When we made the first page for this boat we never thought we would fill it. Now the last pages are filled with so much “stuff” that our old website builder won’t add anymore without locking up. So it's time for a new page and a new start.

Having all those outdrive issues last summer left us with a Frankenstein outdrive made from parts of 4 different drives on the boat and a pile of junk parts that most ended up going to the dump. So we have a short list of parts to hunt for over the winter with outdrive parts being at the top.

Ran across this eBay auction that was listed as “270 outdrive” with a starting price of 100 bucks. Still had 4 days left with the auction and they wouldn’t ship but their location was only about 35 minutes away. After looking at the picture we shoot the guy an email asking about what was in the picture and how much would it cost for him to end the auction? He writes back, how about a $130 buy it now and come pick it up on Saturday. Seeing what was in the picture we paid the second the auction was changed to lock it in.

Go down to pick it all up and after loading everything I had to ask, why did he let it all go so cheap? He said he had a Bayliner for 15 years before it rotted out from under him. Now he’s done. No more boats. For that matter he is about to move to a condo in the mid-west after cleaning out.

So for a $130 bucks we got 2 Volvo 270 outdrives with all the pieces on them, two 14X19 Right props. One just back from the prop shop. 2 steering helmets, an alternator, assortment of attaching parts and prop cones and a Volvo manual. Not a bad haul.

So now we have these outdrives. They are both 2.15 to 1 or nothing we can use like they are. To us though this was the best case buy we could think of. We got two drives and they are all together. Meaning all their shimming and pieces and such was factory from top to bottom. No more pieces out of my Volvo box from who knows where.

The plan is twofold. First is to take the 1.63 gears we still have sitting on a shelf from the original drive that was on the boat for 40 years and install them in the first drive. Second, take the drive off the 19 that is on it now, the Frankenstein drive, and take the 1.56 gears out of it and install them in the second drive.

We really want to do them right this time. We have been reading up a lot on it and even with our crude tools we should be able to do a bottom end gear swap and do it right. The top is a little trickier but like said there is no reason to make any changes there so we should be good. We'll see.

So its winter and we got nothing better to do so why not try an outdrive rebuild. Kind of wish we had the extra room to be able to take apart all the drives at one time we need so we can match up what gear set would go in what drive better but with no room and for that matter we are not even sure if the build is going to work so the drive on the boat stays together until the first is done and we are happy it’s done. Just to be on the safe side. A new motor and no outdrive may cause some extreme stress this spring and we don't want that.

So we get the old gears (1.63 or standard Volvo V-8 gears) out of what was left of the old bottom end that's been sitting on a shelf. This time though we are using a manual. Not so much for taking it apart, we have done that before. More for fully understanding how we would put it back together and what shim changes what pattern, etc, etc. Really getting to know what Volvo was thinking. Once you started to get into their mindset it seemed pretty straight forward. You had to watch out for English verses metric measurements that they used interchangeably throughout for some reason. All depended what part of the manual you were in. Beside that you just have to follow the steps and do a lot of math.

We have kind of done this Volvo thing before but for the most part it was just bolting pieces on top of one another. A little bit inside but we were in a hurry and after doing some studying we knew we were on a wing and a prayer with what we did with the last drive.

So we pick one of the two new drives at random. Roll it out to the middle of the garage and drain it. The oil looks old but no water. The drive was also full and didn’t leak even though it was lying on its side for at least a day or so. That was a plus. Took it all apart right there with a little help from our newly super-sized press.

The next step up in size press was too big for the shop for how much we use it and the small one we had was useless. Plenty of power for what we needed it for just not big enough to get anything inside it to use it. So it collected dust while we came up with other ways of doing what we bought it for. Figuring we have a couple drives to take apart and put back together it was time for a rebuild. Four new longer sticks of “L” metal with lots of matching holes then put it all back together like it came from the factory. Now the deck can move all the way down to almost the floor. Almost three feet total. Original bought it to take apart the V-drive for the race boat. Didn’t fit in it back then, will now. Just hope we don’t have to test it but for a $40 upgrade it was worth it even if we never use it on the V-drive.

