1978 115hp Johnson outboard newbie question

[Bob Bismal]

Howdy, First a little history so you know what a newbie I really am. I've only been in a boat 2 times in my life and those were about 20 and 25 years ago. Now I've got 2 boys and really want to take them fishing. I live on an island (in Gibraltar, MI) and we've been just about the only people in this city without a boat sense we moved here.

Well now I've bought a boat. It's a 18' 1978 Starcraft Holiday Closed bow, with a 115hp Johnson outboard. Everything on the boat is original and in pretty good shape. I paid $1900 for it. Good price? Now for the real questions.

1. I know you need a battery to start the motor, but do outboards need a battery to run?

2. It came with a Humminbird 4X6 fish finder and a radio. Should I worry about killing the battery if I run these while the motor is running? Or with it off? As far as I can tell the manual that came with the motor says it has an alternator, will that charge that battery / batteries?

3. I took it out yesterday for about 4 hours and when I got it home and pulled the bilge plug it had about 5 gallons of water come out. The bilge pump wasn't working, and I plan to fix that before I go out again. I's that much leaking normal or something I should fix asap?

4. The tachometer doesn't work. Is that a big deal? I'd kinda like to have some idea what the motor is doing.

5. It's got some pop rivits in the bottom. Should I replace them with hammered rivits or just weld them? Has anyone ever tried Cabela's Aluminum Boat Patch (http://cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp;jsessionid=Q4GRI15HX1B0JTQSNOLSCNOOCJVYQI WE?id=0001390010655a&navAction=jump&navCount=0&indexId=&podId=0001390&catalogCode=IE&parentId=&parentType=&rid=&cmCat=search&hasJS=true&_requestid=32919)? I found it on another forum and a couple people on there seemed to really like it.

6. When I first put it in the water, I backed up and went about 50' at very slow speed (no wake zone) in about 2' of water. Then a buzzer started going off. It sounded like it was comming from in the dashboard or in the Throttle Assembly / motor control (not sure what the correct name is). I shut it off for about 30 seconds and it fired right back up and never heard the noise again even when I was putting back to the dock in the no wake zone again. Any idea what the heck it was?

7. What's the cheapest place to get a service manual? Seem like there would be a pdf version out there somewhere.

8. Many more questions to come, just can't think of them right now so just tell me anything and everything a newbie might ask. BTW, when I took it out, it ran awesome. Nice, quiet smooth ride, started right up and went like a bat out a hell.

Best pic I've got so far
http://home.comcast.net/~Londonblaine1/boat.jpg
Thanks in advance for all your help.

[frenchriver1]

I'll start this off:

1. Boats generally have types of batteries, a cranking battery for the motor, and a deep cycle battery to run accessories, trolling motor, depth finders, etc. Might be in two different places or side by side, but you will likely find two different kinds. You can either charge the batteries in place or take them out to charge them.

2.If you have a charged deep cycle battery, you should be able to run your depth finder for hours without concern.

3. On the water in the bilge, that is super critical to address, fast. The bilge pump is the one item on the boat that must work all the time. If you just had water accumulated in the bilge and it is all pumped out, OK, but you do need to verify if the bilge pump is working, and right now. Even a replacement is a small investment to safeguard your 2K investment.

Anybody else?

By the way, nice boat, but remember, a boat is just a hole in the water into which you throw money...

If you want an experienced guy to take a look at your boat over the winter and give you an appraisal of what might need to be done, let me know and I can turn you on to my boat and motor guys.

[wally-eye]

Wow a whole lot of things to go over. Should have an experienced person go with you at least once to address all your concerns. The buzzer for one could be a heat alarm buzzer, low oil buzzer etc. That shallow you would have been sucking up mud/sand unless you had the motor trimmed way up. Take a friend with you that knows boats. But as the last post stated the BILGE should be addressed BEFORE taking out again.........................5 gals would be more water than just one missing rivet should allow in.....

Looks like a nice boat from the pics. Good luck.

[TONGA]

Ok first let me say nice looking rig.
yes that motor will run without a battery,,but this is a bad thing. so DO NOT RUN THAT MOTOR WITH OUT OR WITH A WEEK BATTERY!,also MAKE SURE YOUR BATTERY CONNECTIONS ARE CLEAN AND TIGHT!
Doing any of the above will melt down things like stators and rectifiers,,,this will make that whole you dump money in even bigger!

As for the buzzer, well assuming it's 1978 is probably a temp warning,,,now you were in shallow water and it may be something just clogged up you water intake and then ran cool after the shutdown but I would not assume that and I would not expect that 27 year old warning system to work reliably,,in fact I'm kinda surprised it worked at all.
So if you have no idea when the last time that motor was serviced I would recommend having the water pump impeller and seals changed,,that motor has a large high pressure impeller and its expensive as impellers go,,also being a V-4 you have to pull the carbs and a few other things to get to the shift disconnect making this job a bit labor intensive so it will cost you a few bucks but it's still cheep insurance!
You also should have the lower unit lube changed and the motor should have good looking over,,,I mean after all it's a long walk home from a boat ride!.

[Jason Adam]

Seriously, replace the missing rivets or whatever is leaking(fill the bilge with some water from the inside if you have to, If you got 5 galons in that short of time, do not consider putting this thing back in the water til thats done. Install two new bilge pumps, one auto/manual, and one manual, and make sure the auto one is wired direct to the battery. Beyond that, replace the impeller in the lower unit, if you were getting a heat alarm, thats probably for sure what the problem is in an old OB.

When all this is done, and your sure you have all the required saftey gear, and all your lights work, and you've taken a boaters saftey course(Please DO NOT go out until you have taken a boaters saftey course), then, find someone with adaquate boating experiance, and take them out on the water.

No offense, and I commend you for openly coming right out with your inexperiance, but there is alot of potential, especially now that its fall, or next year early in the season, to put yourself and others in a bad situation, especially with a old, unknown boat, with an inexperianced boater. Someone that has been boating for years could easily identify potential problems, as well as give you some captaining instruction, and keep a level head out there should a problem arise, for your first few trips out.. Dont take the lake lightly..