
Originally Posted by
Big Jim
Ah crap! Forgot about the tools at Costco! Pretty good deal really but too late now, at least I got the kit from sears for the same price on sale.
Well fullbush, it went like this:
blowing 20+ out of the northwest, 8-10' swells, 12 miles from the ramp at one of our buoys fishing when my buddy (not the boatowner/captain) lets a small tuna pull the line into the prop (single diesel cummins w/stern powr outdrive); not good.
My buddy says "sorry" and Mike (said boatowner/captain) shoots back, "sorry ain't gonna cut it! Get that **** line out of the prop", so me being the "regular" guy on the boat leans out the back and gets line off easy enough with the drive all the way up.
Oh oh, drive won't go down, tilt/trim pump run but no action, drive stuck ALL the way up, Mike kicks motor into gear to see if that helps but no go, just looks like a jet drive rooster tail.
So up goes the motor box cover, in I go (kinda) to break loose the hydraulic inlet/outlet pump lines to relieve the pressure (maybe air in the lines?) but alas, no 7/16 wrench so after rummaging around in the rusty (limited) selection of tools, we find a big rusty vise grip that barely got into the tight spot to do the job.
I get out of the transom and stand/jump up & down on the drive and bingo, down she goes! So on the way back in, I resolve to help future adventures by supplying some tools; I know it's not my boat or responsibility, but I get the priviledge to be a regular on the boat and always get plenty of fish & fun at no personal cost for a few years now.
On a side note, when I finally stood up after being pretzeled into the motor box and looked at the ocean, oh boy! Thought me & Ralph were going to have a conference, isn't that a wonderful feeling, when you get that weird mouth watering thing???
Yee ha, Homerdave & family here right now and we're going fishing tomorrow, with a new set of tools available to us!
Jim