John Brown, the mechanic I used in Riviera Beach to replace the broken mounting plate on the rear of the starboard engine and the marine gear (transmission) , had told me the mounts supporting the rear of the engine and the gear were too short, that they were wrong for this application. Because they were too short, only one bolt, instead of two, could be used to fasten each support to the engine/gear assembly. He said there was no way to fix them but would hunt marine flea markets for used mounts and was confident he could find two before long. In the meantime, he was replacing the old bolts with much stronger grade #8 bolts and assured me one of these through each mount would prove adequate. However, he said I should check the mounts every 200 hours to make sure they were securely fastened.
After running the engine some 50 hours I noticed the gear and rear of the engine were vibrating more than normal. I checked the single bolt on the outboard mount and it was tight. I checked the inboard mount – and found no bolt whatsoever! It had sheared off from the engine block. I found the bolt head in the bilge. So much for mechanic John's supposedly super-strong # 8 bolts!
I had visions of the gear and motor tearing apart once again! However, I found that by reducing engine revs to 1600 from 1900, I could reduce the vibration dramatically, and that is how we managed to make it west across the Gulf Stream to the Jacksonville area.
There, at Green Cove Springs, rather than contacting mechanic John, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I took a hard look at the mounts. I found they appeared to have been the proper length before the bottom portion had sheared off in the accident. It seemed to me a welder could either repair the mounts or fabricate replacements, and I just happened to have a man in mind...
The pleasure boat marina at Green Cove Springs consists of one 1500 ft. long concrete and steel pier, formerly used by large navy ships. In an attempt to make the pier suitable for much smaller pleasure boats, steel and pressurized wood panels with climbing rungs hang down the its sides. Yachts can now be tied to the panels and boaters can climb up to the pier deck using the rungs.
A man on a Harley named Pat stopped by last week to check whether I wanted my two panels adjusted. I figured this Harley guy was a marina employee, but introduced myself and chatted him up a bit. Then this morning, while on my walk, I was passing through a machine shop/steel fabrication area a few piers away, when someone hailed me – it was Pat. I stopped to talk and learned that Pat, as an outside contractor, had built some twenty of those large docking panels. His crew had also painted and poured concrete around the dozens of steel pilings supporting the first two piers, to conserve them. He said they would eventually do the eight others as well. Pat showed me the steel caissons he had designed and fabricated to facilitate the piling work -- he said he carried these and other designs “in his head”.
I figured this man could easily repair my mounts, or make me new ones, with one hand tied behind his back. I took one bracket on the bicycle, in the rain, to show him this afternoon. Bingo! Pat will fabricate new brackets of steel (the old ones are of brittle cast iron, not flexible like steel, which is why they broke, Pat said.)
So the marine gear/engine mount problem is back in my court now -- whew! And yes, I still have to extract the portion of the bolt that broke off inside the gear, but that should be mere child's play. Editor's note: It took a while , but Pat's new brackets were perfectly crafted and fit exactly. Using 2x4's and a come-a-long windlass, I lifted the engine and gear and fastened them securely to the new mounts -- with TWO very strong bolts through each!
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