So back to this drive thing. It was a little salted up but didn’t come apart too bad. Everything will need to be cleaned up and from age and salt. The lower's case will have to be modified by closing off the water pick up and slimming it down some. If this works out this drive will be our back up but we want it as nice as possible because if we are installing it we don’t think we will be in the mood or have the time to be tweaking the lower case like we would in the middle of winter.

We spent some time filling the water pick up in the lower front of the drive. The boat doesn’t use it and it causes drag to start with and even more by not using it. So we filled it with some two part expanding foam and after slimming the case with a disk sander we filled in the grill with JB weld and feathered out the rest. More shaping and smoothing of the case and then it was scrubbed and cleaned out. Tape it all up and shoot it with black paint getting it ready for building.

So we now have everything apart down to the last shim. Cleaned and polished and laid out in order on steel cookie sheets layered with crisp white paper towels. The soft kind, not the cheap ones. We have our books, calculators and micrometers. Our Volvo formulas are printed out on paper and we have found all the numbers off the case and gears required to fill in the blanks. We do all the math twice and then measure the shims there and then do the math again. Then it dawns on us to check the old gear set because the math is saying that no changes were needed with the shim pack that came in the drive. Low and behold after some scrubbing on the old gears the adjustment number on the 2.15 gear was just one number off from the set that we were installing. Now that was luck. It basically means that the new gears will only be different from the old by .001 inches which is well within spec.

I have to say it was a bit disappointing in a way. We were ready to find out what we needed for shims and either find them in our Volvo box or maybe even have to order it but we were ready to do it right, whatever it took!

We could have changed this gear set out with nothing more special than a couple screwdrivers, a hammer and a section of inch and half pipe to drive the gears off the prop shaft. Could have been done on a picnic table and it would be as good as Volvo factory when done just because of dumb luck. There is a couple more measurements you make when the whole bottom end is together but there shouldn’t be any issues as long as these shims are right.

With the bottom end put back together and all of the final measurements complete it was time to move on to the other parts of the outdrive. We didn’t plan on making any changes to these parts. Mainly the reason for taking them apart in the first place was just to clean them out and to give them an inspection. With everything passing quality control meant all that was needed was reassembling them and stacking them back on top of the bottom section. Sounds easier than it is but at the same time it’s not that hard when you are putting things together things that are super clean and ready to go. A whole lot nicer than when taking it apart.

Over the next couple days, just because were in no hurry, we assembled the rest of the drive. Filled it with 40 weight oil and a court of marvels mystery oil just to give the old seals a new chance at life. They were in great shape to start with but the marvels will just freshen them up a little. Made sure everything spun freely and locked in the gear was it was supposed to. Then put it over to the side on the stand and put a clean white cloth underneath of it and check it over the next few days to make sure there was any oil leaks. So far so good.

With one down there was only one other left to do. The last one was a little tricky but we came away with a better feeling towards doing a gear change with our simple caveman tools. All kidding aside it was really possible to do it properly with what we had. Not saying there couldn’t be other issues unseen but we do know what we changed was done properly.

So we have the second drive up on the stand. Get the fluids draining and noticed that all telling smell, it’s full of gear oil. Now that sucks. Some people still don’t know that Volvo Pentas use straight weight engine oil and nothing more. From what I have seen a heavier oil like gear oil actually causes damage. It’s just my opinion but I think it causes the bearings to overheat so we have our fingers crossed that everything is still intact inside. Just like the other drive we have to do a gear change but with this one we also have to get that yoke completely out of the top then because the second U joint is bad and there is no other way to get it out.

This is where things get a little screwy. We had a couple projects going on at the same time. One with the 19 another with a 24 and there was a major snowstorm coming things and … things got a little mixed up. Long story short, we got a couple days a while back where it got real warm out. Warm enough to pull the outdrive off the 19. Think it took something like 13 min. but as nice as it was out it could have took an hour and it wouldn’t have mattered for being January.

