Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

Ouch... *That doesn't look good. *Is that fiberglass that's all cracked and delaminated? *How does it look underneath all that mess? *Are those wet wood shavings that are laying on top? *

Definitely got some work ahead of you buddy. *But as said a number of times, this is the place to find the help to get it done right...

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

I haven't read the whole thread but what appears to be going on is the wood used may have been pressed or partical board. This would account for the swelling and shrinking. Letting it dry, removing the cap epoxy and resealing will not fix the problem. Water will wick from the bottom voids and do the same thing. Replacement will be necessary but dosen't appear immediate. Replacement is not as hard or as expensive to preform as most people feel. Just decide if you want to replace with wood, epoxy or fiberglass. Looks like you got plenty of time. Did you do a transom bounce test?

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

I did not pull up the cracked fiberglass, I was short on time. I did drill down thru it and the shavings came up clean and appeared to be dry.....it was in the 20's so maybe they were frozen. I was alone and I did stand on the lower unit and bounced lighty, I'm 200lbs, but it was hard to tell if there was movement. I will do some more investigating when I visit the boat in the next week or two. I will post more pics then.

Bill

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

By the way the "cracked fiberglass" may not be fiberglass but an epoxy of some type to fill voids. ;)

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

Where is the swelling you are talking about, is it only at the top where you took the pics?
Did you do as MJ said trying to flex the the transom applying leverage to the lower unit?
If you did and got no flex then I think you might be OK, but you still need to drill a couple of holes and check wood that comes out.
If it comes out OK you may have a simpler repair. There is a chance that is just filler that has deterioated. That filler may not have been put in there by the factory but may be bondo or the like put in to address the appearance by a previous owner.
If it is and all else is strong and DRY, you will be able to grind it out and cap it in fiberglass as Stinky did on his Baby V, check his post out he did a nice job and you will get an idea of what I mean.
If that transom flexes, or you get wet darker wood come out you need to do a transom job, and from the things I have heard there really is only one way to do it right, with lams of marine wood and glass or one of the new (cost prohibitive) structural foams some builders are using now.
Take a look at your motor bolts that go thru the transom, are they dimpled in from wood expanding and the bolts obviously not moving?
Are there cracks along the joints of the motor well or along any parts of where the transom meets any other walls?
Have you looked at the stringer knees where they come up and join the transom? If they are soft, if they have cracks running along where they join the wall of the transom you will have your answer because you will need to address them right away and do the transom at the same time. It would not be safe to operate the boat under those circumstances.

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

The only thing in the rear of the boat that could swell and shrink wood be the wood. If I'm correct your 2nd pic. is of shavings from drilling into the transom. They look clean but I still have to believe that the wood is getting wet because that the only way it would swell.

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

I tried to post addl pics today but I am having issues signing on to my Photobucket acct. Anyway I drilled many holes in the transom and it is not good. Lot's of moisture in the decent wood shavings but more black dirt than wood shavings. I started digging down from the cap and that wood is a mixture of good and bad wood. Even though there is no flex in the transom when I bounce on the motor I am going to re-do the transom. How do I take the motor off and what to I use to lift it? Would an engine lift for a car work? Will it give me the height needed?

thx

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

Billfish,
You need to disconnect the positive battery cable running to the motor, remove the fuel line, power harness...that just unplugs and the steering cable.
A car engine hoist will do fine. You will or might need a engine lift eye.
Sounds like your new to this, you could replace the transom from cutting out the outter skin, or removing "citting: the cap off. Its alot of work. I'm doing one now and the cost is running up big time. I would suggest pulling the motor off and cutting out all the rotten wood with a chain saw and simply pouring in Seacast. The cost and time should be cheaper and easier on you. Let us know what you decide. Good luck. ;)

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

Hammer,

Thanks. If I can not get a lifting eye to screw into the motor how do I secure the motor to the lift??? straps, rope? I imagine a chain would damage the finish.

Regarding Seacast. I read that it does not stick to wood. Is it close to impossible to remove ALL the wood? If so, can you coat the remaining small amout of wood with Epoxy to give the Seacast something to stick to?


thx

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

I use a 3" wide yellow strap, I make my own harness, and it is different everytime!! LOL

When doing this you have to make sure that you tie under the front of the motor to the top of the harness, as it will tilt forward and filp up side down, Don't ask how I know!! :-X

Just go slow and becareful not to have ant fingers around! You will be fine!

I have done this many times and I will be doing it again soon when the new motor gets here, and this will be a 225 hp bigest I have had to do yet!

