Recent content by El_Guapo

I've seen them on smaller outboards in the past, but I honestly don't think I ever have on anything bigger than a 9.9hp.

Okay, after an extended period of illness and that obnoxious "work" thing getting in the way, I found some time to get some work done today. While searching through the garage for a doorknob (long story involving a 2 year old testing the tensile strength of doorknob fasteners), I found a piece...

In a perfect world, you'd use rivet nuts. In a realistic world, you're going to use screws. 316 Stainless sheetmetal screws would be great for this. To prevent any weird metal interactions and to keep them from backing out, hit them with some Loctite 242 or 248 (I like the 248 better, since the...

I'm a big fan of measuring them due to the alarming regularity with which manufacturers change sizes of things on the line. My Coleman popup came with 2 different sized spindles from the factory - 1" on the right and 1.0625" on the left. Measuring is always a good idea, and you can get a...

I've got a Daiwa US80X (8lb test rated) that I use for stream smallmouth - been bouncing around in the Jeep for a couple of years with no ill effects.

A handy little trick for roasting chiles: As soon as they are removed from the fire (or oven), put them in sealed plastic bags (5 or 6 to a bag) and let them cool. After they've cooled off in the bags, the skin comes off with barely any effort. Once they are peeled, put any that you aren't...

There are silicones that work well with aluminum, but most don't work so well. A polyurethane based sealant like the 3M 5200 is going to offer superior adhesion in the long run. One of the problems with silicone is that aluminum is such a reactive metal that the chemical released by most RTV...

My basic crock pot green recipe is as follows: Cook 2lb or so round roast with onion, a little garlic salt and a dash of black pepper until roast is starting to shred. Drain off the liquid and add a can of crushed tomatoes (I prefer Hunt's) and a pound or so of roasted "medium" chiles (10-12...

There's multiple ways to see if rivets need replaced. The most obvious is the visual "Is it there?" test, followed by the mechanical "Is it loose?" test. Then you're going to want to look for corrosion on the insides, and shiny spots around the heads indicating movement. The definitive test is...

Welcome aboard!! The first thing to do is give everything a thorough cleaning - get some Simple Green and give the recoil assembly a good cleaning, and run some Seafoam through the fuel system. For whatever reason, modern gas is lucky to make it 30 days before it starts gumming stuff up. It...

So my project (The USS Rustoleum) included a mid 90's vintage Yamaha 70 ELPTO outboard that had suffered the ignoble fate of being "repaired" by someone with good intentions and virtually no talent. The head is missing, and the block has a few bolts broken off in it (who needs never-seez...

You don't want to use silicone - it absolutely won't adhere properly to the plastic, regardless of prep. The JB marine Weld should work fine.

Loctite sells a Fixmaster putty that is specifically for aluminum. It is expensive as hell (something like $70 for a 1 pound kit), but is about as close to building up with aluminum rod as you can get, without fear of warping. We've built up aluminum parts with this stuff and remachined them...

You could take it to a shop and have them weld the holes up, or get some smallish pieces of aluminum flat strap and braze them on (from the backside) yourself, then just finish up the exterior with body filler. The Bernzomatic aluminum rods that Home Depot and Lowe's sell are really easy to use...

DO NOT USE TEFLON TAPE!!! You will be hating life in short order. The combination of ethanol in modern gas and your 2 stroke oil (if you use premix) will turn it into a gelatinous blob that will block your jets in a hurry (I've seen PTFE tape wipe out a $30,000 hydraulic pump by plugging up an...