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'86 Entertainer

G

Gunguy

New member
New guy here, I've been boat hunting for two years and I found this Entertainer this weekend and bought it! I took it out on the water immediatly and things went ok... I have a couple of questions.

1) The drive selector is waaayy out of adjustment so it grinds into forward every time. Reverse however works great. Any suggestions on this? (OMC selector, Evenrude 225 outboard)

2) At the top end with hardly any trim the motor bounces... this is the best I can describe. GPS was at 66mph motor just over 5400rpm. I took it to a prop guy and he said it was a 24p and it looked like the blades were flexing. (It is SS) He also though it was undersized (Diameter) for my boat. Anybody have any experience with this problem or can tell me what prop they run on this boat?

Sorry for the long post, I'm excited. :cheers: Cheers fellow Checkmate owners.

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Welcome to the site

I like your boat, not a lot of Entertainers built.

Also not a lot of old OMC O/Bs on this site but some of this is universal anyway.

First most shift dog clutches drag or grind some going into gear, I'm not sure if there is any adjustment possible, most likely forward clutches are worn on yours and the only way to improve this is to replace parts.
Bill Gore is the expert on this stuff and pops in from time to time, if he sees this he could provide better info. You could try a PM to him.

The bounce, is it just the motor that moves or the whole boat bouncing at certain speeds? Does the transom flex? If you grab the motor and shake it up and down or side to side is there much movement? It needs to be rock steady. Is there any play in the steering ?
 
There doesn't seem to be any movement in the main shaft that holds the motor. The steering is solid. The transom doesn't appear to be flexing either. The only time it does it is throttle all the way down and a bit of trim just as it hit 65-66 on the GPS then I obviously got out of it. Accellerating, cruising, 50, 60, no movement whatsoever. It is my first outboard could I be trimming too much? The spray wasn't over the cowl, I hear that is rule of thumb.
 
Without seeing what is happening, that speed is right around where these boats jump up on their pad, the small flat area on the bottom of the hull. They then are very prone to what is called "chine walk" There are a few good descriptions of this in threads here and some of the other boating forums too. Search or Google "Chine walk" Basically the boat is riding on a very narrow area of the hull and will tip off of it unless driver input(steering) is used to keep it steady on the pad. I'm not sure if this is what you are experiencing but this is my best guess at this point.

Is the rocking a side to side motion in the boat and does it just keep getting worse as you go, until you slow down.

SS props do not flex, but aluminum ones do. The likely result of the prop change will be lower top speed and higher rpms. If you do not hit 65-66 you likely won't be going fast enough to experience the issue.
 
Yeah with the 19p it will most likely do 50... I took the prop in to a couple of places they both said it had stress marks where the ears meet the hub of the prop abd that one blade actually had changed pitch slightly:confused:. One guy said it may shear an ear off if I ran it. Gonna save up for a good prop now.

SS is a must. Three blade or four? I also hear that most guys do a jack plate with a stand off (6,8,10"). If I'm content with 65-70mph does the plate and stand-off give you any advantage other than speed?
 
Propped correctly that thing should run into the 70's assuming the motor is healthy and the hull isn't water logged. A jackplate/setback will get the nose up and allow the boat to run drier. Also, raising the motor will help top speed as long as you don't go too far.
 
Jack plates increase the versatility of the boat. Lower the motor for holeshot and pulling stuff, raise the motor for speed.

Set back brackets are more about getting speed out of the boats, but they have an effect on ride and handling too. There can be some compromises to set back. High speed ride and handling are usually improved with set back, low speed handling might be reduced.

I do not have any knowledge what prop would be the best place to start with OMC O/B power. But 4 blade props tend to work well on these hulls with Merc power(good handling, pulling and speed). If you were Merc powered the "Trophy plus" (SS 4 blade) would be the direction I would point you in as that is what many here run and I think that 24 pitch you have is not far off.
 
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My guess would be a Trophy as well for a great all around prop. If you want all out top end a big ear chopper is probably a good choice. In my experience, burying the prop doesn't necessarily mean the best holeshot. The lower the prop the more leverage it has to raise the bow on takeoff.



John
 
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