# 1981 Bass Tracker II



## hsiftac (Feb 13, 2017)

Picked up a 1981 Bass Tracker II with matching 50 horse mercury and trailer. Mostly fixing it up for bass fishing. Boat is in pretty good shape overall. Transom was bad and started to bow out from the weight of the motor as well as crack the splashwell where it connects to the transom. Plans right now are to clean up the transom area, replace the transom and weld the splashwell back on. Motor hasn't run in at least 10 years. Got it off the boat already and will try to get it started once I get a new fuel line/gas tank. I've only ever had tiller outboards so I'm new to the whole steering setup so we'll see how that goes.
Transom mulch removed



Minn Kota came with the boat



Splashwell welds cut



Rotten transom bowing out from the weight of the motor



50 horse merc



Any tips on how to disconnect what im assuming are the throttle/shifter cables shown below so that we can get the motor completely separated from the boat?


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## Lockndam25 (Feb 14, 2017)

The controls should have a pin and a wire hairpin holding them on, if they set low and you can't reach them you can take off the side cover by removing a few screws, take as many photos of what your taking apart and it will help you with put it back together. I'm working on the same thing but my outboard is a 40 hp Johnson and I had to take the sides off to remove the red plug wire it was under the side cover look a attached photo hope this helps


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## hsiftac (Feb 14, 2017)

Thanks for the response lockndam, will take a look tonight


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## onthewater102 (Feb 14, 2017)

I'll try & get you a picture of the mounting arm on my Merc 60hp of similar vintage - should give you an idea what you're looking for.


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## hsiftac (Feb 16, 2017)

Working on getting the controls unhooked still, 
we're noticing a few frayed wires on the motor, should these be replaced?






After a call to mercury, my buddy found out the motor is actually a 1984


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## onthewater102 (Feb 17, 2017)

I keep getting side tracked & forgetting to get that control picture for you - I've set a reminder on my phone for tonight to get them once I'm in from work.

Those wires should absolutely be replaced.


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## 63galaxie (Feb 17, 2017)

I am actually the other person working on this boat, you think it's safe to use 14 gauge wire when replacing these wires? I've looked and looked online to find a complete harness to replace all the wires but with no luck. I believe the switch box should be alright because there's no corrosion on its numerous terminals but the only way I'm finding available wires is if I buy a complete switch box assembly and for 200+ dollars that's not my first option to choose.


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## 63galaxie (Feb 17, 2017)

Also Onthewater I got the throttle cables disconnected late last night. Thank you though


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## Lockndam25 (Feb 18, 2017)

Boat wire is different it is copper and zinc coating you can match up the gage and use the same size your fuses are there to protect the wire from burning so whenever I replace wire I get marine grade wire solder the connections and use heat shrink. I'm not sure what would happen if you go bigger, it could cause a resistance problem, not sure. Electric has a form good question to post there.


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## hsiftac (Feb 24, 2017)

Progress update:
Motor is off the boat and set aside for now. Have the boat mostly gutted at this point and in the process of getting it cleaned up. We ended up removing the front deck that must have been put in by a previous owner. It was a pain to get out. It had an aluminum sheet for flooring and they welded through the sheet onto the supports for some unknown reason. Under this deck was foam and mouse nests.



deck removed in one piece and will be reused.



Also removed the side panels and the white styrofoam under them. Will get all the old rotten carpet and glue off them and then put them back on.



Then drilled out 20 or so rivets holding the bow eye supports in place. We'll plug these holes and replace the bow eye and support with something much simpler.



front view where bow eye was.



Lastly, cleaned up the transom. There was a bit of corrosion going on and some pitting but nothing major. We will clean up the pitting with a wire wheel then fill any voids with JB weld before putting in the new transom



Going to continue to get her cleaned up then work on getting a new transom together
This is how she sits now:


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## Bowlershop (Mar 1, 2017)

This should be fun to build! Ill be watching..i built a 1984 bass tracker I.......very similar to your boat..... my whole build is on here ,,feel free to check it out for ideas....ill include before and after pic with this message.


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## Bowlershop (Mar 8, 2017)

Anymore progress?


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## onthewater102 (Mar 8, 2017)

Did either of you happen to save any of those original tracker seats? I'm trying to use my original Tracker III casting seats for the on-the-move seating in my design but I need a 3rd seat for my design.


