The adventure begins...

[Casco B(a4)]

Hello All -


I am the proud new owner of a '74 Pearson 30, hull # 150. I came across her on craigslist a week ago for the grand sum of $500.00 ! In exchange for my five bills, I got : a solid hull - fully sanded by the previous owner and ready for awlgrip; decks with faded, light blue, swirly nonskid (like most of the other Pearsons of this vintage that I have seen), but also in excellent condition with very little crazing - just around a couple of stanchions (and no cracks around the chainplates!); and a main cabin that has been thrashed by wetness and condensation from a long tenure on jack stands, where it sat flooded for an unknown period of time. Also included in this dream package is the Universal Atomic 4 engine, which, by way of proximation to this forum, its devout membership, and the huge knowledge base found therein, I intend to fully overhaul and rebuild this winter!


Here are the few things I know about my a4 at this point :


The pistons are not seized. The flywheel cover had been removed when I bought the boat, and I was able to use a pry bar to turn the flywheel.

For good measure, I poured MMO in all the spark plug holes. When red oil arrived in the bilge just after hearing a suspect dripping noise, I thought the oil pan might be rusted out. EDIT- I now believe it to be the carbeurator

I tried in vain to get the internal gear shift lever to move into either gear (it had been disconnected from the cable to the cockpit lever)... I hope the reversing gear isn't shot...



That is the extent of my exploration to date. I will be moving the boat within a couple of weeks from its present location to my shop where I intend to pull all of the heavy stuff off the motor, and extract it from the hull.


I am excited to begin the journey of bringing this little 4-banger back from the dead (or nearly dead!), and I will try to keep my progress posted here as best I can. I welcome any advice or guidance anyone may have for me at this preliminary point in the resurrection.


Cheers, Joe

[hanleyclifford]

Joe - Welcome to the group! We are all mechanics here and love to see another project get underway. We especially like pictures which is also a great way to document your rebuild. First thing get yourself a copy of the Moyer Marine Service and Overhaul Manual available from the on- line catalogue on this site. Other links are also available including those from Universal and Hess. Looking forward to your project, Hanley

[Will Jacocks]

Aye, pictures, pictures and more pictures!

[sastanley]

Ha ha..I think this is the perfect place for this graphic. B)

Welcome to the crowd. By the way, despite what Hanley says, I wasn't a mechanic, but I am now!

[Dave Neptune]

Get her done

Joe, welcome to the forum. I did not see your first post so I thought I'd say how-do. That is a lot of rusting to get through the pan of an A-4 as the pan is a major structural part of the A-4 assembly. I too bought a boat with an A-4 that was trashed and it was said by the PO that it needed replacing because it was frozen tight. Five days after purchasing it I had it running so to speak after doing a valve job and KNOCKING it loose. Well it's now been 26+ years and the engine is now 42 years old and still ticking.
It is worth the effort to get the A-4 rebuilt or replaced and far far cheaper than converting to an ignitionless stink maker. There are many engines rebuildable to be found cheap so let the group here assist you in a good decission. Once done you will be well suited to maintain her and with the money saved you can buy more "liquid bread" to make those lazy days on the water nicer for the crew.

Dave Neptune

[smosher]

Hey Joe, I don't know where your from, Maybe Maine, but there's 2 motors on ebay in New York that may be of interest to you.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3984Q2em1423Q2el2649QQitemZ230661742718QQsspagenameZSTRKQ3aMEWAXQ3aIT

Steve

[Administrator]

One of the two is a v-drive....

Bill

[ILikeRust]

Welcome aboard and we all look forward to pics and progress on your project.

As far as the reversing gear, I'd bet that it's just stuck and when you open it up and clean/lube it, you'll get it working. It's a pretty simple mechanism with only a few moving parts, and pretty robustly built, so there's not a whole lot to break, at least not catastrophically.

So even is something "broke," it might be something simple and not terribly expensive or complicated to replace.

