Australian Riptide Sportsman

[AusAnzani]

I picked this one up over the weekend after locating it by chance week prior ie during a trip to regional Victoria to pick up a few other outboards.



History behind it is not very clear. All I know at this stage is that it was (possibly) a one owner outboard until it was shipped down from Queensland and stored in a shed on a large rural property ever since.

All original from what I can tell, including the Salmon/Gold paint. External finish is faded, engine and edges of the upper and lower cowl sections reveal the actual color. Lots of rust and corrosion under the paint, and flaking paint in a number of areas indicating salt water use and perhaps a lack of general maintenance. All will need to be redone.

Turns over very nicely and has good compression. Not quite sure about the ignition system and coil/s I have not had a chance to remove the flywheel to inspect and test them as yet.

Gear and throttle levers operate as they should albeit a little on the tight side due to the build up of grease and dirt over the years. Throttle knob is broken. Would have preferred this was not the case but will have two new ones spun up on a friends lathe.

A few holes in the upper and lower cowls (visible in the above pic) drilled by the previous owner, one being for a key operated kill switch, the others unknown. These will need to be welded/filled.

Overall not in too bad shape.

I am real excited about this find and am looking forward to getting stuck in once I clear a few other unfinished projects.

Regards,

[Collector Inspector]

Well done Mate!

A Sportsman in one original piece, in the SMALL SHED HOW ARE YOU GOING TO HIDE IT, is noteworthy.

The engine HP and serial number is stamped on a cross bar above the carb and under the flywheel.

Each is seperated by either a dot or - mark.

Interested to compare with my prototype is all.

If You have problems with ignition..................there are no problems. All common with lawnmowers of the day etc. Ebay is our friend...............

Now go and find a Boatman and a Sea-Scout..................Fisherman are easy but you need to look aye.

Hugo?

B

[AusAnzani]

Thank you Bruce, serial number (somewhat different to what I expected) is 60 8020 and appears exactly as it is written here. What do you make of that?

Started the tear down and was pleased not to have to apply heat to any nuts/bolts. Tested the secondaries on the coils and they seem to be OK (approx 3.9k Ohm each), cleaned up several bolt on parts, removed the propshaft housing, gearbox free of any metallic particles and water and gears look good as new.

Had a go at removing the powerhead and gearbox housing from the mid section. Unfortunately that's where my run of luck ended ie with all bolts etc removed both still stuck fast. Suspect shift shaft is the problem with the gearbox housing. not sure about the powerhead. Will have another look at the weekend.

BTW, if by chance you have a operators manual and/or exploded view drawings, I would certainly appreciate a copy

Didn't know at the time, but a BIG BIG Redback came free with the purchase. It had taken up residence inside the exhaust outlet. Thankfully I spied it when removing the prop shaft housing, before it spied me.

Regards

[Collector Inspector]

"60"....................nuts that is the year.

Not "nuts" for you as you know where yours stands S.

Full production version.

Hang.................More to come.

B

[AusAnzani]

You crack me up B.

60 was the easy part. Knew it was the year.

8020 - month and day maybe, most likely not however unless they only built 1 per day.

Have seen 80 prefix on other 7.5hp Riptides, but could be just a coincidence.

Will wait for Master B to advise.

Regards

[Charles uk]

Who did all the design/casting work for Riptide as that looks like high tech production methods, very state of the art in 1960 Aus, or is it a rebadged Wizard or the like?

[AusAnzani]

G'day Charles,

It's probably fair to say design was inspired by the Mercury Mark 30 and/or Wizard Super Power 25 (image here http://www.mercguy.com/Wizard_WA-25.htm, but they are far from being the same.

All Australian me thinks

Regards,

[Collector Inspector]

The one stolen a couple of years ago..........David's from The Board....................was or still is somewhere......59 / 8056.

It was white.

06082008949.jpg

Charles

The design was found to be a reverse engineering of Mercury with someone elses gearbox .........maybe Scott.

The problem was when Australia relaxed the enforcement of import restrictions in July 1960. (along came BS again as well)

America was pissed off and got stuck into I.A.E. Pty Ltd N.S.W.(Parent Company) demanding that any future modifications and developement were to stop. Part of the demand was the destruction of any further prototypes........there were ten. One was in the hands of one of the engineers. Either he was still employed or was recently ex employee I do not know. Any way it was and still is number nine as somehow it missed out.

I have number nine and set of propellers. The numbers are S 125 - 9

I purchased from Steve Green who purchased from the engineer or the engineers family, locally in Perth.

DSC04128.JPG

DSC04123.JPG

Number nine shows all of the signs of being.........."A work in progress". I will put it back together shortly. It will be outstanding to compare notes Spiro.

In 1960 the company was sold to Wescott - Hazel. Production stopped soon after.

