Advice on motor mount reconditioning?

[Zac Penn]

I have the stock motor mount on my C22 and it is a serious PITA to get it to lower. It is a fine dance between pulling up on the rope, pushing back and down on the motor, and hoping you did it in the right order Has anyone tried to retrofit a handle onto the mount to make lowering easier? Raising the motor is a piece of cake, but getting it down is crazy. I was thinking maybe I could bolt a metal handle onto the latch (where the rope is tied to) and that would make it easier, but before I wasted the time I was wondering if anyone here had any advice?

Thanks,
Zac

[Capt. Bondo]

I have tied a rope (1/4" dark blue in picture) from the transon side of the mount, routed it through the release handle and tied it off on a back stay.
By pulling up on the end that is secured by the back stay and holding it in the hand I use to support myself on the stern the rope pulls the release handle way up and pushing down on the motor is easy.
At the Minneapolis Boat (pontoon & dock) show I was talking to a guy that had designed a motor mount for sailboats that used a threaded rod type of set-up and you could use a cordless drill to move your motor up and down, and it was under $300
I'll need to find his card and post the link.

[DVD]

Do what I did, take the original mount off and replace with something decent. I got mine for $60 cash off a guy on Craigslist. Drilled some new holes, better then new! dvd

[Zac Penn]

Your motor mount looks much different than mine. I will get a picture of it next time I am at the boat. I am thinking maybe I just need to remove the pins that the handle catches on and figure out a way to use a rope and cleat to keep it propped up, but then again that might be too weak and a PITA as well.

[EmergencyExit]

Zac, I had a similar issue with the Garelick mount I bought for the Cal 21. It was made for a much larger size motor, but was on close out at 75% off so I bought it. Then I could not get the motor down without a lot of pushing. Solution for me was to take off the spring clip on one side. Then it lowered fine and still came back without much effort..