zmk1962

January 23, 2018

Hi Dave,

Have not had the prop spinning issue previously but I'll have a go based on an understanding how the lower leg gearing works. First are you sure it is not in gear? ie. can you trace the gear cable back to the motor to make sure the cable length is correctly adjusted to place the gear shift lever on the motor in neutral.

If it is in neutral, then when was the last time the lower leg gear oil was changed? It may be of the wrong viscosity (too thick) or if its never been changed may be a gunk jelly that is driving your prop through the viscosity. The prop would not be in gear but you would see it start to spin and gather speed as you run the motor.

Re voltage. Yes 12.9V looks a bit low - it would barely be maintaining charge on your battery if its also putting out some Amps but it would not be charging. My understanding is you need to be in the 14V range to get effective charging. The workshop manual for your motor would tell you what to expect from your rectifier... I did a quick google for "1981 johnson 50hp battery charging voltage output"...and found the following article relating to a 1981 Evinrude 50hp (should be close enough being a sister product to the 1981 Johnno 50hp). It makes mention that if you are getting less then 13.5 at 1000rpm then the rectifier most likely needs replacing.

https://www.justanswer.com/boat/6niei-1981-evinrude-50hp-e50belcic-check-charging-sys.html

Cheers

Zoran

January 23, 2018

2 hours ago, rickmarlin62 said:

hey zoran the 70s are usually a desert from Sydney to above Newcastle a couple of miles and fish 85 fm to 100fm and you will fair better...all the hotspots up n down the coast are in this depth ive fished broken bay tournament in the past and always found fish straight out the front in 85/90fm the seventies are flat long and no structure or change to hold bait..a bit further and find bait find fish...rick

Cheers @rickmarlin62 so I'm hearing loud and clear from several posts... will try deeper next time ... BTW I did catch a 70kg stripey trolling the same run back in 2015 -- guess that one was was lost or didn't get the memo.... he he he.

Will go deeper next time....

Cheers
Zoran

January 23, 2018

Great. That’s what Fishraider’s do - help each other !!

Sigma try googling for parts for your specific 1981 johnno Model number coding. Several sites that sell parts will throw up exploded view schematics of the motor so you can order the correct part. I often use that info to locate a part and to see how it’s assembled.

Cheers

Zoran

January 22, 2018

Thanks for the comments and encouragement guys ... yeh the northerly route took us 120-140m depths (65-70fathom) ... I may try the 70-80 fathom line next time. -

But somehow I think my biggest issue will be to find a crew that will be willing to give it a go!!!...hahaha ....

We live to fish ... another day !

Cheers

Zoran

January 22, 2018

4 hours ago, rickmarlin62 said:

poppet valves generally jam in shut position with corrosion holding them..mine was jammed the other day..after long run high revs for half hr or more when I stopped and idled my buzzer would chirp..plenty water at telltale but not enough flowing thru head..cleaned it repositioned with smear of grease and no more probs..rick

Thanks @rickmarlin62...Yup agree.. I had a different manifestation though. My engine temperature would jump up and keep rising between 2000-3000rpm....just in trolling speed range, 4 -8kts zones rpm range ... a real pain in the butt having the engine getting hot in that rev range.

The engine temp was fine at idle up to 2000rpm and fine 3000-wot. My poppet valve spring had failed and was dumping the cooling water from the head with the increased water pressure driven by the impeller above 2000rpm. Not an issue above 3000rpm as there was heaps of water going thru for cooling, not an issue below 2000rpm as the spring could hold that level of pressure ..... but between 2000-3000 she was a bitch. Chalked that one up to experience for future reference....and I watch my gauges all the time.

Hence my suggestion to Sigma if poppet had failed open it could be a source of little no water pressure in the head ... little/no tell tale. But thats what I would look at after checking ---> ear muffs / impeller / thermostats / and if you have it on your motor -- poppet valve.

The reason I say thermostats is because some motors also only show a tell tale after the thermo's have opened up. Not sure what Sigma's specific 80's model Johnno does.

Cheers

Zoran

January 22, 2018

9 hours ago, Fab1 said:

You should have apologised and told her You'll only park it there from New year until Xmas.

Yeah. How silly of me to be using my own driveway without apologizing to the neighbour first !

cheers Z

January 22, 2018

Just back online for a second... poppet valve on my Merc controls the quantity of water flow through the head... if it has failed open then you may be losing fluid back through leg and hence so no or very weak tell tale.

But as I said earlier.... trace order is - Impeller - thermostats first.

And given @Fab1 previous meticulous write ups follow the procedure he outlines re impellers.

Cheers

Zoran

January 22, 2018

Great work to get this far (also glad this is keeping you off the other literature!) .... no water at tell tale ---> ear muffs / impeller / thermostats / and if you have it on your motor -- poppet valve.

Cheers

Zoran

January 22, 2018

Absolutely awesome - young Scratchie certainly has some fishing moves - well done getting it all on video.

Cheers

Zoran

January 22, 2018

Hey Raiders,

With all the hot fishing action being reported from Port Stephens and Broughton Is ... I thought I'd counter that with a report of a very forgettable Sunday here off Sydney ... just so that some of you don't start to think our sport is called "Catching" vs "Fishing".

OK... so given the recent reports of small marlin off Sydney I gathered a crew for the weekend.

Weather and Sea condition forecast: Sunday light seas 0.6m wave interval 14sec …and NW (4kts) 5am - N - NE winds (11kts) Noon. SST showing 23C water at about 100m.

The Plan: Davidson Ramp - Balmoral (live bait) - down rig North Head - troll 12Mile - Sydney Fads - Wave Riders - North Head. Some bottom bash / jigging in-between at 12mile.

Launch: 5.00am Davidson Park Boat Ramp.

The Result:

9 yakkas in the tank by 550am.

6 -630am : Two runs downrigging along North Head at 12m... Zip. Decided to start our trip to 12mile. By now we were inline with North Head - dead calm water. Brought up the bomb and as I was unclipping the line felt a tug tug on the live bait...then nothing. Reeled in the livie (deadie) cleanly bitten off at the gills (tailor, bonito??). Ok so we dropped some skirts and shiny stuff and trolled North Head to Manly ... Zip. Hmmmm.

Decided to call it and raced out to 12mile... about 3km out from 12mile came a cross a flutter of surface bait fish. Dropped the trolling skirts - 6" and 8" Pakulas, two metal head jet skirts (purple/pink, white/blue) and a lumo teaser in close to the stern.

Trolled to 12mile, trolled around 12mile twice...Zip. Saw 10 boats and a charter there bottom bashing. So dropped down 2 livies on long leaders and 12oz lead (2.5kmh current)... livies taken but no strike no bite felt. Dropped down a paternoster with strips of yakka and another two livies. Livies gone, paternoster untouched. Still ZIP !!! Hmmmmm.

9am Boats started leaving. We called it as well and started our troll north. ... beautiful conditions offshore, water 23.8-24C and BLUE as per the video .. After 3-4hrs and without a single hit, decided to abandon continuing heading north and turned in toward Long Reef, did a couple of loops around each of the buoys and the close in Fad looking for some dollies (anything really!).... so after 6hrs and some 80+km on the water we ended up back at North Head... with 3 livies. Dropped two over the side - one weighted one free swimming .... still ZIP.

So at 330pm we gave up ....and released the 3 livies as a token offering to the good karma god for the next trip….!!!! But some how I think this crew will INSIST on bottom bashing only.

Cheers

Zoran

(PS - @Fab1...I must been taking fishing lessons from you through the week - I'll stick to reading your workshop posts only !!!! )

January 21, 2018

@shakey55 as others have said, the breather is there to vent the tank... from what you describe I think you may have a combination of issues:

1) vent is blocked: make sure that you do not have a kink or flattening of the breather hose from the tank to the deck vent (mine looked ok but when I actually took it out and checked I found that it had flattened shut at one section but looked ok from the normal viewing angle).

2) breather pickup location: you could have a case of the breather pickup being at the stern end of the tank and a combination of filling the tank to capacity and tilting the boat up at the bow may have positioned the liquid fuel across the breather pickup with the vapour further up in the tank.

As the vapour expands it forces liquid fuel out of the breather but since you are not seeing that I suspect the breather hose is kinked and the extra pressure is forcing the fuel out of the joins as you described. Also once you opened the filler cap, the fuel sitting across the filler was expelled. Which again suggests your vent hose is kinked or blocked.

This "vapour lock" can be a common problem with long subfloor tanks with the breather pickup at the back. (PS - A friend of mine had problems filling his tank to capacity, unless he took the trailer off the towball and tilted it forward. this could be another manifestation of this problem. You may also at times experience the motor becoming sluggish or bogging down - if the breather pickup is blocked by fuel resulting in fuel tank vacuum restricting fuel flow to the running motor.)

So I suggest check your breather hose first. Once you are sure there is no vent blockage, perhaps try tilting the rig forward and see if you get vapour from the vent to confirm this is your tank design.

Note: I'm speaking from experience here as my original 200L tank in the Haines had the same issue. When I eventually had the tank replaced, I had the tank manufactured with the breather pickup at the front of the tank as shown in the last sketch. Most boats ride stern heavy, and sit tilted back on trailers so the breather pickup at the front works better.

21 hours ago, rickmarlin62 said:

undo fuel line at motor and drain some into drum..rick

You may need to get rid of some fuel to check your breather hose, as @rickmarlin62 said undo the fuel line at the motor, or if you have a push on fuel connector (usually female) you can purchase the corresponding male connector, rig it to about 1m of fuel line then any time you want to siphon fuel out (lawn mower etc) just connect this up to the fuel supply and use the bulb to start the siphon action.

Cheers

Zoran

January 21, 2018

22 hours ago, Smasher said:

Though Ive had another neighbor who lives a hundred meters down the road once question me “how long is it gonna live there” and as far as I’m concerned its none of her business

When we first brought home our 6.4m Haines (8m on trailer) and parked it fully on one side of our double driveway (8m frontage)... our neighbour approached my wife and asked the same ... "how long is it gonna live there?" .... then mentioned ... "she's going to call council as there must be rule about this or something" ..... and her excuse for being upset about our pride and joy sitting fully on our property in our driveway ..... "people coming up the road wont be able to see the Christmas tree in her lounge room window from that direction" !!!!!!!!!

Sheeesh .... some people think that the world revolves around them !

Cheers

Zoran

January 20, 2018

25 minutes ago, PaddyT said:

Thats a fair call Fab , still reckon 2yrs old trailers should be exempted

I don’t know PaddyT - I know new cars have 3yrs inspection free period. But cars don’t get dunked in salt water - boat trailers do. You can get a fair amount of corrosion on trailer brakes that are not maintained in 12mths ... let alone 3yrs.

Cheers Z

January 19, 2018

1 hour ago, Smasher said:

My boat is 1.5T and mechanical breaked trailer 250kg.

I was told that I would need to get the trailer checked to pass rego but the RMS just send me the renewal papers and thats it! Not sure why but I’m not game to question it.

Smasher.... not sure what the history of your trailer is. Suggest you check the compliance plate on your trailer against the rego papers - the VIN number should match as should the description of the trailer.

Some older rigs have just moved the licence plate (inspection exempt) across to another trailer (where technically an inspection is required)... also if your trailer was originally exempt but modifications have been made to it (that have made it fall into inspection required) - then as I understand it who ever did the mods should have updated RMS.

I guess its all much of a muchness until there is an accident which may not necessarily be your fault and police/insurance start to poke around... I wouldn't want to be in that position.

Cheers

Zoran

January 19, 2018

Nice work Rick!

Cheers Z

January 18, 2018

Best of luck Rick. Both Sat and Sun look great here in Sydney. I have a crew with limited experience for Sunday so just deciding whether I’ll introduce them to trolling for pelagics or take them out bottom bashing again.

Tough choice .... hahaha .....NOT !

cheers

Zoran

January 18, 2018

Yup... and we need to be mindful that the capacity is the GVM.... gross vehicle mass - which is the trailer including all the load it's carrying - fuel, gear, beer, bait, tackle etc....

January 18, 2018

YUP ! ... not surprised with the hot weather bringing up the salt level in the Georges system and hence helping school fish further and further up the river.

I recall that one of the earliest recorded shark fatalities was in the 50's just opposite Bankstown airport - near that spot.

I grew up around Chipping Norton Lake System (and cut my teeth fishing there). Have caught many a lower estuary type fish like tailor in the lakes which are a good 5-7km further up from Picnic Pt. Late 70's a friend of mine had a 14' trampoline sailing catamaran... he swears that one day as he was crossing the lakes there was a hammerhead bigger than his pontoons swimming between the pontoons.... and there were always reports of dogs being taken... and even a horse (Warwick farm race course was a bit further up and the trainers used to swim the horses).

