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Motor Installation
This is the Sabb G which I found on the net and bought together with all the goodies (fuel filters, fuel tank, control linkages, spare parts, and the advice of both previous owners which has been invaluable).

The engine sits on a palate to which I have added four swivel casters. These will ride down the track to the .........

....stern end of the boat where the chain hoist will take the motor up over the top of the hull sides.

The track is either several layers of 1x6 or 2x6 stock salvaged from the strong back or the moulds with an edge to keep the casters from running off of the track. Stakes keep it from spreading.

The motor will come up over the hull edge on the far hoist. the chain from the near hoist will be added and the hoists adjusted to bring the motor inboard and down into the engine space. All of that rope is just there to "put" it someplace. I used the end of it to hold the plank in place temporarily until I could screw it (to the cross piece) -- as close as I'll ever get to bondage.

This is the sorry foam mock up I used to work out some preliminary relationships. It will be replaced by the real thing.

The process went just as planned.We did it on a cold, muddy rainy day and the only problem was a temporarily stuck truck. The motor hanging over the boat like this made me nervous. I wonder what the 450 pound motor would do to the 1" thick bottom??

The first location for the motor proved to be too close to the stuffing box although it was ideal with respect to it's being tucked nicely under the companionway stairs.
The the vibration permitted by the high position on the motor mounts made for some wild gyrations. This made the short coupled shaft a problem with respect to the lateral loads placed on the stuffing box bearing.
After some hair pulling we decided to move the motor back 9 inches and redesign the shape of the engine mounting logs so that the motor would sit lower on the flexible mountings. The Sabb is much happier in her new location, but she's beginning to back into the main cabin a bit.
The stuff on the floor is saw dust. I just didn't feel like cleaning up for the photo. Normally, the motor is covered by plastic to keep the sawdust out of the works.
The prop and skeg. There still is some reshaping to do here. The tubing is a grease line for the prop hub. The prop is a variable pitch -- the shaft moves in and out to vary pitch from full forward to full astern. This sort of rules out a VEE drive which would keep the motor's behind out of the living room !!! No tellin' what the sledge hammer was used for !!!

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