Adding 18 Horse Briggs To Lower Unit

[BEGNO]

Would Like Thoughts And Ideas About Mounting A 18 Horse 4 Stroke Briggs Vertical Shaft (lawn Mower Engine) 65 Suzuki Lower Unit For Running In Shallows, Lilies And Mud

[PowerTech]

my first thought are.And you asked for them is discusting the worst of both worlds.But my Idea is weld some C chanel to the side of the outbords midsection drill a couple of holes in the top of the C chanel to bolt the brigs on.And couple the shafts together with a { luv/joy }Brand coupler.Buy the coupler blank so you local machine shop can put the rite size hole in it for your shafts.The shaft is splined on the midsection but i would not wory about that Just drill the hole in the coupler so it fits on tight and weld it.good luck

[BEGNO]

Thanks, Carlwun

That Is The General Idea That I Was Tossing Around, Except For The C-channel. I Was Thinking Of Makeing A Base Plate With A Hole In The Center For The Shaft And Drilling Mounting Holes And Bolt The Engine To The Plate

[PowerTech]

yea a base plate is a good idea with a hole in the midle and you can use the holes in the midsection that were to bolt the powerhead on to bolt on the plate.I would then use some C chanel to jack the motor up from the plate a few inches so you got some room for a coupler.you could just weld a pice of pipe between the shafts but i bet that would shake the engine apart.Look up luv joy couplers on your coputer and find the one you want.The got a piece of ruber between them that will help alignement.Shoot when i typed that just now .I thought of them rubber joints on the stering shaft of a pickup truck go get one of them junk yard and weld it from shaft to shaft and go.What do you think of that

[BEGNO]

might could work, but I was concerned about torque and it ripping the rubber

How does that lovejoy work, I'm looking at them right now at ww granger.com
do you use a 1" for the shaft of the engine and a 3/4 for the drive shaft on the lower unit and put the rubber between the two?

[PowerTech]

The ornge parts on each end are steal and have 2 teeth sticking out of them at each other and the black hard rubber in the middle has 4 slots in it to transmit the power from one to the other.If you could get them blank you can make the perfect holes in them.and your rite it is lovejoy not luvjoy.you can probly get them with differnt size holes in them on each side to.serch around i bet alot of people sell them.

[BEGNO]

My biggest concern was shaft alignment
next would be prop sizing, 2 blade or 3 blade for probably power more than speed

[PowerTech]

I see on japinise trucks alot of them use small u joins on the stering shaft nice looking ones to i bet they would hold up beter that the ruber ones like on old fords and chevys.go check them out at a junk yard you might like it.If you dont go with the lovejoy.

[BEGNO]

thanks for all the imput
I ended up with a bunch free spare parts for my 1987 Suzuki DT65 from a friends brother
He had a complete engine with a burnt piston, which generally means reworking the crankshaft, so I came up with the idea to add the briggs and put it on a skiff for duck hunting in the flats

[PowerTech]

Yea i know that prop was for 65 horses.If it is for a small gator boat it will probly chug along fine at slow speeds but when you gas on it it will bog.A 2 blade weedless would be sweet.

[PowerTech]

I dont know about your toun but in mine the prop shop has a milion props new and used and can get any thing. Susuki kind of sucks i bet to get special props for . But alot of the time the splines on the prop shaft fit a few different brands of motors.And for a swamp boat you could probly afro something on there

[BEGNO]

yeah, no doubt
When I had the prop for my 65 re-bushinged, the guy at the prop shop said that he could probably basically add a Yamaha prop to the shaft

[BEGNO]

well I'm signing off for tonight
I will check the forum tomorrow
thanks for all the feedback carlwun, I really appreciate it