Rotating the eaton drive - quick video

[BobinCovington]

Just to help those of you with newer drives appreciate what you have...This is a quick video my son took with his I-Phone showing how I rotate our Eaton outdrive on our 66 Donzi Ski Sporter after pulling it out of the water (please excuse the poor quality and fumbling fingers trying to pull the steering linkage off). Using the stick is a new twist we came up with to raise the drive up enough to drive up the ramp without dragging and let me rotate it AFTER I get it out of the water (or before we launch).

You can imagine trying to do this chest deep in water at the boat ramp with people waiting...

Here is the link
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auaFBxP-YvM[/media]

[Conquistador_del_mar]

Wild technology. Thanks, Bill

[gcarter]

That's pretty cool!
Thanks for leaving it stock..........at least as long as you have.

[Just Say N20]

Actually it was a pretty good quality video. Thanks for posting.

Not as user friendly as I anticipated.

[Mckillop]

I was wondering how you did that. Thank for showing me the boat on Sunday. That is a special boat for sure. Just a side comment, but when were the smart tabs added? Those probably work well on that boat.

[BobinCovington]

I put them on last year after running without them for a while and they made a huge difference. Boat comes up on plane much quicker, much smoother ride and handles chop better too. It is still not like the bigger boats, but much better than it was

[CaribouLou]

I laugh every time I see that!

[Jraysray]

Bet it's a lil warm in there after running all day.

[silverghost]

There seems to be very few of these old EATON outdrives still in operating condition & still in use today.

Heck~~ I remember when they were brand-new.
When they first came out they were called Inboard-Outboards by EATON.
The first one I ever saw was on a wooden Ventnor clinker-built lapstrake Sea Skiff.

An Ocean City NJ neighbor also bought a lapstrake clinker-built Plywood Grady-White with an EATON I/O and 230 Cu.In. Chevy inline six cylinder.
Very fast boat in it's day, for a production boat.

EATON Corp. was also owner of Interceptor Marine Engines who marined mostly Fords for straight inboard use; and early I/O use.

It is great that you kept your boat & drive as built when new.

[pipnit]

That's cool!

[Rodger]

Pay close attention to that 3/4" pin that holds the drive in the transom housing. That pin is all that keeps the drive in place. Thirty one years ago that pin broke in my 16' doing about 50 MPH and...off came the drive in 60 feet of water. The boat went into a spin nearly flipping, followed by sinking. It was not a pleasant day on the water.
I had the boat back in the water 2 weeks later with the fastening method enhanced to prevent another event.
Also, it doesn't take much of a power increase to overload the shear-pin and snap it. I had to make pins from grade 8 shoulder bolts.

[BobinCovington]

Might be a good time for me to x-ray or Mag particle check for cracks in that pin

[Rodger]

Might be a good time for me to x-ray or Mag particle check for cracks in that pin

The pins break at the snap ring groove...as expected because of the stress concentration at that point.