1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Rebuilding the Helm Windshield Opener

After the bastard thieves cleaned the boat out in 2014, some of the major components they stole (presumably for scrap value) were several of the aluminum windshield frame extrusions. Since the extrusions were obsolete, I had the helm windshield frame rebuilt and upgraded at the same time with Motion Windows rather than the original Chris Craft approach. Granted, I had many problems with Motion Windows’ products, but I still believe their overall approach is far superior to the original on this boat.

But one of the original Chris Craft features that I really like is the electric center windshield opener. You push a switch and the center windshield opens. You push the switch the other way, and the window closes. It’s a simple jackscrew linear actuator…very 1960s. But Chris Craft did what they could to make it pretty…sort of. I wrote about refurbishing the cover for the windshield opener back in 2017, and that gorgeous piece of classic Chris Craft plastic (upgraded with modern epoxy and Awl-Grip Matterhorn White) has been getting in the way ever since.

It’s not ‘mission critical’ for splashing the boat, but in my spare time since 2020 I’ve occasionally polished some stainless, cleaned and greased the jackshaft and gearbox, etc. So I thought I’d share how the windshield opener turned out.

As I mentioned in the blog when I first got the Motion Windows, I don’t like the gas struts

As noted in the linked article above, gas struts weren’t in Motion Windows’ drawings and I didn’t want them because I planned to use the original Chris Craft windshield actuator. I still have the email from their fabricator insulting me for asking why they’d installed them when they weren’t in the drawings; the fabricator clearly thought I was an idiot for not wanting modern conveniences like high-pressure gas struts that help open windows.

But what he didn’t apparently know is that nobody wants to climb up on a dashboard and manually open a windshield that’s five feet forward. Also, the 1960s linear actuators on my boat are no different from “high tech” jackscrew linear actuators today. It’s still a commonly used technology, permitting small motors to lift heavy objects with fairly low energy inputs.

That’s better, though I’d have preferred not to have those welded tabs at all

Oh, and by the way, those awesome, super-modern gas struts failed in the five years since I bought the new windows. By 2022 they couldn’t even hold the windshield open anymore, and they’re not a serviceable item. When they lose pressure, they’re done. But the 50-year old linear actuator just needed a bit of coaxing and it was working like a champ.

The OEM windshield linear actuator

Grease + dust + decades of being left fallow isn’t good…but it can be fixed

The bones were solid

The motor turns the gearbox, which turns the threaded jackshaft. The actuator shaft is attached to a threaded coupling that moves when the jackshaft rotates. When the jackshaft turns one way, the threaded coupling moves away from the motor. When it turns the other way, the coupling moves back toward the motor. The other end of the shaft is attached to the bottom of the hinged windshield frame. So when the threaded coupling moves away from the motor, it pushes the windshield open. Reversing the motor closes the windshield.

I put 12vdc to the motor and it ran perfectly, albeit a bit slow sometimes. Who knows when the gearbox was last greased…probably 1969!

I separated the motor from the gearbox and started cleaning

I put 12vdc to the motor in both directions; an ammeter showed very low draw

Low draw and normal RPMs means the motor is fine. You can also tell it was never overheated because the copper wire I stripped back in the above picture is bright and shiny.

After removing the screws, a razor blade helps separate the gearbox cover

I absolutely do not love the smell of 50-year old grease in the morning or any other time of day

Some water had obviously gotten into the gearbox, but the damage was minimal. The grease, though, stopped being a lubricant many decades ago. It was more of a glue-like, very thick paste. That explains the sluggish performance of the actuator.

When I pulled the old, waxy grease out, I sprayed the assembly with degreaser and worked the shaft back and forth repeatedly. Then I drained out the resulting goop, resprayed with degreaser and repeated the process. After four cycles, the gearbox was about as spotless as any old gearbox might be.

After a thorough degreasing, I refilled the gearbox with fresh grease

See you in 50 years!!!

Then there were the actuator shaft parts…

The big aluminum piece in the picture above attaches the actuator to the windshield and houses the bushing (that plastic piece at the top of the picture) that the jackshaft runs in. The aluminum had a bad case of surface corrosion, but that went away with a touch of 400 grit sandpaper. The aluminum shaft end/pivot just behind the bushing housing in the picture above was a bit more vexing.

See the cracks?

I have no idea why Chris Craft used cast aluminum in this application, but there are some cracks at the very end of this shaft end pivot. I cleaned up the threads though, and the part still seems solid. The threads are much deeper than the cracks.

The aluminum shaft-end pivot polished up…not bad

But the holes for the pivot pin are seriously mangled. Fortunately, it’s aluminum and can be gently pounded into submission.

On the motor-end of the actuator shaft, a proper chromed bronze pivot

For the life of me, I can’t fathom why Chris Craft used an aluminum pivot on one end and a chromed bronze one on the other. Clearly, they should have used chromed bronze on both. Maybe the parts bin only had one, and it was late on a Friday when they installed this?

