Repowering '54 Shepherd

The boat ran great all summer. For the first time in many years, it brought my father-in-law to church and back every week without incident. And also for the first time in many years, every church service took place on the island itself - if it's raining, they go to a backup location on land. But it didn't rain a single Sunday morning. And to finish off the summer, my wife and kids and I all hitched a ride to church on the final Sunday of the summer (yesterday). Since the boat was the reason my wife and I met in the first place, and we met ON the island where church takes place, it seemed fitting to end the summer with a family trip to church, with her father in his boat. I feel like the circle is complete. I slept well last night. 

Oh, but I do need to tighten up the shift lever, now that I think about it. 

This is how I ended up meeting my wife, if you didn't see that or if I failed to mention it. She went to church on this island one day with her dad, and I drove a shuttle boat out there. I knew her dad because I had chatted with him about the boat in the past. So I went to see about this girl who was with him that day and the rest is history, as they say. 

JQ

That's an option, although I don't have a lathe. I was just having myself a little victory lap on this project when I'm looking at another project like that. Finding a friend with a lathe, sourcing the parts, staining and varnishing, modifying the existing socket or replacing it... this might become a winter project unless I can find a complete unit or close to that. 

The only thing is, the stern light seems not to have made the return trip with us. We pulled into the boathouse and as we covered it, I noticed it was gone. I can't imagine really how it bounced out, but there's really no other explanation. We actually took my Nautique out for a spin just in case we could find that needle in the haystack, re-tracing our route from earlier. Unsurprisingly, no luck. 

A quick google search tells me I can get one for $350 at ClassicBoating.com, but I'm open to other ideas or leads. Here it was: 

I guess you can tell your wife that you couldn't drive it away from your wedding 14 or so years ago, but you could take her for an anniversary ride in it this year.

Get the gas tank in it though, so she's not tripping over the outboard tank

And to go along with your split coupler, it wouldn't hurt to slap a split collar on the driveshaft as one of those "just in case" cheap insurance type things.

Here's a link to one

And...................don't worry, I won't ask if you put that oil drain hose on it 

I've made serious progress in the last week or so, the boat is in the water, running, floating on its own, and today I hooked up the throttle and shift cables, bracket modification required all around. I tidied up wiring, and got the fuel tank installed. Most importantly: I WENT FOR A BOAT RIDE 

Just a few things left, most notably, building a base for the motor box so it's raised up a little. Then reassembly of interior and a few details beyond that. Then DONE!! 

No doubt it will be fine, it's just different I suppose. I was just annoyed after spending 90 minutes on alignment, I figured it would be 5 minutes to put 4 bolts through the two flanges and it ended up being like 20 minutes of messing around and trial and error. 

Thanks, it's really coming together and I am so excited to get it done. 

On the coupling, do you mean a two-piece coupler? This one has bolts that clamp it down some but it's one piece. There's also a set screw that goes into a detent on the shaft. It is different from those that I've used before, but I would imagine it will work the same. 

The only problem I had was the 4 bolts were too long, by about 1/16" and they hit the transmission case. They also wouldn't go in with the "clamp" bolts in place, so I had to take those out to put the 4 coupler bolts in. I put a thick stainless lock washer on the bolt head end to get the extra clearance, rather than modifying the bolts or trying to get shorter ones. I'd like to get the right bolts in there but it's unlikely I'll ever go back and swap them out. 

Still left: control cables, finish tidying up wires, run engine, test and check over everything, reassemble interior. 

Add to the list, "repair bow light" because I broke the red side of the lens yesterday taking the cover off. 

Pictures in no particular order: