1990 Tracker TX-17 Toiurnament Rebuild

[thill]

Daryn,
Yes, I'm going to keep the rod locker door. I like to fly fish, and the fly rods would fit in there perfectly.


Evidrine,
You may want to buy the EcoLife plywood from Lowes sooner, rather than later. They are going to discontinue it in favor of something else. I'm seriously considering buying a number of sheets just to have it, just in case I do another one in the future.

Also, thank you for the speed information. It sounds like 30-35 is the general consensus with a 2-stroke Evinrude 50 HP, depending on how heavily I'm loaded.

Do you know what pitch prop your brother is running?

-TH

 

[evidrine]

I have no idea what pitch his prop is. He may still be running an aluminum prop. I will look into it.

 

[thill]

Due to three snow storms in a row, and lots of rain since then, progress on the Tracker had ceased.

But today, we had a one-day break between rain storms, so when I got home this afternoon, I went out and pulled the cover off the boat. Everything looked clean and dry, despite the patched-up cover.

I decided that I was going to carpet the new plywood, since it was warm and dry enough for carpet glue to work properly. Cut out the carpet and got it laid in place on the front deck. Pulled back one side, got it stuck, then did the other side and smoothed it out. Then I did the main floor the same way. Nice!!!

After that, I spend a couple of hours, scraping glue, drilling and replacing old rivets, and installing a stereo to the console before it got put back down. Then, I set the console back in place, and fixed a couple of bad connections in the wiring. That piddly stuff took time, but it has to be done.

The next thing I knew, the sun was down, and it was time to wrap up. Today, I spent about 4 hours on the boat, more than I meant to, but I enjoyed listening to the radio and relaxing while I worked.

Because the sun went down, I only have a picture of the front deck carpet:


Hopefully, the rain won't last too long, and I can get back out there soon.

-TH

 

[thill]

Sorry for the delay, but Mom was not doing well, and she needed constant assistance. Unfortunately, she didn't make it. The funeral was yesterday.

Today, I decided to work on the boat to help clear my mind. I marked all the hatches with arrows to make sure the carpet would all be aligned, and with contact adhesive and a razor knife, I got them all wrapped. Then I moved on to the deck. It was pretty complicated with all of the cutouts, but I got it done. I dropped the hatches into the holes, and they fit perfectly! I'm very happy with results.

Here is a picture:


This took me about 8 hours total, which is more than I thought, but it went really fast.

Now I have to carpet the sides, the front of the forward deck, and a few other spots, and then screw everything back together. Then, finally, I can run this boat! Can't wait to see how it does!

-TH

 

[trackerpuzzle]

Sorry for your loss .

 

[thill]

Thanks for that. We are so busy dealing with Dad's Parkinson's disease and nerve-damaged hand, that we hardly have time to think too much or feel too sad yet. Mostly numb. But I'm sure it will hit sooner or later.

For now, I'm going to distract myself with this boat, and hopefully a bunch of slab crappie and other fish. :?

-TH

 

[DarynCashmark]

Thill:
I am just now checking back on your thread. I am really sorry life has put a lot of curves in your road lately. Losing a parent is never easy to deal with.

Your build is looking really great! The carpet is turning out very nicely! You have me wishing mine was the Tournament 17 instead of the Pro 17. I am jealous of your extra storage! Keep up the great work on the boat. If you are anything like me, working on the boat is good therapy too.

Just curious, was 20' of carpet enough? I ordered 25' for mine and got pretty freaked out as got Cloe to the end. I thought I would have a fair amount left over, but it took every last inch.

 

[thill]

Yes, good therapy indeed!

I think the 20' is going to do it, but I'm not 100% sure because the carpet inside the hatches is fine, so no need to replace. I think I still have about a 6x6 piece left on the roll at this point. I'll tally it up once it's done.

Having done this before, I was careful to layout all the pieces carefully, starting with the largest pieces, and then using the leftovers for progressively smaller sections. I'm happy to say that I have had very little waste this time around. =D>

We got "off duty" this afternoon, and I got in another 90 mins of work on the boat. I had some good progress today! I was able to:
1. Install the final major piece of carpet. (behind the console)
2. Install the stereo speakers and fish the wires to them
3. Re-install the console
4. Re-connect the steering (nice and smooth!)
5. Replace the tachometer with a new Teleflex unit
6. Wire up the new stereo
7. Install the front pedestal seat base
8. Mount a foot controlled trolling motor in the bow of the boat

Then I noticed it was 9:53, so I turned the stereo off and called it a night. to get it together enough for a test run tomorrow.