The lakes were dredged for sand for many years and supposedly there were quite a few very deep holes....

A bit of history for ya all.....

Cheers

Zoran

January 18, 2018

Just checking Fab! Checks of trailers with mechanical override brakes are pretty much as you say - the only thing I'd add is the D-shackles need to be the load rated/certified ones (usually dipped with yellow paint) - some inspectors will pick you up on that.

If the trailer is electric/hydraulic braked ... or has break away braking system - then the inspection may also include the charging, in car monitoring of the breakaway battery condition. These are mandatory for rigs over 2T and you have to go to a HVIS for the rego inspection. If you have less then 2T rig but have this breaking system then its a grey area I guess - best to call RMS and see what they want.

Cheers

Zoran

January 18, 2018

Bear....Braked or unbraked trailer?

Cheers

Zoran

January 18, 2018

17 hours ago, Berleyguts said:

FogX

Is FogX same as RainX??

1 hour ago, Smasher said:

I have a similar problem but it's the lights from my sounder and dash and other internal lights that reflect on the windsheild and make it near impossible to see through. Poking my head out is the only way (other than switching off lights)

I had a big white dash under a steeply raked front screen that used to emphasise the same screen reflection issue... so I had a trimmer make a dash cover from black car trim carpet that is held in place by velcro. Solved the white dash reflection issue.

Regarding gauge lights etc, I keep a dark microfibre cloth handy (to wipe the early morning fogging off screen) so I drape it over the gauges and lights...temporary dark curtain.

Cheers

Zoran

January 17, 2018

Yeah we thought about that or that hi dense foam used on roof racks. But these sit at the top of the thigh and the 32mm pipe has a generous radius. They didn’t seem to dig in during the backyard field test. Will keep it in mind though.

Cheers Z

January 17, 2018

11 minutes ago, bizzyb said:

some yellowish gunk caking the pin hixh I cleaned off.

Ok if the prime start pin is operating correctly....yellow gunk in the pin hole may mean the enrichment port is blocked with the gunk .... suggest you clean the carbie with carbie cleaner to make sure all the ports and jets are clean and clear.....you should be able to see carbie cleaner squirting into the main throat as you work through cleaning all the ports.

12 minutes ago, bizzyb said:

realising the fuel tank air valve was closed during the last attempted startup they took the whole cap off and then she started.

...ok this starts to suggest your issue may be the product of several problems. I had cold start problems with my carbie 15 Aux. Working through the following solved them for me:

1) carbie cleaned

2) enrichment injector fixed and adjusted - in your case the prime start

3) I have an underfloor tank - replaced fuel tank breather vent hose found it was kinked - impeding fuel suction esp when the tank was full

4) primer bulb replaced and check valve (one way valve) installed in supply fuel line . I had a 2+m run of fuel line from the tank to water separating filter to the Aux. I suspected that the fuel was running back to the tank drawing against the flow to the carbie -all ok once the motor started as when running it developed enough suction to feed itself - but starting was a different issue. Maybe the primer bulb check valve had failed or there was just too much fuel in the line for the start up suction to work. Putting a check valve in the supply fuel line ensured the fuel went only one way toward the motor.

After doing all this - two to three cranks and my motor starts.

Cheers

Zoran

January 17, 2018

Ha ha ha guys. Very funny. Perhaps a little more time on Fishraider for you both and a little less on other literature!

cheers Z

January 17, 2018

Hey Raiders,

@antonywardle inspired me the other day with his PVC pipe work to solve a problem my Mrs had given me. It appears she got bruised hips and thighs from the rod butt after hawling in the fish the other day ... and she didn't like wearing the rod holder buckets ... apparently not a good look on camera !

So I looked for a solution an it appears fishing " rod T-holders" are available on the market and were an acceptable solution..... they look like this:

Since I could not find them on Dinga, but having being inspired by @antonywardle I diverted past Bunnings today and bought some 32mm high pressure pipe fittings and a 1m length of pipe. After some cutting, heatgun application and glueing - voila here is the "rod Z-holder" I came up with:

Now to go find some kingies to test it on!

Cheers

Zoran

PS - Mrs was very grateful and asked when are we going out next ! (offshore that is.)

PPS - I actually made 2...total cost about $12.

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