Australian Riptide Sportsman

[AusAnzani]

Thank you Hugz,

Back in the day there were several outboard manufacturers within an hour drive from where I currently live, in fact some were only minutes away.

Late last year I found a bloke who owned (and was willing to sell) an Olympic that was stored at his second property. He said he'd collect it and give me a call. Two weeks later I received a call from him advising his father had taken it to the tip weekend prior ........ grrrrrrrrrrr.

Long story short, the only Vic produced outboards I have in my collection are the Gold Cheetahs and a Marlin parts outboard.

Regards,

[Collector Inspector]

You mentioned rust...................number nine is all stainless.

You mentioned grease................number nine is full sealed holding 10psi and had oil.

More detail pics of everything please....................including bolt holes etc. Water pump and if the drive shaft is 1, 2 or 3 bits etc.

Casting at bottom of and internal leg.

GO NUTS!

I need some info to confirm Number Nine being what it is supposed to be........you are my only hope OB1

I consider 12.5hp being a tad ambitious at this stage. Obviously you have spoken to Steve.

You posted a pic of studs the exhaust manifold................I need the same for the head studs that I posted above?

My camera will not attach images at the moment.

This stuff needs to be pretty well neat and tidy from now on as SOS is known to be pretty well accurate regarding information whether BS or...................just ongoing BS?

Can not let that down now can we.

PICS and more detail at your pace Mate.

B

[AusAnzani]

G'day B,

More pics over the weekend. In the bad books with the director of all things non-outboard for working on the Sportsman instead of buying Easter eggs etc for the nieces and nephews. There ate a few days to go yeah, so I'm not sure what she's worried about!

As discussed earlier in the day (for the benefit of the members here), shift shaft comprises a combination of mild steel and stainless components. Main (drive) shaft is all stainless steel, number of pieces to be confirmed IF I can free the water pump from the gearbox housing. Am concerned application of heat will destroy various seal, O rings and potentially warp the housing, so unless I can find another solution it may remain where it is.

I suspect that what I previously thought was "50yo old extra smelly grease" was in fact emulsified oil. It was beigey green in color.

The measurement between the head studs is as yours and I will upload photos later. Port timing, compression, flow etc are potential explanations as to the increased hp of your "steroids" Sportsman. On that note, I have spotted a difference in the exhaust port on the lower cowl of our outboards, with yours shaped (ported) for improved flow. Again pics later.

What I have found on mine which I think is interesting (and possibly telling) is white paint under the gold, and yellow paint under and around the recoil starter within the upper cowl.

Our mutual friend has stated the earliest record of Wescott Hazel advertising production of Riptide Outboards is dated September 1959. The idea has also been floated that Wescott Hazel may have changed the color schemes of the Riptide outboards following acquisition from the Shelteum family.

The business is likely to have been acquired with stock of complete outboards and/or per-painted parts, which were subsequently painted over in the new Wescott Hazel color schemes.

Whilst all that sounds very plausible, we know that Barry Sheltrum donated a Gold Riptide Sportsman to the Powerhouse Museum in 1983. The question is, was this a Sheltrum Sportsman or a Wescott Sportsman he somehow acquired.

The other interesting thing to note is that photos of that particular outboard, show white under gold on the lower gearbox housing and yellow under gold on the upper cowl.

All very interesting stuff indeed.

Regards,
Spiro

[AusAnzani]

Progressing a little slower than expected, but coming along none the less.

Focus of the last week has been to remove the old paint, and in the main we've succeeded in doing that. Following are a few pics of the main components. Still some paint difficult areas to be removed, as well as remains of gaskets etc etc.

Engine. Due to difficulties experienced with the gaskets (separation of parts and gasket removal an absolute pain in the butt), I've decided to leave the engine intact. It turns over nicely and makes no strange noises, so I'm reasonably confident the decision to not separate is best under the circumstances.







Upper and lower cowls. Darker spots are where corrosion had set in under the paint, and will require some further treatment.





Trunk - Drive/exhaust tube.



Gearbox





Transom bracket assembly. Having a hard time separating the parts but hope to have that sorted on the next day or so.



As mentioned previously, carb appears to be an AMAL copy, but is labelled SKC



Not sure which way to head with the water pump at the moment. It's frozen solid inside the gearbox housing and simply won't budge. This outboard will probably not see water after it's done, so if I cant find an easy way to free it up, it'll just stay there. Nice bronze housing!



Some may recall I previously mentioned the recoil starter was inoperative. The issue with that is now clear and I'll be able to sort without too much difficulty.

to summarise, I still have to sort the transom assembly, remove left over paint and gasket material and produce new gasket before the etch primer goes on.

As for the decals, there was not a heck of a lot left to photograph for reproduction later on. I have however been able to create an outline from gum marks that remained on the cowl, well after the decals had gone. This should be sufficient for me to work with. The final product will not be exactly the same as the original but will be close enough.



More soon.

Regards,

[Oyster 49]

Loving the attention to detail

[Collector Inspector]

Your projects are most inspiring.

I cant wait for you to work your magic on a Seagull Olympic. Pretty sure they were produced in your neck of the woods whereas the Riptide was produced in Sydney.

