26x Transom and Mercury 60hp big foot 2.33 question

[windypatrick]

Folks I have my Macgregor 26X in Puerto Vallarta now and I am re-engining it with either a Mercury 60 Bigfoot, or a Mercury 60 Sea Pro. Both have the 2.33 gear drive and swing the larger 14"prop. Per this site it seems a sound choice as that is what they maintain well here. My dealer hasn't done a Mac before, he usually does the local working boats and pangas. He said that his transom minimum is 20 to 21". I measure the transom height at 18.5" ... am I wrong?

I am looking for feedback on what folks with Mercs have installed. I keep reading about the long shaft and all of that, I am fuzzy as to what the community is doing with Mercurys. I've also been asked about shift cable length, any input?

Any help would be timely, thanks.

[windypatrick]

The throttle cables (best guess) appear to be 4 meters long. Does that correspond for anyone?

[Dougiestyle]

I replaced my throttle cables and I should of got them the next size longer. It turned out OK but I did not get the larger radius's that I wanted. In hindsight I should of taken them off and got the measurement because they were coming off anyway.
They do make some nice cables (teleflex) for these that can radius better nowadays. As far as the transom and the new 60 hp, someone else may chime in about it, maybe BWY?

[windypatrick]

Thanks for the reply . I've scraped the forum and the the teleflex statement is sound. Further, depending on the engine I've found that 12' to 15' is common for all engine installations, not sure of mine though. 13' or 4 meters may be good. I will advise how it turns out for future queries.

[kurz]

Measure it out and go for it!

One important thing: there where the cables go into the motor they bend and the plastic cracks soon. Together with salt water it starts to rust... And you have to renew it every 2 years.

Solution is: buy shrink tubing with glue inside. Go near the motor over the cable, heat it with hot air gun... Stay safe for years!

[OverEasy]

Hi WindyPatrick!

Having a shorter transom height by a few inches doesn’t matter all that much.
In fact, the slightly longer depth that the motor propellor will sit is actually beneficial as it will have more stable water to engage with when motoring.
Just be sure you adjust your depth sounder to the new prop clearance requirements. ( No sense chewing up a prop unnecessarily).

We added an extra load spreader plate to our Mac26X in preparation for our new engine.
The existing as manufactured glassed in transom reinforcement plates (plywood) are somewhat minimalistic.
(You can crawl back into the aft berth and check for yourself)

What we chose to do was add a roughly 21” wide x 12” tall x 1” thick G10 fiberglass plate that we radiused all the corners edges and pre drilled through holes. We then epoxy primed it with two coats and topped it with some black ablative paint we had left over from our bottom paint project of last summer.
We added an additional recessed head through bolt to act as a “keeper” so that it would stay in place whenever the engine is removed.
(Not that we expect having to do that with any frequency but having had load spreader and/or filler plates drop loose with previous engine swaps, and find A foot, it was an easy thing to add.)

Best Regards
Over Easy

Appolgies for the photo quality.
Humidity fogged the camera lens.

[windypatrick]

Great info! Thanks!

[Capt Jack]

Patrick
I have the same question. I have a 26x and a unmourned 60hp Mercury big foot. I am curious what you did. Did you add a transom plate? Was the 302 pound engine ok with the transom? Also how did you redo the controls? Would it be easier to talk on the phone?

Thanks
Jack

[Herschel]

For what it is worth at this point in the post, I will just add that I had installed a jack plate on my stern to get the height that my marine tech recommended for the Mercury Big Foot I used to have. I have used it with my Yamaha with good results. His recommendation was to have the engine mounted so that the anti-cavitation plate was planning along on top of the water at WOT. I am not an engineer nor a marine tech, but the one I use has been a trusted guy for over a decade. I think I remember getting about a half knot faster speed when I raised the engine to its elevated position on the jack plate. It's been 10 years since I did the change over to the Yamaha. But that is my memory of the situation.

[Herschel]

There is a pic of my jack plate in this thread.
viewtopic.php?p=363650&hilit=jack+plate#p363650

[Duquette5]

..... His recommendation was to have the engine mounted so that the anti-cavitation plate was planning along on top of the water at WOT....

Speaking with my tech the "ideal" starting point, especially with using a bracket or lift plate, is 3.5" between the pad of the boat and centerline of the prop (C). I'm using a 10" bracket. I went out to Dukling yesterday leveled the boat on the trailer (as measured with a small level on the pad) and using a small bottle jack clamped a metal yardstick to the pad. The pad is that flat spot on the bottom of the hull (on the 19) where we plane out at. I then measured the distance between pad and ground (A). Then I trimmed the motor until the cavitation plate was level and measured the distance from the center of the prop to the ground (B). A-B=C This gave me 5.75" meaning my motor is currently 2.25" too low. We were struggling getting Dukling up on plane last season and now I know why (and I really like tacos and bourbon). I'll start by addressing the motor height next week. No need to get all drastic and cut tacos and bourbon out yet...