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

Billfish, yes, you are required to gat all te wood out of teh transom, but I honestly dont think that anyone ever gets all te wood out. Might take some time, but not as much time to cut the cap off as I did.
My cap is back on and now teh real patience sets in, doing teh body work correctly to the point that you cant tell teh cap was ever off.
You could fill with resin along with chopped mat. Seen the chopped mat on E-Bay.
Be sure to post pics. of the motor removal, We can walk ya through each step. ;)

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

When we removed my 150 johnson we did not use a hoist just three guys and some beer. We pushed the trailer over to where I was going to leave the motor then lowered the motor down onto a peice of wood. Then we disconected all the wires steering etc.. We removed the four bolts holding on the motor then just laid the motor over. The biggest problem we had (three of us) we were prepared for it to weigh more than it did and we faught each other more then the weight of the engine. We just reversed the process to put it back on and you can use the trailer jack to line the holes back up.Oh, and when your rmoving the motor have the your beers sitting out of the way as my buddy knocked mine over.

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

You got to watch where you set those beers! ;) Dang I bet you were mad!

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

Stillrunning,

thx


I dug down into the transom a little and split the wood with a chisel. See attached pics.
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...t2007040-1.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...ept2007037.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...ept2007040.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...ept2007036.jpg

Billfish16

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

Ok, it's time to get out the chain saw and start cutting out all that bad wood. ;)

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

Since it's gettin' close to Halloween I will put a Hockey mask on while I do it and maybe scare the SH!T of of some little f'ers and/or adults. I am not referring to my kids of course.

thx

Billfish16

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

Ok, chainsaw with hockey mask, just don't say with pink thong too,
the pink thongs are reserved for Stinky Hooker.

Let's see, Sandy Hook, NJ,...........



I got it,


chainsaw, hockey mask and camo thong. ;) ;) ;D ;D

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

Camo Thong. Thats it. LOL, Good one Parishht. ;D

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

Hammer,

I found a couple of pics of my boat other than the Transom.

Bow Shot
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...ay52007043.jpg
SSI Tackle Locker
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...ay52007041.jpg

Tackle Locker from insidr the cabin.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...ay52007042.jpg

If the weather holds Sat I am going to the Shore to fish on my buddy's BAYLINER. If so I will stop by my boat and take a few more pics.

Re: Transom Swells about half an inch
 

Oh man, he had to say "BAYLINER" :-X

I'm baaack! Yup after 14 years of the boat sitting and not repairing the transom I decided to sell her. But since I started visiting her to clean her up I'm having second thoughts. I'm still over an hour away from the boat. If I do not sell her and decide to fix the transom I'm going to bring her closer to me.

The transom definitely needs to be replaced and there is at least one soft spot on the deck. Next will be to check the condition of the stringers. So torn as to what to do with her, so many good memories and hoping for many more, if I decide to repair and not sell.

Wow, blast from the past, glad ur back BF.

So the boat hasn t. been used in 14 years? Your a very patient person or a very careful planner. The good news is you now have YouTube to guide you through the whole process, bad news is the price of everything has tripled.

Skunkboat has a very good video explaining the pour cast method,but i would think you would need to address the stringers also. Depending on where the soft spots are in the deck, that all might have to come up also.

Whatever you decide, keep us in the loop and take plenty of pics

Viewed skunkboats videos numerous times.

How much would it cost to get a repair shop to rebuild the transom?

https://youtube.com/shorts/NeTMnkSo2YU
https://youtu.be/bqDLtst1isw

And so it begins.

Get digging
 

Looks like the exploratory stage.
The pour is the way to go, we just finished the capping off the the stringers friday night

Video Updated after about the 3 min mark from previous post
https://youtu.be/evikoPwJOOk

Great work and documentation!

Great work! Fascinating to see.

Transom partially dug out
 

Transom partially dug out.
https://youtube.com/shorts/iOpNCvAeF1c

Raise transom to 25”?
 

Thoughts, pros, cons to raising transom to 25”?

What is your engine shaft length? Primarily freshwater, lake use or open water?

If you have a choice, bigger is better

Unless you already have a good 20" motor that you plan to use...in a lake...

25" is the answer

My motor is a 20” 150 Merc OB with a late 80’s power head. Never plan to fish freshwater. Open bay and inshore fishing will be the primary use.

25 is the way to go if your on the ocean My opinion). my experience with these boat in the past was only when they sunk. they sunk from water over that 20 " transom after going 4 stroke. Also gives you more options with power.


Dont know if you know that spraying down the wet wood with
Isopropyl alcohol will dry it out and release it from the resin. 99% works best but 75% of the shelf in walmart works too.


Feel free to message me if you have any questions, We're a couple steps ahead of you.

Put the liner in tonight for final fit measurements
https://youtu.be/n1oWEnnMAPY

Don't want to jinks your 30+ year old motor but you would be pissed if you go 20" and then have to repower next year.

20" the motorwell will be wet all the time. Afternoon SW wind in Barnegat Bay will be ugly.

Thanks for the tip, never heard of that trick! Also thank you for the offer to contact you with questions!