So after we give it overnight for as much of the gear oil as possible to drain out we get out our tools and start taken apart. It turned into the hardest outdrive we have ever taken apart ever! At one point we were willing to sacrifice parts of it just to get other parts apart. When you’re using a sledgehammer and cut off wheels on a disk grinder it’s no delicate operation that’s for sure. A couple times we actually just wanted things to break but it hung tough the whole time. Took four days of soaking, banging, prying, heat, more soaking, etc, etc. Really thought we were taken it apart just to salvage some of its parts for a while there.

So we finally do get everything apart and at this point we are thinking we have come this far why not give it a chance and try to put this thing back together. If not we could take the best of the drive that came off the boat and the best of the salted up and frozen solid 270 we just bought and put them both together. But that kind of leaves us where we started with another Frankenstein outdrive. Again having time we gave it our best shot of keep the original drive altogether except for the repairs that we must do. Took the most time just fixing the damage that we caused beating on the thing. We were really careful not to get into any of the mating surfaces but we weren’t perfect. Everything had to be fixed back to perfect and we still had to close up all the water passages and fill them in and then slim the whole case down. A lot of time was spent there.

We probably had close to two weeks into it by the time we were ready to assemble something. We had to make sure that everything was 100% before we ever put a wrench on our Frankenstein drive. Then we had to get the gears out of it before we could measure or assemble anything.

Just like last time our gear sets were almost identical in measurements. It was a totally different number than the last outdrive but yet it worked perfectly with the set of gears that was going in it down to .001 again. Just dumb luck. If we would have switched the two gear sets between the drives they both would have required serious shimming to get them back in line. Because they went in the right drives they required nothing. Again just dumb luck but we will take it.

It took a few more days to make sure everything was perfectly assembled. This is the drive we plan on running and with a brand-new motor we plan on running it a lot. Every measurement fell well within spec. Everything was back together like it should and all rotated perfectly. Also filled this one up with the quart of Marvel’s mystery oil and straight weight 40. Set it up on its stand and put a white pad underneath of it make sure it didn’t leak. It’s been days in the drop. We have our fingers crossed. Now just for another warm day so we can install it.

It took a while but that warm day… well... warm enough day came. Have a few things piling up in the garage and been looking for a day like it to get rid of a couple things. Between now and the last update we have had rain and snow storms until the ground was like quicksand. Not good conditions to install things including having to get in and out of the boat. Even though the sump pump is still running in the house today was dry enough to get the outdrive off the needed stand and installed on the boat.

Had to change the Volvo steering hood for the first time ever. Not a big fan of the new style that we are using. It’s bigger for no apparent reason. Make it harder to get the drive on the shield’s pins without moving the steering back and forth over and over. We were too far along with the install to back out to safely alter the helmet this time but if and when the drive has to come off again it will be getting a little trimming with a cut off disc to make life easier.

We also installed a new boat cover. The last one didn’t survive a couple major snow storms with 50+mph winds. The 19 was not alone. We also have to replace the 24’s top and the Biesemeyer’s top all for the same reasons. For as nice half of this winter has been the other half has made up for it in a bad way. Temp’s in the 60’s and then the next week we get 15 inches of snow and a week later rain and wind like a tropical storm without a name. Crazy and a little too much for a piece of fabric to handle. Replacing them also really put a dent in our winter boat budget but it had to be done.

Being under the cover for the first time in months we noticed that the boat held up well but will need a serious cleaning and there is a dreaded paint repair on the bow deck. Looks like the paint repair we did last spring had an issue and we know why. We had a can of Reducer labeled as an Activator (they really need to put their labels on better) that got in the mix. The paint repair was done just before the boat show last spring. The paint dried to the touch but never got “hard” so to speak. Then the motor blew up and it went on the back shelf and the paint was forgotten while more important things got done. So we have another thing to add to the list but the list so far this year for the 19 is very short. Hope it stays that way.

Having a few warm days during the winter is such a tease. We did get a couple things done and out of the garage and was happy for it but you knew your time is limited and were not out of the woods yet. Just a few days after the picture above we got a couple typical March storms dropping a foot plus of snow each along with some high winds. Throw in some flying tree limbs and we ended up with three boat tops with big holes in them. They were not new but should have been good for another year or two each. One was so bad we had to replace it mushing through the snow.