[Herschel]

..... His recommendation was to have the engine mounted so that the anti-cavitation plate was planning along on top of the water at WOT....

Speaking with my tech the "ideal" starting point, especially with using a bracket or lift plate, is 3.5" between the pad of the boat and centerline of the prop (C). I'm using a 10" bracket. I went out to Dukling yesterday leveled the boat on the trailer (as measured with a small level on the pad) and using a small bottle jack clamped a metal yardstick to the pad. The pad is that flat spot on the bottom of the hull (on the 19) where we plane out at. I then measured the distance between pad and ground (A). Then I trimmed the motor until the cavitation plate was level and measured the distance from the center of the prop to the ground (B). A-B=C This gave me 5.75" meaning my motor is currently 2.25" too low. We were struggling getting Dukling up on plane last season and now I know why (and I really like tacos and bourbon). I'll start by addressing the motor height next week. No need to get all drastic and cut tacos and bourbon out yet...

Sounds like you are on the right track. Not sure how you are lifting your engine. Hopefully, with a mechanical device. I just hurt my back lifting a trailer tire. Out of commission for at least a month. Good luck.

[OverEasy]

Hi All!

Speaking of lifting insitu engines….

I’ve used several different approaches for lifting an engine already on a transom.
My 1st preference is to use a self supporting engine crane.

Stable and also allows for movement and storage.

While this might be my preference it might be a bit more than needed in this situation where one only needs to move within the slot range of the engine transom bracket. So if your existing mount is set up through the mount slots and there is slot space to allow the engine to move up.

My second choice is to use the boat AND the trailer.
First with the boat secured to the trailer one lowers the nose of the trailer with the tongue Jack.
Then appropriately and with stable cribbing placed under the engine Skeg so the the cribbing and Skeg is just in contact.
Then loosen the engine bracket mount bolts through the transom so are free.
At that point one raises the trailer tongue with the Jack while a second person watches the stern of the boat drops while the engine stays at the same height on the cribbing until the bolts move down the slots of the engine bracket.
Once your at the bottom of the slots stop and measure the vertical gap that has formed between the top of the transom and the inside of the engine bracket surface. Cut a block of marine grade teak or other appropriate material (such as fiberglass block/plate or aluminum) that fits the space from one side of the engine mount to the other side.
After the spacer is in place tighten the transom mount bolts.

My third choice is if the engine needs to be raised higher than the engine bracket slots allow.
This get more complicated and difficult.
I’d go back to my first choice and remove the engine entirely to drill new mount bolt holes and appropriately epoxy fiberglass seal all the old holes.
Then remount the engine, insert bolts and tighten after inserting an appropriate shim in the gap between the top of the transom and the underside of the engine bracket.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the potential to use a scissor Jack or hydraulic Jack but that approach could be unstable.
It’s not worth anyone getting hurt if something shifts or moves inadvertently…

Hope this helps some…

Best Regards
Over Easy

[dlandersson]

Mine 97 26X is on the hard right now - can't get to it. But I have a 50HP Merc and there's no problem.

Folks I have my Macgregor 26X in Puerto Vallarta now and I am re-engining it with either a Mercury 60 Bigfoot, or a Mercury 60 Sea Pro. Both have the 2.33 gear drive and swing the larger 14"prop. Per this site it seems a sound choice as that is what they maintain well here. My dealer hasn't done a Mac before, he usually does the local working boats and pangas. He said that his transom minimum is 20 to 21". I measure the transom height at 18.5" ... am I wrong?

I am looking for feedback on what folks with Mercs have installed. I keep reading about the long shaft and all of that, I am fuzzy as to what the community is doing with Mercurys. I've also been asked about shift cable length, any input?

Any help would be timely, thanks.

[macowneril2015]

Mine 97 26X is on the hard right now - can't get to it. But I have a 50HP Merc and there's no problem.

Folks I have my Macgregor 26X in Puerto Vallarta now and I am re-engining it with either a Mercury 60 Bigfoot, or a Mercury 60 Sea Pro. Both have the 2.33 gear drive and swing the larger 14"prop. Per this site it seems a sound choice as that is what they maintain well here. My dealer hasn't done a Mac before, he usually does the local working boats and pangas. He said that his transom minimum is 20 to 21". I measure the transom height at 18.5" ... am I wrong?

I am looking for feedback on what folks with Mercs have installed. I keep reading about the long shaft and all of that, I am fuzzy as to what the community is doing with Mercurys. I've also been asked about shift cable length, any input?

Any help would be timely, thanks.

Is the 20" shaft sufficient? trying to order a new engine and I am struggling to figure out if I need the 20" or 25" on my 2000 I am leaning towards the 20" as that is what appeared to be on some boats originally.