This is my first boat. I picked it up for $900 bucks off craigslist a couple months ago.  Been sorting through small issues with it but I'm stumped on this one. The jetovator seems to be sticky and I don't want to burn the motor out running it up and down. What could be causeing this?

Little more about the boat:

1971 18" JRS fiberglass.  Looked it up and I think it is the same as a Kona
455 Olds. Don't know much about it but it runs well.



Just incase anyone wants to see the whole boat. Here are some pics of when I purchased it and now that it is cleaned up a bit.

Then:




Now:

Couple of things could be causing that, but the first I would try is the short cable coming from the motor box that connects to the steering tube/transom adaptor inside. Get some pics of the inside setup also, something looks wrong with where the cable connects to the transom adaptor just under the steering tube, and the motor is definately struggling. Could be a bad motor, but more likely the cable. There's periodic greasing you need to apply inside that motor box as well.

Ray

However, you have this apparatus on there also, yes?




If you do, the cable would more likely bind than that shaft. The yellow circle is a cable, the red is where it attaches to the inside of the threaded shaft..... You can see in the exploded diagram where the other end of the cable attaches via the sheath to a clamp on the floating steering tube and the inside of the cable to the transom adaptor. The steering tube "floats" through that special seal in the Transom adaptor, which also has an o-ring in it, so you're going to have resistance moving the 'vater manually with just the cable disconnected/removed from the steering tube. Be a good thing to try anyway, then run the thing with cable diconnected at the steering tube/tansom adaptor (Problem will remain, I'm pretty sure), then remove the nuts holding the cable to the motor box and try it again. Problem should be pretty apparent at that point. 

Ray

Side note

If you ever need the motor for that jetovator it's a 1970's GM electric window motor. I had one go bad so I took it to a parts store with a bunch of old guys behind the counter. I think it was a Cadillac