Here it is well into April and we’ve not even got started yet it’s been such a lousy cold and wet spring following the snow. The last couple days it’s warmed up a bit. We are still 15 degrees below normal but at least it’s not dropping down in the 20’s at night.

You ever do a project and it comes out nice but after looking at it for a while you think if you were to do it over again you would do this different and that different? This motor is that project for us. We had it, built it, rebuilt it again and again changing this and doing that. By the time we got where we wanted the pieces that were still around that we started with were getting tired. Now we have a new start.

So the sun is out and we pull the top off. Just because we have used the trim system more than few times with the outdrive project and it sat all winter and it’s a tight, new motor we hooked up the good battery charger with a “Jump” feature for a spell. We also got our water plugged into the transom, tools for quick tuning and timing light. Even filled the carb with gas instead of waiting for the mechanical pump to bring it up. Looked like an operating room with life support hooked up and everything laid out.

Doing everything by the book this time. The plan is to start it, run at idle until it warms up and then let it sit until it fully cools to heat cycle the valve springs. Pretty much the only major moving part that is new. Everything else that moves, moves on the same surface it did before. Just the block and head casting are new. The issue is getting it to start and idle when it never has before without over revving it.

So we are ready and hit the key. Bang, the starter hits the flywheel. We try it a couple more times and it does the same thing. Same flywheel, same starter, different block … oops. Just to get to the starter requires taking the exhaust manifold off which usually is a bigger deal then it was yesterday just because the motor is new and came apart easy. What would have taken minutes in the garage now took hours in the boat. Got the starter shimmed after a couple tries (had plenty of them in stock) and tested before we put it back together. Then spent the next hour or so putting the motor all back together. At that point we left the charger on and put it away for the night.

Today we once again had everything hooked up and laid out ready to go. Hit the key over and over trying to get it started. Typical, the distributer had about a millimeter sweet spot and until you got it there it did everything to make you think you had the distributer in backwards. Even had to flip it around once just to say we did it. Finally we got back to basics and set the balancer in #1 position and then reset the distributer. Hit the key and started right up like it was always there. Took about 3 seconds to get the distributer to 18 degrees, a little hot but the last motor liked it there and it sat there and purred like a kitten. Let it warm up and shut it down. It was already late afternoon so all we could do it clean up and so far smile a little but we know there is more to prove and a lot left to do. Maybe tomorrow we can shift it in gear for the first time.

So here we are a week later mainly due to the weather once again. No fun uncovering the boat just for it to start raining as much as we wanted to. Seems like a week goes by between days you want to be outside working on a boat. We finally got another good day today.

Hook the boat back up to water and hit the key and it starts right back up. Calmed right down and rans smooth. Had great throttle response, oil, temp, tach were all where they should have been. Tested the out drive. Shifted with ease into and out of gear. Didn’t make any funny noises. So far so good. Now we need a test drive but the weather hasn’t been that nice yet.

Can you believe it’s been another month? This has to be the worst spring on record for bad weather. There has been 8 or 10 days go by and only see the sun for a couple hours one day. One of those days was today. Rained all morning but by the afternoon it was still a bit chilly but the sun was out and we were on our way to the ramp.

We have lots of good to report and some bad. The motor is strong and ran well. Still have some tweaking to do. Oil pressure was awesome, ran a tiny bit cool but the water is still a little cold. Summer is coming and it will warm up. Some other minor issues. Had a bit of a scare. Kept hearing this squealing on and off from around the back of the motor. Couldn’t figure out where it was coming from so we did the test drive anyway. After a while it dawned on us that the bilge exhaust fan was running and every now and then they squeal. Outdrive worked well. After doing some more research on the gears we installed we have found out that they are 1.35 to 1 gears and it showed it trying to swing the 23 pitch prop that we used with the 1.61 gears. We are on the prop hunt once again in the worst time of year.

We are still looking for a prop for the 19. We really want to try something besides a Solas now we are back down in normal pitch numbers but we have found nothing. Well nothing in a normal price range. We are not paying $800 for a prop that will need to go to the prop shop before it can be used. For that matter we would never pay $800 for a prop.

