On Mon, 14 Sep 2015 09:05:36 -0500, "Ryan P."
wrote:

On 9/13/2015 11:43 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 13 Sep 2015 19:56:06 -0500, "Ryan P."
{snip}

So I took it out again yesterday to play with it and give it another
dose of Seafoam...

When I came back in and was loading up on the trailer, I must have
been grumbling more than I thought, because another guy was launching
and came over to see what's up... One thing lead to another, and he
offered me $500 on the spot to take the boat and motor off my hands.

I took the money. lol BUT, he agreed with you folks here that from
the way it sounded he was pretty sure it was the reeds. Apparently he
rebuilds classic motors on the sides and either he'd rebuild it
depending on the condition of the innards, or he'd use it for parts to
rebuild others.

Either way, the problem is off my hands.

Thanks for the info, guys.

Ryan


If you are happy with the money, it was a good deal all around.
Those old motors will run forever if you don't mind working on them a
lot and can live with the 2 stroke quirks.
It sounds like you found the right guy.

What kind of boat are you thinking about now?

I can't say enough about how great the new 4 strokes are.
I suppose someone may have a horror story but I got 3000 hours out of
my 2002 merc and still sold it for a third of what I paid for it. I am
not a fanatic about maintenance and it did fine. I am almost 900 hours
into a 2012 Yamaha now with nothing at all done to it but oil changes
and a squirt of grease here and there.
I did lose 2 thermostats but neither were catastrophic failures, just
a nuisance running hot thing. OK if you went slow. (2 screw fix)


Early this year I bought a used Forester Phantom 157 with an 80hp
Mercury on it. Both are from 1985. I had to replace the steering
(first time I had to replace a rack!), which was an adventure because
there was no physical way to remove the cable from the boat without
either removing the motor or cutting into the fiberglass. I chose to
cut and patch. But, for $100-ish, for the steering wheel and cable and
$1,400 for the boat, I think it was a good deal. The average price for
that kind of boat seems to be between $1500 and $2000 on Craigslist in
my area.

The only bad thing is that there's no power tilt. Kind've pricey to
add at $500+ aftermarket, too. Not to mention I don't really have any
way to remove a 300lb motor...

Ryan


If you change it to the rotary style helm the end of the cable can be
fished just about anywhere. I have mine going through a stick of
"Smurf tube" (the blue flex electrical tubing) because it is exposed
under the deck and it lasts a whole lot longer if you keep it dry.
I know what you mean about the steering tube end tho. That is just a
poor design on the part of the boat builder.

I rigged a hanger over my garage door for lifting motors years ago. I
haven't used it that often but every time I do I am glad I had it.
I just use a come along. I am running the 3d engine since I set that
up and I had to use it for maintenance a couple times on the old 2
stroke 75 Merc/Mariner.