home made tools that work
 

Heres a few tools i made over the years.After our wreck in 2001 i found couldnt lift a bravo anymore,left arm just wasnt much good anymore,so i made a little gadget to bolt on the top cover,just scrap from around the shop but now i could pick it up with the cherry picker and move it a around.later i found the picker was to hard to get back in the shop with a drive on the end of it so i made this two wheel cart to fit the hight of my drive,now i could slide the drive onto the cart and take it anyware very easy,again made out of scrap around the shop.Made a drive stand out of some old pipe and 2x2 bedrails i found along the road, used it since 1990 didnt cost anymore than the welding rod.We always pulled our engs outside the shop so then we had to pick them up with the picker and get them in the eng stand inside,a real pain.My wife works at the hospital and came home one night with this 4 wheel cart they thrue out because it got rusty and wanted to know if i had a use for it,with a little changing i had my cart to move an eng.inside.When we were racing i had extra engs on the floor so i built these rolling stands out of old trailer axils so i could test run them or just roll them out of the way.Well this thread is suppose to be about home made tools and ideas so these are mine.

The rest
 

Heres the rest

Nice Mel!

couple more
 

A drive storage stand so there not laying on the shop floor to stumble over.My shop is 32ft long and my boat on the trailer is 35ft so when hurricain charlly hit in 03 i had to let her sit out in the open,enough stuff flying around at over 100mph that it messed the paint up real good.When wilma came thrue in 05 i was ready,i made a removable tunge that takes about 5min. to remove and makes it 32ft.and i had her inside.

Here is a Wilton C1 vise on a home made 316 stainless receiver mount for all that dirty metal work you want to do outside. Great mobile tool! Yes, it clears the tailgate when opened.

I'll take a picture tonight of a gimbal bearing installation tool that we made from a bearing race from a TRS, flat steel plate from an axle u-bolt, Alpha shift shaft seal assembly and a 1 ft. X 3/4" threaded bolt! :drink:

I'll also post a picture of a special socket I made for removing the shift cable on an Alpha drive.... Basically, it's a deep impact sockect that's been milled down to fit inside the helmet! A standard 3/8 socket won't work because of the plastic guide that sticks out...and you have to put a vice grips on the end of the socket... This took me 15 minutes to make on a belt sander!

In addition....a snake I made that makes removing/installing shift cables 100% easier!

Homeade Gimbal Bearing Intall Tool
 

Here's the gimbal bearing installation tool... Part #: ST-101 :drink:

Shift Cable Re-Installation Tool
 

Here's the quick and dirty shift cable installation tool....

Take an old shift cable.... remove the stainless steel rod that's threaded into the cable..... cut off the threaded end of the rod. Slide the small threaded piece on to the old inner shift calble....

When removing the old shift cable, dissasemble the barrel assembly and thread your homeade cable on to it. Then go outside the boat and pull the old cable out...

Next, unthread your cable tool from the old cable...remove the inner cable from your new shift cable and thread on your cable tool.... go back inside the boat and pull your new shift cable thru....

It'll save you quite a bit of headache having this special tool (snake). :drink:

Alpha Shift cable removal tool'
 

A normal 3/8" socket is too short...

It's a deep impact socket, machined down to fit inside the Alpha Bell housing so the plastic bushing tube doesn't need to be removed...

Here's my idea for a drive alignment tool. You thread the rods on the ends of the prop shaft and use the red lines on the rods as adjustment references. You measure the front and rear of the red lines and adjust your tie bar till they are even ......then take the rods off and adjust you toe-in/out...never having to crawl on the ground to measure the front of the drive torpedo :D

obviously this is for twin applications....

Heres another idea for you guys.....if you want an easier way to fill your outdrives or lower units with gear lube....next time you have a party or are at one where you can get your hands on either a quarter barrel or one of the heinekin mini-kegs grab it. On the top install a tire air valve you can hook up to any air compressor....on the bottom side install your fill line that goes to the drive......and of course you need a way to fill the container with gear lube so get crafty...maybe have someone weld something on. I made this contraption out of a plastic 1 gallon container and it works great. The only drawback is it doesnt take allot of pressure before the side start to bulge outwards. so i strapped some 1/2" plywood pieces all the way around for support. Anyway you hook up to you drive attach the air line and shoot some air in and it forces the fluid up and into the drive.....full in no time! :D

Wally, kegs, pieces of wood, what??? Just go down to the Home Depot, pick up a 9.99 garden sprayer, hack the sprayer end off the tube, and attach a fill fitting with a small piece of tubing. Fill it, pump it, squeze the handle and your full. I'll post a pic later :D

Been there, done that with the sprayer....takes too long cause the hose is too small...and plus your re-pumping that darn thing all the time to build pressure....with mine you just attach your air compressor and press the trigger....fills a drive in under a minute :D

I'll try and find my plastic version of this, take a few pics and show ya what i mean :D

You can put just about anything in an empty propane or AC cylinder and preasurise it. Great little gadget. Even holds air to inflate trailer tires. :)

Gear Lube Filler Upper
 

IF YOU GET A STAINLESS STEEL WATER FIRE EXTINGUSER
REMOVE WATER AND FILL WITH GEAR LUBE PUT NOZZEL IN HOLE AFTER YOU PRESSURIZE IT AND SQUEEZE TRIGGER
IT WORKS I FILL REAR IN RACECAR ALL THE TIME THIS WAY.
MAKE SURE YOU REMBER THAT THEY IS OIL IN IT IF THE IS A FIRE NEAR BY. :pLOL