So I have what I hope to be a conclusion to my nightmare. I was pretty much conceded to replacing my motor. I found one locally for a good price and went to look at it. Turns out the guy selling it worked for years in the local boat shop until it was bought out and the new owners would not allow any moonlighting. The shop Forman left that day and opened his own place that has been thriving for years. Another long term mechanic did the same shortly after. That was the person I met selling the motor. We were discussing what I wanted to do and he was hesitant to sell the motor without further investigation. He asked me if I could drop the boat off to him. I told him I didn’t want a bill for him poking around unless it was necessary but I’d drop it off. He called me the next day and said my motor was running, he just needed to replace the spark control module (Aldodge). I told him I was seeing spark but he said it wasn’t enough. How could I argue, it was running! He used a part he couldn’t sell me and asked if I wanted him to order one. I said go ahead, please! It arrived and he installed it and it seemed to run great except water leaking at thermostat housing. He had a gasket to fix that and threw out the thermostat. That seemed a little odd to me, any thoughts? Anyhow, boat ran great and I was going to pick it up when he called and said cylinders 3 and 4 stopped working suddenly but then came back. It was dropping one or both of them randomly. He wanted to do a cap, rotor and wires and it was going to be a couple more days. I said go ahead, not sure what to think. We’re from the same town, have many of the same friends and acquaintances but I trusted him. He put those in, tightened a loose nut on a frame for motor mount. All for less than $600. The boat shop here is $140 an hour and takes forever to get in. This guy was $70 and the Forman that also left is $85 but still hasn’t gotten my smaller fishing boat in and I’ve been waiting since the end of June. Not a big $ maker for him, I understand that. So my boat runs pretty well now. Ever so slight stumble guy said was dirty carb but said he’d run it a little and see if it clears up. He’s happy to service/rebuild it but not sure it’s worth the $ yet. Curious what you all think, was I ripped off? I feel good about it so far, he could have just sold me the motor, helped me load it and let me struggle making it fit but instead, fixed mine for half what he wanted for the other motor.