[domenic]

Joe, before you rebuild, try to get it running.(after you replace, or fix the oil pan.) The gears of the A4 are very hard to shift unless the engine is running. You may not need to rebuild the gearbox. If the shift cable was under water for some time, you may need a new one. Open the fuel tank and see if the bottom is dirty. Replace filter, fuel lines. Rebuild the fuel pump and carb. Change plugs, and plug wires. Buy the MM hand book, you will need it. Replace the thermo.
Buy a hand crank from MM ($50) and get a compression tester at an auto store. Pull each plug and test.
Before you do anything, get the repair book from MM.
These engines don't die...they just get sick if not taken care of. I think the A4 is the best marine in the world. Go slow, and give yourself a year to get the engine, and saftey stuff in order before leaving the dock.
Everthing you need to know about the engine in on this forum. if you can't find what you need, ask and the guys will post it for you. Take pictures of everthing you take apart so you can put it back together.
Great deal on your boat. Does she have a name?

[ILikeRust]

The gears of the A4 are very hard to shift unless the engine is running. You may not need to rebuild the gearbox.

Are we talking about the standard Paragon reversing gear? Or are we talking about a V-drive?

Because if we're talking about the standard reversing gear, there really isn't any "gearbox" and there is no "shifting" of gears. It is not like a transmission, where you're sliding gears along a splined shaft and need to allow the moving gears to mesh.

In the standard reversing gear assembly, all the lever does is engage and disengage a clutch. It should require no more effort when the engine is off than it does when the engine is running, because whether the engine is running makes no difference in the movement of the mechanism and there are no gears to mesh like there are when you're shifting a transmission.

As for a V-drive, I don't know, because I've never used one, so maybe that's different.

[edwardc]

I second what Bill said. All you're doing is engaging a disk friction clutch in forward, and a friction band around the outside of the assembly in reverse. Running or stopped should make no difference.

As for the V-drive, its just a 2:1 set of direction reversing gears bolted on after the standard Paragon transmission. It has absolutely no effect on the shifting.

[Bold Rascal]

Welcome Casco

Hello All -


For good measure, I poured MMO in all the spark plug holes. When red oil arrived in the bilge just after hearing a suspect dripping noise, I reached under the front of the motor to find the oil pan rusted out.

I did the same thing, filling up each cylinder with MMO and then finding a fair amount of it in the bildge . Turns out it was not the catastrophic leak I had feared but that the MMO was leaking out of the carb.

[Casco B(a4)]

3+ months later...

Like all good things, it took some time to get the new (old) P30 to a place and point where I could begin the process of refitting her. She came inside at the beginning of November and just today we spent the afternoon moving the mast, and cleaning a bit, then even though my honey - do list was pressing, I couldn't resist the temptation to get greasy. AND rusty.

So - even though it is not my intention to enable this group's weird boat motor porn fetish, I have taken a bunch of pics so as to fend off all disapproving comments and conjecture with regard to my inadequate newbie posting.

getting dropped off
winter home
sliding mast off

Now here's what you've all been waiting for : the motor. Down and dirty.
This thing is nasty. Rusted and rotten. Can't wait to see the cylinders and the shaft... Should be lovely. I don't have a stud remover yet, so that's where I stopped. All of the nuts are now off the studs - and a couple studs came out.

Check it out.

the beast
this shows the waterline where standing water filled the cabin. You can see the fiberglass thruhull which dictated the depth of the water. How long the motor was submerged is unknown.



I have reached my 5 photo limit, so I will add more in another posting.

[Casco B(a4)]

Day 1 / Beginning the teardown

behind the alternator, the block was corrosion central

not too pretty

carb removed

schmeg filled carb.

manifold off - look at the sludge...

Was anyone else's motor ever this bad ??!! Is this project realistic? Obviously, I need to delve further, but on first inspection I am not impressed with my starting place...


One more post of pics to follow....

[Casco B(a4)]

Day 1 / Beginning the teardown , cont.'d

more sludge. big surprise

more rust. wow. its incredible.

thermostat location

almost there

done for the day... gotta get a stud remover


SO - I'm interested to hear what you all think of this little rusty old american dream...

Thanks, Joe