This short video covers the project from start to finish.

With new fasteners and sealant now on hand, it was time to reinstall the outboard.  To begin, I cleaned up as needed the epoxy-filled holes from last time, and prepared tools and equipment for the job.  I also spent some time cleaning old sealant (silicone) off the outboard mounting bracket.

With the crane, I placed the outboard back on the transom, reinstalling the steering cable with new grease in the process.  With the outboard properly positioned on the transom, I drilled the top two holes and temporarily secured it with bolts to hold the outboard securely while I marked and drilled the lower holes, which were more critical and difficult because of the lack of access from inside, and the existence of a cross-transom fiberglass brace that was poorly positioned in terms of the lower outboard mounting bolt location, so it took some thought to avoid drilling through and into the bracket.  There was only room above the bracket, and this space was not large, so eventually I determined the drilling location and drilled the two holes, one on each side.  Even with the larger hatch opening, access here was difficult, which complicated this portion of the installation.

With all the holes now drilled, I removed the outboard from the boat again–just a little, to give me access to the drilled holes–and applied sealant to the holes, then bolted the outboard in place, starting with the two top bolts (easy), then the lower bolts.  These bolts proved challenging once more when I discovered that the partially-threaded bolts didn’t allow full tightening of the nuts.  While this appears obvious when reviewing the photos above, I could not actually see these bolts in real life, and did not look at the camera footage till later.  So I found this out the hard way, during installation and with everything gooped up, when I couldn’t tighten the nuts.  I had to remove the bolts and quickly build some 1/2″ thick fiberglass spacers, each roughly the size of the washers but not too large because the clearances were tight between the deck above and the transom flange.  With the spacers installed, and a washer above, I could finally tighten the lower two bolts.

After cleaning up the excess sealant from the installation (leaving the sealant around the two large upper washers for now, as it had started to set up and would be easier to clean the next day), I installed the control box near the helm, using sealant behind the plywood spacer and securing the block with three machine screws.  This installation was quick, as I had done all the prep work the day before.

With the work in the bilge done, I installed the larger 6″ plastic deck plate with six screws and sealant.

Afterwards, I secured the control cables and wiring harness leading back to the transom with rubber-lined clamps screwed to the inside of the boat, and secured the excess wire harness and battery cables as needed in the starboard transom corner, ensuring that the wiring had ample slack to allow the engine to turn both ways and  tilt.  I next installed the battery box just forward of the splashwell, after ensuring the engine could tilt as needed.

The owner had provided a new fuel line, but the hose had no ends installed, to allow it to be customized to any type of tank or engine.  So I ordered the engine end needed; this would arrive in a day or two, and after that I could test-run the engine with a temporary fuel supply.  Before I replaced the engine cowl, I checked the engine oil level:  filled to the proper level and no oddities visually present in the oil on the dipstick.

There will be one more update once I am able to test-run the engine, along with a video highlighting the entire project start to finish.

To improve access to the inside of the transom for hole-filling and eventual rebolting, I chose to install a slightly larger deck plate to replace the 4″ one already in place.  The small hatch barely allowed one’s arm to fit, with no extra room for leverage.  I had on hand a couple candidates to replace the hatch, and ultimately chose a 6″ deck plate as the best fit, though a larger opening would have been optimal.

After removing the old deck plate, I enlarged the hole to fit the new one, and left the opening as is for now, pending the final installation of the outboard bolts, as the raw hole allowed the largest possible access.

Next, I prepared the transom and its multiple holes for repair by cleaning inside and out, removing excess and old sealant and general grime.  I reamed out all the existing holes through the transom to clean old old sealant, and lightly chamfered the exterior sides of the holes to allow for better flush-filling with epoxy.  Then, I masked over the insides of the holes to be filled,  and around the perimeters of the exterior holes to avoid excess epoxy on the gelcoat (even though these holes would be hidden behind the outboard), and filled all the holed with a thickened epoxy mixture, after first wetting out the holes with unthickened epoxy.  Ultimately, I decided also to fill the two uppermost boltholes, which I planned to reuse in the installation, but the port hole was misshapen and I thought it best for a fresh start all around.

Later, when the epoxy had partially cured, I removed the tape from the exterior.

The boat came to me with the outboard controls already attached (wiring harness and control cables), but the control unit was not installed to the boat.  It would have been nice if I could just install the control box against the hull, where there was a molded ledge that accommodated the control nicely, but the slight angle in the area meant that this caused interference between the control and the side of the boat when pushed forward.

This could be easily remedied if I built a narrow angled spacer, which would hold the control vertical and increase clearance of the lever.  From 15mm okoume plywood, I milled an appropriate piece with the slight angle required, nicely increasing clearance for the lever, and fitted things dry with three 1/4″ x 3″ machine screws to check the fit.  Final installation would await delivery of the sealant I’d ordered.

A boatowner for whom I’ve done several projects over the years brought this 1987 Pointer 17′ skiff to me for a couple small jobs.  He obtained the boat from a relative, and the boat had been in the process of having a secondhand outboard installed; unfortunately, the person installing it ran into some problems and poor health, leaving the installation unfinished and in need of additional work.

After repositioning the boat indoors, I temporarily hooked up a battery and lowered the engine, then inspected the installation.  The owner told me that he wasn’t sure the outboard was actually a Honda 40, as marked on the cowling; indeed, researching the serial number (and model number) shown on the outboard, I determined it was actually a Honda 50, model BF50D.  Note that the internet also confirms the model info based on the serial number (not shown here).

The outboard had two bolts securing it to the transom, at the top of the bracket, but the two lower bolts were not installed, and the one hole previously drilled for the purpose had run directly into an internal stiffener.

Access to the inside of the transom was afforded by a small deck plate located in the engine splash well, and for the moment I was limited to placing a camera in the opening to inspect the situation within.  I thought a larger hatch might make final engine installation easier.

The owner had pointed out, with the engine in its tilted-up position, a potential problem with the steering arm:  the nut on the arm where it attached to the steering cable interfered with the transom, so the engine wouldn’t turn completely to one side.  But when I lowered the outboard to operating position, the steering arm and nut passed just by the transom cleanly, and I didn’t see any way that the arm and bolt  could be repositioned that would allow clearance when the outboard was tilted.  But it worked as intended with the engine down.

Here is a short video showing the steering arm and a discussion of the steering:

I quickly decided that the best and only way to do the job correctly was to remove the outboard and start fresh.  This would give me access to the partially-drilled holes for repair/filling, and allow me to position things better for the real installation.  So I hooked up my gantry crane and chain hoist to the lifting eye on the engine, and removed the two existing bolts, easily pulling the engine from the transom.

I didn’t want to go to the effort of completely unhooking the engine–all the control cables, steering, and harnesses were hooked up–but I found that if I removed the steering cable, it would allow me to get the engine far enough away from the boat to more easily work, so I did so.  It wasn’t difficult.

With the outboard removed, I could see several old bolt holes from previous outboard installations, so my first step would be to fill any unnecessary or obsolete holes.  I ordered new hardware and sealant for the outboard installation, and left additional work for next time.