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## hsiftac (Mar 8, 2017)

Hi all,
Made a little progress lately, got the transom cut out, dry fitted, and pre-drilled all the holes. Also got a new bow eye support cut out and drilled. In the progress of sealing the transom and the bow eye support now.
Transom is a piece of 3/4" and 1/2" ACX laminated together. The thickness was perfect and it fit snug. We had some trouble drilling the holes and getting them to match up with the corresponding holes in the splashwell. Not sure how the factory went about determining the angles but we ended up just drilling from the outside of the transom at as close to perpendicular as possible so that the bolt heads will sit flush with the transom. This meant some new holes in the splashwell but that shouldnt be a problem. 


Plan right now is to finish sealing the transom and do another clean out before putting the transom back in and bolting it up. 
I ordered some closed end rivets and washers to fill the many holes all over the boat. Put in the order from Jay-Cee rivets on monday and they were here on tuesday. 


Also ordered a new plastic splashwell drain thats en route.


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## hsiftac (Mar 8, 2017)

onthewater102 said:


> Did either of you happen to save any of those original tracker seats? I'm trying to use my original Tracker III casting seats for the on-the-move seating in my design but I need a 3rd seat for my design.



I believe we have one of the original seats, I dont know what kind of shape its in but ill check it out and maybe post up some pics.


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## Bowlershop (Mar 8, 2017)

Looks good....replacing transoms is so much fun!!not. I did mine the same as your but I must have got lucky cuz every hole I drilled lined up with the ones in the splash well. Keep up the good work!


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## hsiftac (Mar 8, 2017)

thanks bowlershop, when you drilled your transom holes did you just drill at 90 degrees to the transom? Thats how I figured the factory would have done it but it seems like we had to drill at a bit of an up angle to get them to match up
Anyway, heres another pic of the transom drying


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## Bowlershop (Mar 8, 2017)

Yeah, I just drilled at an estimated 90 degrees...I probably just got lucky though.. I'm working on another boat right now and I did miss one of the holes on that one a little bit, egg shaped it.


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## hsiftac (Mar 16, 2017)

couple updates: got the transom back in and bolted down and got the new bow stop in and plugged all the holes left over from the old one. Also plugged other miscellaneous holes with the rivets
transom



transom eye bolts back in with carriage bolts



old bow eye support



new, strong and simple bow eye support



bow eye and leftover holes filled with rivets and plently of 5200



close up of one of the closed-end rivets. dabbed 5200 in the middle



transom cap back on



Next up is getting the transom cap welded back on, checking for leaks and gettin it ready to slap some paint on


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## RStewart (Mar 17, 2017)

Doing a great job, keep it up.


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## onthewater102 (Mar 17, 2017)

My unsolicited $0.02 FWIW:

That block behind the bow hook looks rather small - these boats were made of a thinner gauge aluminum than later trackers, if Tracker had a large surface area behind the hook distributing that pulling load I'd stick with a similar design. Ugly as it was it wasn't done by accident.


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## hsiftac (Mar 17, 2017)

Onthewater, I appreciate your input. The reason I went with that block is there was really no easy way of replacing the existing support. The block really spreads the load out over a pretty fair amount of surface (yah not as much as the old design) but it is really solid. The way I see it, it's 10x better than how it was (all rotted out with little support) and it was holding up then. I will monitor it though especially once the boat has more weight in it


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## onthewater102 (Mar 17, 2017)

I'm working on the same hull & saw that thing & was scratching my head at it too - but thankfully mine is solid so I'm just leaving it alone.


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## Bowlershop (Jun 7, 2017)

onthewater102 said:


> Did either of you happen to save any of those original tracker seats? I'm trying to use my original Tracker III casting seats for the on-the-move seating in my design but I need a 3rd seat for my design.


Are you still looking for seats? I picked up another tracker last night. These are the seats that were in it.


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## onthewater102 (Jun 7, 2017)

Absolutely! PM sent


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## hsiftac (Jun 8, 2017)

Boat is semi-finished. Did a bit of a marathon to get it fishable for the summer...
Also got a good deal on a 55lb Maxxum






and christened it with a muskie on the first trip out


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## jtuttle1992 (Mar 23, 2019)

How did you get the splash well off the back and sides of transom


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## jtuttle1992 (Mar 23, 2019)

Or the transom caps not sure what they are called


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## hsiftac (Mar 23, 2019)

the welds on each side of the splashwell that connect it to the gunwale had to be cut. You can see this in the 3rd picture on the first post of this thread. I think there was nothing more than a couple screws holding it on to the back of the transom. It cost $50 to have these rewelded when the new transom was in.


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## jtuttle1992 (Mar 23, 2019)

Alright i appreciate it. Do you think a 1 1/2inch thick transom would fit without alot of mods?


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