this engine is that in the starboard position in a deep vee hull like a Formula and many others, you quickly run out of access room since the starter is in the starboard or outboard location in a spot where the hull is sloping up towards the chine. Understand that the port engine starter access is difficult, at least you can see it and there is room for access beneath it because it is near the deepest part of the hull at the keel.
I enlisted the help of my neighbor and his 21 year old son "Alex" who run a part time marine repair business to sort this out. The first thing we figured was to remove the outside exhaust manifold as well as all of the rear cockpit interior pieces. After removing all of this stuff plus the starboard battery, we positioned an old U haul blanket in front of the engines. We could then access the outside bolt (there are 2: verticle bolts through the starter base that bolt it to the block) which is the shorter of the two bolts.
The longer inside bolt is the real problem here. You have to get a socket and rachet up between the oil pan and the starter to get to the long bolt. Once you position the rachet though, there is no room between the hull and the starter to swing the rachet to loosen the bolt.
Finally after about 30 minutes of trial and error with different combinations of sockets and extensions...it hit me like a flash...AIR RACHET!!! So I got my air tools out and I have a 3/8" drive air rachet that we thought would work. The problem we now had was that everytime you get into that tight area with the air racchet the operating lever would get pressed spinning the rachet before you can get it on the bolt. We removed Alex and the rachet from the bilge and I then figured out how to take the air rachet apart...spin the head around and put it back together so that the operating lever or trigger faced up and did not get jammed into the hull while you are trying to use it. Suddenly Alex emerged from the boat with the old starter.
OK...now getting the new starter in. The outside short bolt went in quickly. Remember...you can't see any part of the inside bolt or where it goes...it's all located by feel. Also think about how you have to contort yourself from around the front of the engine accross the front and underneath the side of the engine. You can barely get a hand in the correct location to put the inside bolt in the hole. After several attempts over a 30 ~ 45 period of trying to do this and having the bolt fall out as he was positioning the air rachet in place...Alex had to come out and take a break.
Sometimes the simplest things become a solution to a hellacious problem. How in the hell to get the bolt to stay in the hole so we could get the air rachet in place. Conventional wisdom says to put the bolt in the socket and just hope that you don't cross thread it...too risky... a cross threaded starter bolt would mean pulling the engine and re-tapping the hole. Again..it came to me like a flash of lightning....CHEWING GUM!!! Alex chewed up a stick of gum...put it on the threads of the bolt and took off to "Bilge Hell" to get it done. As soon as we heard the air rachet spin the bolt home and stop we knew we were good.
The rest is a reversal of re-installing all of the connections as well as new exhast manifold gasket, exhaust manifold, hoses clamps and electrics.
I hit the switch and ZOOOOM...the new starter works!!!!
OK...this is something that any shop would look at and figure "Pull the engine"...spend the money and make it easy. Most of us driveway mechanics shudder at the thought of pulling one of two sterndrive engines just to change a starter. This job could easily get to be a $1250 ~ $1500 deal in a shop. We did it for less than a third of that.
In order to do this...you MUST have an air rachet...and a very flexible, mechanicaly inclined young person that can become a part time contortionist in order to successfully complete this job.
I am suprised that no one has devised a top mount starter set up for small block Chevy marine installations. It's common on big blocks in "Go Fast" sport boats but I have not seen it on small blocks.
So...now I have a new starter on my starboard engine and hopefully I'll spend some time on the water this 4th of July weekend.
Hopefully some one some day searching this forum will benefit from this...so I'll ad these key words for this thread to snag the search engines...Replacing a Small Block Chevy Marine Starter In a Formula Deep Vee hull boat.