-TH

 

[thill]

Oh, and here is a pic. Will take more tomorrow

 

[thill]

OK...I got most everything done to a point where I could take the boat out for a test run, but I only had about an hour. I turned the key and she started right up, just as before. I hooked up the trailer and raced to the ramp. Dropped her in, turned the key, and nothing... BUMMER!!! I hit the choke and it started, for a second, but would not run.

Opened the cowl and flipped the lever. Now it was flooding. Opened the throttle up, and got her to start, but she ran terribly, obviously on only the primer fuel.

Pretty sure the carbs were clogged up. That's it, out of time. I was done.

-TH

 

[thill]

Yesterday, I had a customer come with a badly leaking carb on his 70 Evinrude. It just needed a gasket.

I got it together, and told him that if he wanted to wait a few minutes, I would accompany him to the lake for a test run. If he was interested, he could see how to clean carbs. He agreed,so I pulled the carbs on the Johnson 50. As soon as I turned them over to drain them into my gas bottle, I saw the problem...

The carbs were completely full of oil. Pure oil. The VRO pump was bad.

They were out, so I cleaned the carbs, but found nothing, as expected. Then I disabled the VRO system. Hooked up the hose, turned the key, and VROOM... Off to the lake.

We dropped in, and both motors started instantly and idled smoothly. A good start! We parked and jumped in the boats and decided to make a big circuit of Jett island. I was very impressed with the thrust of this little 50! This little motor gets it done! I kept up with him without a problem. Surprise, since these boats are almost identical! I took a single picture, while flying across the lake:



That's when I noticed that he had fallen behind. I docked my boat, and for the rest of the trip, I was working on his boat. So my boat just sat. TORTURE!



It turned out, his rev limiter was getting stuck, since he was running too low a prop. Below 5200, he ran fine, but when he touched 5500, it would go crazy. Those engines have a 5700 WOT, so that wasn't right. We let it cool, and I ran back home and grabbed a steeper prop. Swapped them out, but it was not steep enough. Now the rev limiter was cutting in at 5000 RPM. Bad power pack.

Called it a day, and took his boat for a power pack. I had one around. Now, his boat ran great! He was very happy, but I was a little bummed, that I didn't get a real test run.

Yesterday, it rained in the morning. In the afternoon, I was working on an engine swap, and I realized that a part hadn't come in, and it was 6:45 PM. I had some daylight left.... YES!!!! Time to test a boat!

Right then, a friend pulled up with his boat. NOOOOOO!!!!!!! Are you kidding me?!?

He said he was having a hard time restarting, unless he went back and primed again. Sounds like air leaking in or a bad fuel pump.

I pulled his cowl, and he had a bowl-type fuel filter UPSIDE DOWN, mostly empty. Air was collecting in the inverted bowl. Could it be that simple?!? I had him loosen the hoses and flip it over.

Let's go test boats!

Now it was almost 7:30. Raced to the lake, dropped in both boats started and idled well. We pulled out and ran around the island once- no issues, yes!

I wanted to see what this little 50 HP would do, and he had GPS, so I challenged him to race to the bridge. I let him hit his gas first, and then I gunned it. My boat, being lighter, shot forward fast. I trimmed up, and got about a 5-boat lead. We ran even for a mile or so...




As we approached the bridge, I figured he would try to gun it and beat me out, so I trimmed up a little more to get every bit out of her, and sure enough he tried to catch me, but could not. I won by about 5 boat lengths! YAAAAYYY!!!!! (The crowd went wild!)

That was a blast! And my little 50 now had bragging rights! The most fun I've had in a long time

Now for the GPS data...

He said we were running 35.6 MPH for most of the run. But toward the end, when we both trimmed up, he was doing 38.4 MPH the last time he looked down, but maybe more, as he was watching me and not the GPS. Later, he said that he was running 40.1, so my little boat was doing somewhere between 38 and 40 MPH. Very respectable for a little 2-cylinder!

Now it was dark, and we called it a night. I turned on my new LED running lights and we ran back in...


I came home with a grin on my face, feeling more relaxed than I have for a long time. And this morning, I'm still smiling.

Life is good.

-TH

 

[thill]