Thread: Ranger 373v Restore Project

Sounds like a plan. Good luck

Man Reaper, that project is gonna take at least 9 or 7 hours! Good luck with it.

Was great to talk to you the other night.

Bob

OK, so after Dinobot and I met this morning to pass the USS-POS to a new, deserving owner, I headed towards Russelville Ark to look/buy a lower unit for the Johnson 150hp. I get there and it's the same model/year of the motor on the 373v. Pull the cowling, turn flywheel by hand, lower unit still attached, put it in gear and turn flywheel by hand again, prop turns.

There's three of us, me, the motors owner (who is physically hampered by an car wreck from years past), and a friend of his. We stand it up on the Skeg, tailgate a bit too tall to just lay the head over on and this thing IS HEAVY! I ask him if he has any 2x12's around, no. Got a 4 wheeler ramp though. So I ask the owner to pull my truck up while me and his friend steady the motor. Lay the ramp against the tailgate, lay a movers blanket over it. The plan was to lift the bottom of the ramp as one, then slide into truck bed. I have safety concerns on my plan and was scared the motor would try to slide downhill once the skeg left the ground. OK, I take a couple of small straps and wrap them around the bottom of the head connected to the tie downs in the back of the Chevy. Once cinched up, we lifted the bottom of the ramp with ease and slid motor and all into the bed. I said, "Thanks for the ramp" and laughed. Got his ramp out from under the motor, shut the tailgate, gave him some money and got a bill of sale (For tag purposes if I rebuild it). We say our goodbyes and I start the truck heading out of the drive, the local station I had it on started playing a little Blue Oyster Cult favorite of mine....You guessed it, "Don't Fear the Reaper"! I'm taking that as a sign that this entire deal was meant to be. Make it home safely after a 475 mile overall drive.

Now this motor was running but had a sputter in it. Turns out a Marine Mechanic discovered the #5 cylinder was only getting 40# psi. It has a fairly new tilt/trim on it to boot. I got the entire motor for less than half of what a used lower unit would cost at a marine salvage! I'm thinking about it on the way home and realized that even though I have the motor, it's in back of the truck and weighs around 500#.

The end of Finding Nemo came to mind where all the fish had finally made it out of the aquarium into the ocean, but were stuck in individual plastic bags. Then as the movie closes, one of the fish says..."Now What"?

I'm at a Now What moment myself as far as the motor goes. That sucker is just going to have to stay in the back of the truck until I figure out what I can do with it. LOL

I guess I could go ahead and pull the lower unit with it laying in the truck. But would rather make a steel stand with casters and get it hung on it. There's a good chance I'm going to rebuild the head since it's most likely nothing more than a hone, some rings and a gasket kit. Then I'll have to find another lower unit. Sheesh, and I'm just getting started! Wish me luck!

Don't think Ranger will have seat forms. Can provide Skins. Had to replace some skins two yrs ago on my 87 373 and this is what Upholstery shop said. I may have my old cushion lid on for the rod box. I put a 372 lid. Will check. Skin and form were still good.

If those axles are shoot grease thru end of axle, and you need new zerks, I have the 3/8 x 24 zerks as needed on my my 373. I have more than I will ever need.

Reaper

Yesterday I had a recessed box put in for trolling motor control. The amount of foam floatation that the boat mech. saw in there impressed us both. I told him it's a Ranger(1994 354v) what did you expect! You will really have something when you finish. Looking forward to seeing it.

I'm going to leave the fwd deck alone, but modify the rod box lid so I can make a hinged deck out of it instead of the original padded seat. I'm not sure I like the recessed foot control yet since I plan to add two new seat bases up front for a second person. I'll need the foot control to be able to relocate to one side when fishing two in the front. I'll be adding an extended deck all the way to both consoles and create some more storage underneath.

I'm also considering re-engineering the entire dash area to try and fit the HDS-9 touch into the console and fit a Marine grade radio in it as well. I've had the radio for about two years. Bought it for a Bat Wing fairing for the Harley but have shelved that project.

The changes I make might take away from the value from getting off the original Ranger, but the value is not real high on an '84 anyway. I think as long as what I do is professional looking, I might be able to increase the value a tad.
Add yes, I should have a nice rig when said and done.

Thanks for chiming in!

Good luck Reaper. I got a backache just reading this story. Heads starting to hurt a little too.