We did have an issue that took some time to figure out. Had a fuel leak around the fuel pump and after re-plumbing everything from the gas tank to the carburetor we would come back a few days later just to find the same spot under the fuel pump. Come to find out the fuel pump housing inlet had a small crack in it. For as many times the motor has been in and out and the fuel pump kicked around in the garage over the years we are lucky it’s lasted this long. Finding the same exact pump to replace it was more of a chore then replacing it on the motor. We have had a lot of issues with high flow pumps flooding our Edelbrock carburetor. Even had a fuel regulator at one point and still had issues. Use this fuel pump and no issues. I don’t care if it is old stock or not. The only reason we had to replace the last one after 8 years and as many motor builds is because we put the fitting in too tight to many times. It’s proven to us even if it is just a ProComp.

One of the issues with having a wide boat is most seats don’t look right in it. They either look too small or too big. You add in that you need to get to the center of the deck to remove the floor hatches where a lot of stuff (anchor, tools, fenders, etc) are stored leaves you with limited options.

We have looked at boat seats for years and we have even had a couple different sets in it. Most looked lost so we then built upholstered bases for them to sit on. It did the job but still didn’t look as good as it should. So when we did the great makeover a few years ago we took a chance on a set of Corbeau seat for Jeeps. Man did we fall in love. I have never been in a more comfortable boat seat. It didn’t hurt that we mounted them on to Cadillac seat slide mounts too but the seats were something else. They filled in the front of the boat but at the same time were not too big. There was just one thing, the headrest. There was nothing wrong with its function it just didn’t belong on a boat from 1972. The base of the seat on the other hand was about as close as it gets to the originals I have ever come across. Thought one day I would just cut off the tops and alter the seat cover but the more I looked at it and having other projects I never wanted to open that can of worms.

Then a few months back I sent an email to the company that since had come out with a “Classic” seat that I wanted to alter my seats like and being they were in the same style line I took a chance and ordered just a set of covers for the new Classic seats. Worst case we have a welder but hoping it didn’t come to that.

We already had a good idea how the seats were made before we took then apart and like we expected the headrest part was an addition to the basic seat. So we dissected all the cushion off and then the tube that made the headrest frame. Then we re-stiched the nylon suspension part of the seat core over top of the now flat bar cutting off the excess. Some spray contact glue and all the cushion was back in place like it was always there. Now came the fun part, getting a new seat cover on the chair ..... on a cold day in January.

Not saying it was easy but in a 70 degree garage they were not as bad as they could have been and by the time we got to the second seat it was a lot easier. From starting to take them out of the boat to being finished reinstalling them was less than two hours. Not a bad way to finish off a 70 degree day in January.

Back in March the wife comes up to me and says, "our old house was for sale". Long story short, we made a stupid offer on a already stupid low list price and they took it. It then took another 67 days to get the house back in the shape that we left it in and pretty much screwed the whole spring and half the summer. It was mid July by the time it was over and then we planned on keeping it so we had to find a renter bla, bla, bla.

Then we found one of those little low boats Brownie talked about he wife didn't like so he made the 19. It was in the back woods of Maine. We should have left it there. Well beyond anything we have done before. The whole boat needed to be re-cored and so much resin and mat we were buying it by the roll and 5 gallon bucket.

That really didn't leave a lot of time for the boat collection fun. Did take the 19 out a couple times. Ran great, all of it. Good speeds at good rpm's. Hooked up real good with the new Solas 21L prop. Still would like to try something like a Ultra but I'm not willing to start over on props that are always going to be used cause they are not making anymore and would have to be reworked from the start cause you could never trust the pitch to be right after being used.

As usual the last ride didn't come without incident. Hit something that would have sunk a lesser boat. Ripped the glass open about a 3/8" wide by a foot long and then what ever it was must have hit the drive and broke one of the bolts in the steering and bent the rest up some. I noticed the steering got a little weird when going over 50mph but I kind of wrote it off as the steering fin being out of whack and new prop and new drive and new motor... Was out for a least another hour and then pulled out at the ramp and saw water pouring out of the bottom where it shouldn't be and drive didn't look right....it wasn't.