400 grit wet/dry sandpaper cleans up the stainless shaft

A bit of heat from a buffer and some brown rouge really cleaned up the shaft and aluminum pivot

Shiny!

And with the shine, it becomes apparent that the cracks in the aluminum pivot may have been caused by somebody using a pipe wrench to install it. Don’t those lines on the aluminum in the above picture look like they were caused by pipe wrench teeth? Notice how they correspond with cracks on the ends?

The stainless jackshaft cover sleeve had seen shinier days

I hit it with 400, 600, and 1200 grit wet/dry sandpaper, then heated it up with a buffer and brown rouge.

Shiny!

The jackshaft bushing end polished up nicely, too

The shiny sleeve is fitted to the gearbox, with the aluminum jackshaft bushing on the end

The jackshaft bushing end looks great fitted on the end of the polished jackshaft stainless sleeve. But I had a problem: there were no pins for the jackshaft bushing end or the aluminum windshield pivot. Both were long gone by the time we got the boat for $1 back in December 2007. Without pins, there was no way to connect them to the new windshield. And while there are lots of 3/8″ pins for sale, I couldn’t find any in 316 stainless that were long enough.

So, naturally, I had to make my own.

I see a 3/8″ 316 stainless pin hidden in this hex bolt

The pin to the right in the picture above was the only original pin, which attached the threaded jackshaft coupler to the actuator shaft.

Harbor Freight metal-cutting bandsaw to the rescue!

Cutting down the hex head made it look more like a pin

Grinding it into a circle and buffing it to a high polish completed the look

I also cut off the threads on the other side of the bolt that I made into a pin, but I left exactly one turn of the thread remaining.

That one remaining thread is what the e-clip grabs onto!

After lubing up the shaft and bushings, the windshield actuator works like new!

With the actuator refurbished, I next had to make some parts that would connect the Motion Windows windshield to the OEM windshield opener.

Leftover 316 stainless angle scraps should do the trick

This is why I always struggle with whether or not to throw out leftovers. Sure…they take up space. But sometimes the scrappy leftovers are exactly what you need to finish a project.

Harbor Freight bandsaw cuts two equal-sized sections off the SS angle scraps

See where I’m going with this?

By the way, that’s my new CK Worldwide 20-Series water-cooled TIG torch, which is connected to my $50 home-made torch cooler. See how tiny it is with that stubby gas lens? But it can handle up to 250 amps! And the hoses and cables are super flexible. I really like it!

I don’t know what to call this part, but it’s welded, drilled, and ready for a test fit

That’s pretty much what I had in mind

The aluminum connector(?) attached to the actuator shaft end pivot was on the boat when we got it

I don’t know if that part is OEM Chris Craft, but it was the part that attached the actuator shaft to the OEM windshield.

Back on the boat, looks like a perfect fit

Motion Windows’ extrusion here is designed to have things screwed to it…like this whatever-you-want-to-call-it custom stainless connector.

Aluminum + stainless screws, so…of course…Tef-Gel

Four screws might seem like overkill, but the windshield is pretty heavy

First test fit looked good, so I caulked the support bracket and installed it!

…It’s always something

I planned to install the bracket, then drop the gearbox into it and install the pin that holds them together. But Chris Craft literally installed the gearbox upside-down.

In the above picture, there are five screws that hold the gearbox together. The two screws at the bottom are closer together than the middle two screws. If Chris Craft had flipped the motor over to the left side, the two screws that are further apart would be on the bottom, and the bracket could slide past them so the pin could be installed.

But Chris Craft put the motor on the right side. The screws on the bottom of the gearbox are too close together, so you can’t just slide the gearbox onto the bracket. And the pretty, AwlCraft 2000-painted actuator housing was made so it only fits with the motor on the right side.

So, to install the bracket and gearbox, I had to temporarily remove the two lower gearbox screws and then reinstall them after I’d installed the pin.

And then it was installed…mostly

Pushing the OEM switch, the windshield opened!

That painted cover really does look nice

But there was a problem…

The OEM connector thingy was simply too big to fit the Motion Windows’ handle thing that they welded onto the windshield frame

Again…in the contract drawings Motion Windows sent me, there was no handle thing. I don’t know why they added it, but their undocumented additions, which their fabricator thinks are ‘upgrades’, have caused nothing but problems every time.

So…back to the shop and that leftover 316 stainless angle scrap

This ought to do the trick

See where I’m going with this?

Like I said, it’s so handy having a TIG machine in the garage

That ought to do it

Yep…that did it

So that’s a couple more electrical connections made, so the surveyor won’t be taking pictures of bare wires on the dashboard. And some pretty parts that have been in the way and at risk of being kicked are now out of the way and properly installed where they belong.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Main Breaker Install