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I’m looking at a ’60 Cruisers 17′ lapstrake later this week. It has a 75hp
EvinrudeJohnson (1963 I’m told). Electric start with mechanical shifter. I don’t think it has the optional battery charger though. Is that a big negative? Other thoughts on these motors will be appreciated as well!Not having the generator to charge the battery is not a big deal unless you run an lot of electric accessories on the boat a lot (lights, radio, etc). I had a similar V-4 motor back in the 1960s and used it a lot every summer weekend at the family cabin, and sometimes during the week too, but seldom ran the lights.. I had to put a charger on the battery when it wouldn’t crank the motor any more about once every 4 to 6 weeks, and that time could be extended with today’s large deep-cycle batteries. When it won’t crank, there is a recoil starter inside the front access door, and those V-4s will pull over and start easier than the 25 to 40 HP RDs made back then, so you don’t get stranded when the battery goes dead. I’d prefer that mechanical shift over the electric. It will be less troublesome, does not require a particular gear oil, and will shift with a dead battery. On those models made with no generator or alternator, the motor has a magneto so you have spark with a dead battery too. The only downside is those 75s are thirsty, so you will go through a bit of gas, especially if the boat is heavy.
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Thanks Dave! Glad to hear its not too bad to hand pull it to start. Years ago I had a 50’s Johnson 30hp, one of those old red ones. It only had pull start and it would darn near dislocated my shoulder before it would fire up!
Actually now that I think about it, I had a (’61?) Evinrude 40 Lark a long time ago that didn’t have a charger and I had no troubles at all.
I would love any other thoughts or words of wisdom. In any event I’ll post more info and pics once I’ve had a peek at the rig.
Looks like a nice, well-kept, rig. Hard to see, but it looks like an aftermarket power tilt unit on it. I don’t think OMC offered them that far back. What I’m seeing may just be the factory tilt-shock absorbers painted gray, and not hydraulic tilt cylinders. Some of the early aftermarket power tilt units only tilted and were not strong enough to provide power trim, but not a problem if it has that as long as your trim pin is set right. Of course the power tilt will not work with a dead battery. There is probably a way to allow it to be tilted by hand if you need, but you may have to put a foot up on each side of the transom to brace yourself as you manually pull to tilt it up. That’s what I used to do – I had no power tilt.
Camera angles can be deceiving – be sure it’s not a long shaft motor on a short shaft transom. If the black looking area under the bottom of the finished wood on the transom is the boat and not the trailer, then, I believe is is a long transom and correct for that motor.
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The OMC v4s are high torque, rugged motors and in my experience, propped right, can get on speaking terms with 4700-5000 rpm without any performance mods.. I have a 135 Evinrude on a 22′ pontoon boat….you can ski behind it with half a dozen people on board. My brother has a 100 Johnson on a 15′ glastron and it regularly becomes airborne of the tops of waves. Growing up, my neighbor had a 17′ Thompson much like the one you are contemplating. My buddy & used it to drag a downed 2-seat helicopted out of the lake.
I’ve noticed 2 trends in those I’ve owned and others I’ve had the pleasure to work on. 1) On older models it’s a bear to dial in both carbs for max performance. Be ready to spend some time with a tach and speedo doing it. and 2) the ring top ring lands on some original pistons were too thin. Timing too advanced or inferior fuel causing pre-detonation would beat the top of the piston and erode the top ring lands, following which the top rings would disintegrate.The above mentioned 100 Johnson fell prey to that… to clean up the battered cylinder walls, we bored it out 30 and put in new sturdier pistons with thicker ring lands.
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The more I look at it I think I was wrong. If you look at my marked image below, the gray area I drew a red line around looked like a hydraulic cylinder in a shadow. Note the black spots at top and bottom of the area I drew around – those spots looked like top and bottom mounts of a hydraulic cylinder positioned vertically with the motor down. Sorry if I misled anyone.
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