Ha ha... just found an old youtube of mine from 6 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzIPkfLCj-Y I still haven't replaced the throttle lever.

What "Olympic" would that be guys?

Just asking aye.

B

[Collector Inspector]

Spiro and I are doing Photobucket games in what is what between our Old Dears. That is a work in progress as of today.

Number Nine works are below...............

There is no connection with my phone........................later

I am BACK

Pics are....

I have ordered a scissor bore guage from the States.................not cheap but I do not want to take the heads off.............

Spark Plugs are Champion L-87-Y

B[/color]

[Hugz]

Scissor bore gauge. Never heard one of those. Hmm, very clever... could you not fabricate one? http://www.wahlracing.com/Bore-Scissor-Tool.html

The Olympic manufactured by J.E.BARDEN of 449 Lygon st Brunswick, Melbourne (or some of it anyway).

[Collector Inspector]

Scissor bore gauge. Never heard one of those. Hmm, very clever... could you not fabricate one? http://www.wahlracing.com/Bore-Scissor-Tool.html

The Olympic manufactured by J.E.BARDEN of 449 Lygon st Brunswick, Melbourne (or some of it anyway).

What Olympic?

Bore guage needs to be accurate so bought one aye.

B

[AusAnzani]

Busy time of the year for me. Parents are of different religion so we get to celebrate Easter twice, this year one week apart. All good however time to play with the old dears is affected and with daylight savings no over, mucking around during the evenings is not practical (unpowered shed).

Did manage to find several free hours yesterday, most of which was spent separating and fixing the transom assembly. Lots of hours, lots of heat and tested patience! Anyway I now have steering and tilt, but have done some damage to the tilt bolt which may or may not be fixable. Time will tell.



Using a dremel tool and various attachments, I also managed to remove all the remaining paint from those difficult to get at areas. Most parts are now ready to be primed, however I want to have another crack at removing the water pump before I get stuck into that.

I have experienced some difficulty thus far in matching up the original gasket material (thick, black, very dense material), and am hoping to source some from one of the few remaining places I haven't tried yet.

As Bruce mentioned, we're playing photobuckets at the moment, trying to pick all the differences between between out rippys. Whatever we find will be advised here in due course.

Regards,

[Collector Inspector]

I would be cautious with gasket originals being black!

Thick dense black is 99.99% certain containing asbestos. It is really good stuff but discard it and clean up everywhere that you have had it lying around.

Steam Gasket was used for absolutely everything way back.

There are modern versions in many thicknesses available and they are what we need for this application.

SO

The modern ones are either Green outside or Blue outside............there is white non toxic fiber as a filler.

Many thicknesses are on hand at any industrial gasket makers/suppliers. They have offcuts for nix.

Do not use oil gasket material except for base gaskets or bolt on things.

Yes for head gasket and yes for gaskets when putting the upper pan to engine base back together.

Hmm..........What are you doing for the grommet/seal from the water pump tube, through the pan and into the engine base water way? Mine has the remains of one. I will source something at a later date if you do not find something in the meantime.

Measure the crushed thickness of the old gaskets before heaving safely. Let me know that measurement and what the gasket was. I will let you know which new thickness it should be.

Dated Bucket sub folder for you now.

Cheers

B

[Stelios_Rjk]

Amazing project! How did I miss this one?

[Collector Inspector]

Amazing project! How did I miss this one?

Balcony and Mythos will do it every time Mate.

Then again there is an over abundance of seafood and islands......................I would be distracted aye?

B

[Stelios_Rjk]

I was working the whole weakened and yes, now it's beer o'clock!!

[AusAnzani]

G'day Stelios, I hope life has been treating you well.

Decided a day of light duties was in order. Started the day by taking a bunch of measurements for Bruce, and hope that some of those may give some clues as to the increased hp of his Sportsman.

Spend a good part of the day on the wire wheel removing rust from all the hardware and linkages. Taps run through all the nuts and dies over all the bolts and shift linkages to ensure an easy re-assembly ie when the time comes. All nuts, bolts, washers, screws etc now soaking in a jar of WD40 waiting to be used again.



Spent a bit of time straightening the tilt bolt and correcting the threads and am more than happy with the outcome there.



I then moved on to cleaning up some of the remaining parts including the recoils starter. This basically sits in the underside of the upper cowl with a backing plate between the two. The backing plate has 2 small pieces of folded metal. The one off the center hole holds the backing plate in to position again the cowl (this piece had previously broken away) and the other (folded at 180 degrees) secures the recoil spring. With the backing plate free to spin, there is no recoil affect, hence I need to do a small repair here to make things function correctly again.





Finished off the day with removing the emulsified oil from the prop shaft housing and main bearing.

Hope to pick up same manifold gasket material during the week, as this is what was used between the engine and lower cowl and again between the lower cowl and drive/exhaust tube.

Next week is Greek Easter so it will be full on with family gatherings etc. If I find some spare time, I'll clean up the ignition system and make a start on the stainless mid-cowl.

Then it's primer, topcoat and reassembly with some time in between of course.

Regards,