We kind of did what we did last year and bought a house project for over the winter. It went a bit longer then the winter and Spring up to the end of July. Add in that we had the wettest month (July) and the wettest year on record there was not much of a summer left. Number one project was getting the 19 fixed no matter what though.

First was the outdrive. The damage to it was unreal. Whatever happened petty much made all the steering useless to try to fix. Even with all my parts in stock I was on eBay looking for all kinds of stuff. The helmet was broken, a couple pins that hold it all together were broken or bent and the whole drive was cocked. It took a lot of fixing to get things back to normal. We really need to consider external steering at some point but it just looks so ugly and if you do it inside you still have all the issues of using the Volvo stuff to connect to the drive. It already drives like it has power steering its just all the links have a tiny bit of give in the Volvo steering. All of the tiny bits add up to a lot of slop for the power we run.

Then there is this. This is a weird spot. We have fixed part of the hull before a lot of years ago but like other damage this boat takes for some reason it's more damage in the same places. Everyone though I was crazy when I filled the strikes with foam. Got sick of coming home after a ride and finding puddles under it where water was dripping out of broken strikes in or near the same places they were fixed before. This time though something hit it hard enough that it damaged the drive on the way by and part of it looks like it may have attachment failure.

Blocked and jacked the boat up, pulled the roller set off the trailer and went to town. This time we made it about twice the size and used all of our skills we acquired over the years to do upside down fiberglassing. The trick is to saturate the mat before you put it on the hull. Lots of thin layers feathering out to the hull as you go. When you get enough filled in you can start the heavier layers of mat. Build it all up beyond the hull like a blister and then belt sand it off flat. It was a pain but I know this patch wont fail unless the rest of the hull comes with it.

We started off the year by installing a new GPS Garmin 640 unit. We have wanted something like this for years and now we have it. We bought two mounting plates for it so with a simple plug it can go from the 19 and into the race boat. It also has enough battery to last in the Biesemeyer if we wanted to take it along. We figure we wil take the compass out of the 19 at some point. First, we never use it and second with a stereo speaker a foot in front of it below the deck and the horn also in front of it it's never right.

Besides some small stuff it was pretty much uncover, dewinterize and take it to the ramp. We did spend a day or two to bring everything else up to speed. Scrubbing every inch getting rid of the mold took some time. Ya, I said mold. We have had two of the wettest years on record the last two years and most of it comes in the spring and the first half of the summer. Prime mold growing season.

At one point it seemed like old times. Setting new top speed records and logging up hours. In our case it was miles but 45 plus miles in a weekend was a lot more then I have been doing the last couple years. The top speed of 62.2mph is a far cry of the low 40's it would do when I had a small block Chrysler in it.

We did make a trip down to Ferd's. The guy we bought the race boat from with the 19. Even though he had the 24 for decades I dont think he has ever saw a 19 before. Sadly we made the trip on a whim and he was on vacation and not at the marina. Guess we will have to make the trip again next year. Maybe with the race boat next time.

We didnt come out unscaved though. For some reason in Sept the Bay was full of logs and other debris like I have never saw before. I'm thinking they were dumping at the dams along the Bay and every thing up river was let lose. Hit something hard enough to wreck our new Solas 21P. It's usable but it's not new any longer by a long shot. That ride also came with some paint scratches on the bottom but nothing bad. The next time we went out it was even worse and kind of ended the season. The weather started to turn but we left it out and ready to go until it was the only one left and the weather was not getting any better. It was time to call it quits.

We put together a video below of just some of the highlights. There is just to much to list and to be honest being a bit uneventful was just fine with us. No motors or outdrives to rebuild. No parts hunt. No major projects. Just riding.

We spent some alone time out on the 19 last year. We did join a boat rally or two but that's about all. What can we say, the 19 has been perfect. So much so we just picked up another wrecked Allmand Nova 19 to restore. You can follow alone with the whole fleet at;