TOPIC: '68 Chrysler 55hp

The joys of working on old motors..the tilt bolt had sheared at some point and necessitated driving / drilling the old one out over 2 days. Moral of the story is to dismantle them from time to time and regrease. Later models had grease nipples, for obvious reasons. New bolt and tilt cable fitted, transom saddle resprayed and regreased and I am almost ready to spray the rest of the motor. The small knob that pulls the cables and allows the motor to tilt is missing, but am sure there is an alternative.

Am enjoying this project and have come to admire the simplicity and ease of working on these big twins. The factory manuals seem very concise and easy to follow, compared to some I've worked on.

Did you add a couple grease nipples while you were at it? Looks great cleaned up with new paint.

The thought occurred to me, but this will probably be run for a few hours a year and comes home with me after each run, which means I think I can keep up with the maintenance.

This is another I did - it started the craze. Looking for a decent West Bend 50 as well.

Very Nice work Chirombo!

Thanks! This one almost there; painted the cowl this week. Lots of prep.. Still need to do the black 'mesh' and orange lettering. If anyone knows the correct colour for the orange, please let me know.

Hope to finish the exterior this week, with some touch ups inside the cowl later.

looks good, i need to get off my butt and paint mine......what kind of paint are you using?

Monofil automotive paint, over zinc cromate primer. The colours are 'VW Grau Weiss' (grey white) code R902-2 which was the closest I could get this side of the pond, at least with a sample from under the hood. I think is not quite yellow enough, but is very close. Should be easy for you to get proper Chrysler outboard paint there though. The gold is a factory automotive colour 'Chrysler Champagne Pearl Metallic'.

Plan to test this motor on the weekend, does anyone know how to fit a generic (lanyard type) kill switch on these motors?

It's a '67 55hp battery ignition, alternator model with a conventional on / off / push to choke ignition switch. Would I be able to wire it into the switch circuit or does it need to be wired into the motor?

You still connect the kill switch to both points, just like a magneto. Those two wires go to the M contacts on the key switch, stop button, lanyard or kill switch. Normally open, they short the points to each other when activated. With the Magnapower CD + points, do not do that. They have a Ignition wire that goes to the I terminal on the key switch, this is powered when the ignition is on. With a stop/run toggle or lanyard, the other side of those must go to the Battery line. The lanyard switch has to be the NC type. Closed when the lanyard is in place.

Thanks for this, the M contacts are unused on the battery ignition motors though?

The rest of the test was a success though. My manual says you must run it with the thermostat, or face overheating it, which I couldn't understand. I'd assumed that the more free flow without the thermostat would mean a cooler motor. I've had many OMC 40s which had them removed without issue. Does the bypass / cooling system work differently on Chrysler / West Bend?

Do not ever run a Chrysler without the thermostat. It determines the flow through the exhaust even when open. More cooling is not better. The right temperature is. Motors will last longer and run better when at the correct operating temp. Over cooling is bad as well. Wear is at a minimum when at the ideal temp.

Followed your advice, re. cooling and fitted a new thermostat. I spent a few trips struggling with the motor, revs out, thumping into gear, then properly sychronised it - a simple process dertailed in the manual and has run beautifully for a year. Whilst it's not a top shelf motor like my Mercs, I am suitably impressed; as are my boating friends. So, year or so on, thanks for the help.