Hi,

We had been motoring from our dock for about 1/2 hour when one of our
outboards started making horrible mechanical sounds (I sort of forgot the
exact sounds because they were so alarming!). I pushed the kill button but
it took a few seconds to kill the motor, which seemed to be partially
running on oil. Oil was everywhere under the cowling and dripping into the
outboard well. Tons of oil smoke everywhere. Later trying to run the motor
proved that would idle but sounded very clanking at anything faster. I
killed it again quickly.

Does this sound like a terminal problem with a 1987 outboard (Yamaha 9.9
high thrust 4 stroke)? I recently bought a diesel inboard to be placed in
one of the hulls so I am reluctant to spend anything more than the salvage
value of the outboard motor. I tend to do all my own mechanical work but
have never had to work on a 4 stroke outboard so I don't even know what
could cause that explosion of oil/oil smoke.

Fortunately our boat is a catamaran and we have 2 motors. With one outboard
motor we can still get about 5-6 knots and she sails faster than she motors
when there is any wind! So the weekend trip went off without any troubles.
We hit 11 knots in about an 18 knot gust. grin


--
Evan Gatehouse

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ceilydh AT 3web dot net
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