Emergency outboard motor safety cable made from stainless steel
Since we had the engine fail on us even though it has done very little work we decided that we should purchase a second hand outboard motor which we could use in an emergency. Rob the marine engineer who fixed the engine had a couple for sale, both of which were 4HP.
We tried the first and cheapest and on trial it managed to push the boat along enough for what we wanted in an emergency and armed with that knowledge we bought the newer of the two engines. After the engine was fitted to our outboard bracket there were two or three issues that arose. One was the need for security and another a method of securing the engine to the boat in case it ‘fell off’.
The first issue was resolved with the purchase of a new stainless steel padlock which I subsequently sprayed with lithium grease for protection and simply attached to the two handles used to screw the engine bracket to the boat. The second problem was solved by making a couple of stainless steel ends that were silver soldered to a short length of stainless steel wire from our local chandlers.
Constituent parts - Stainless steel cable and round barstock stainless steel
I started by sanding a slight taper to the cable ends to stop any wires coming away from the main cable when it came to place them into the home made ends. Using the lathe first it some stainless steel rod was faced off then drilled slightly oversize compared to the wire. This was to allow space for the solder to flow into. Rather than use soft solder I went for the stronger option of silver soldering. This requires the parts to be brought to red hot temperature and allowing the solder to melt. With silver soldering items such as this the flux used must match the silver solder you are using. Mine comes in a powder form that is them mixed into a paste.
Special silver soldering flux powder mixed to a paste with a couple of small lengths of silver solder rod mixed in.
Once the parts are covered in the paste flux I cut small lengths of silver solder rod off and placed a couple of lengths into the stainless steel ends. After putting the cable into the round bar another couple of pieces of solder are bent to shape and placed around the cable to sit on top of the end (see photo). This method allows a hands free method of soldering since the only requirement is to bring the parts to temperature. The idea is not to play the flame onto the solder, rather getting the parts to a temperature whereby they melt the solder and not the flame.
Once the ends are cooled down enough they are placed into a pickle solution, in my case a form of citric acid. After 20 minutes or so they are then washed in clean fresh running water before polishing the parts with a revolving wire brush and final polishing.
Close up of the two ends joined together
The final stage is was to mill both ends down to 50% of their original diameter to form a pair (see photo) after that was completed a 4mm hole was tapped in one end with a countersunk clearance hole drill to match in the other. Both ends can then be screwed together around the engine and the outboard bracket. The final cable is shown below.
The safety cable joined together
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We have a Quicksilver 630SD with a 1.7MS diesel engine. We have heard from several sources that they are prone to piston failure after relatively short hours. How old is yours? What hours has it done? Do you feel you have any redress against the manufacturers?
We asked a Mercruiser dealer, who told us they were aware of problems, but thought more recent models had been amended, but we don’t know a cut-off date, or serial number for newer, safer models.
(Possible cause given to us, was injector pump timing)
Ours hasn’t gone, but we are obviously concerned!
Hello, Ours was 8 or 9 months out of its two year guarantee and had approximately 270 only when the piston went. We felt that the manufacturers should make the repairs because the product was not ‘fit for purpose’ since an anticipated running time of 10,000 hours was not achieved and 270 hours proved it wasn’t fit.
It was a very expensive repair and in the end the manufacturers paid the bill in full. It took a bit of a battle but they honoured there commitments. My understanding is that the guarantee period has now been extended to 5 years, but I am not sure if that is so.
i have no evidence for my belief that these engines are designed for use in cars and that is where the problem lies. The fuel quality and revs used is nothing like its ‘normal’ use. Since this incident we have disposed of the boat and part exchanged it against a boat with a marine engine and shaft drive. We won’t be going the same route again unless there is a full and comprehensive 5 (or more) year warranty. My comments above are my own and as I said I have no evidence to back up my theory, but using high performance diesels (and they are getting even more efficient (and therefore vunerable to poor fuel etc)than before just look at that Audi advert where the fuel delivered can go through the eye of a needle). So it good old fashioned oil banging non complicated marine engines for us from now on! I think Petrol engines get away with it because their fuel is the same. We now only use non red diesel since the price is near enough the same.
Hope that answers some of your queries but watch out also for turbo’s as well as the pistons!
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