B

[AusAnzani]

[color=#000080]The one stolen a couple of years ago..........David's from The Board....................was or still is somewhere......59 / 8056.

It was white.

Mate, do you believe that occurred almost 4 years ago now. Time flies.

Very distinctive marks on that one. Used photos of it to check against the one I purchased ie before I handed over the cash. Yes, I was very nervous about it possibly being David's.

I have number nine and set of propellers. The numbers are S 125 - 9

I purchased from Steve Green who purchased from the engineer or the engineers family, locally in Perth.

Number nine shows all of the signs of being.........."A work in progress". I will put it back together shortly. It will be outstanding to compare notes Spiro.

Yes indeed mate. I would also be interested to understand the differences between them. couple I've potted immediately is:

a. Sportsman Riptide appears to be cast in to your upper cowl. Production units had decals and always Riptide Sportsman (in that order) if I'm not mistaken.
b. Yours seems to have some sort of plate that sits above the shift shaft linkages and below the carb. Not quite sure what the purpose of that is. Potentially just there to limit any spray coming up the trunk and through the lower cowl causing engine and carb issues.
c. Your carb, linkages and upper top plate also look a little different.

Engine externals look the same. Don't know about the bore and stroke, but maybe you can comment on that ......... after you tell me what the 8020 component of my serial number means lol.

Regards,

[Collector Inspector]

I am putting it back together.

If you post pics as you go........................we can compare. Pics of everything aye. Mine is,as I said, seriously messed with especially the leg internals. Functional but kind of not what a production kit would be like if you know what I mean.

Stroke is the same at 1and 3/4"

Bore I have no idea because head is not coming off. See this pic and compare yours. If bore is different then logically studs are different?

2080 sounds like an interesting bore size for an American projectile weapon?

20150327_160530.jpg

I will not hijack the Spiro Post by the way.

Cheers

[AusAnzani]

G'day B,

I love the idea of rebuilding the Riptides at the same time and am happy this has perhaps given you some added motivation to reassemle yours. Poor thing has been boxed up for way too long.

Wanted to clear a few others first but am more than happy to juggle.

I'm well and truly in to the tear down and have taken no pics so far, however I can start that process tomorrow.

Re the teardown I have a couple question relating to powerhead and gearbox removal but feel they may be best addressed over the phone. So as to keep all here informed I will follow up with text and supporting images.

I'm excited B.

Regards, S

[Charles uk]

How much Australian input in these things?

[AusAnzani]

Salt Water outboards Not sure if I got the better of it, or if it got the better of me today.

Anyway, here's some progress shots, some of which might explain the above statement.

Serial Number.



Bore measurement (well not quite but you know what I mean) for comparison against Bruce's 12.5hp riptide.



First application of paint stripper seems to reveal the colour that may have been? I've moved to a REPCO spray on paint stripper. Very heavy duty and less mess to clean up afterwards. Around $15 per can. One can is usually (not always) enough for 1 outboard.





Upper shift shaft removed. Very rusty. Has to lock two nuts at upper end to free connection below. Sorry for the bad pic.



Removing the pins that secure the mid-section (trunk) to the transom bracket. Not possible to remove gearbox without removing the upper shift shaft and doing this.



Bracket removed revealing yet another colour that may have been.



Removing the gearbox housing. Begin by removing the lower shift shaft. The threaded rod is simply an extension piece and screws into the shift shaft within the gearbox.

Problem. Could not remove the rectangular block from threaded rod due to heavy rusting.
Solution. Unscrewed the whole lot thereby removing the the threaded rod and inner shift shaft in one piece. Not ideal but it worked.



Gearbox still won't budge however ie due to shaft being frozen to receiving end on engine. No option but to use a crow bar. Best place between unerside of lower cowl on top side of mid-section.



Forgetting to grease the shaft receiver during first build (54 years ago) doesn't help. This will require some work to tidy up.



All very backwards, but we have separation at last.



The two rusty nuts seen here need to be removed to free engine from lower cowl.



So we have three colours here (all affected by heat, salt and UV) plus that revealed by the paint stripped. What's the original supposed to look like?



Remove grease from gearbox. This stuff smelled so bad, I almost threw up twice! The stuff you see on the gears is just dirt etc. All gears are in great condition.



Water still frozen solid within gearbox housing and below that the remnants of what the redback had been eating over the months/years it resides inside the exhaust chamber.

Ran out of stripper, so will defer remainder of that task until tomorrow. Wasn't quite the easy day I was expecting, buts it's all apart now so the hard work (in this particular case) has been done.

Earlier in the week i managed to clean up some of the bolt on bits. Still a way to go before the rest is up to similar standard and ready for reassembly.



More soon.

Regards,

[Oyster 49]

Looking good. It is allways great to see what many see as an old knacker stripped, cleaned up and ready to go..

[Hugz]

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.