Hi,
Last Christmas we took our boat out and on the way home the engine suddenly died on us. Long story short one of the cylinders got so far corroded that it got a hole and water got into it. Because we didn't have money for another outboard I decided to try and breathe new life into the old Merc. I got the power head welded up which surprisingly went really well! The mechanic also sold me a 1972 Merc 500 which has some parts missing. This is a fresh water engine though so it is in a good condition. There are however quite a few different parts between the 72 and 77.
The power head is all back together and now I'm looking at what other parts need to be replaced and or fixed. The pin locking the engine in the up position and the pin locking it in reverse were really corroded so they got a good clean and a coat of paint. (What a pain to remove them!) Right now I'm working on the manual tilt / lift rams. These aren't working on either engine so I've taken them apart and I'll try and get some new seals for these. What I'm curious about though is does anyone know what kind of fluid they take and how much should they be filled up? I've heard power steering fluid or ATF would be fine but I'm not sure about this. I couldn't really identify the fluid that came out as it was just black or there was no fluid to start with. Would anyone be able to help with this? Thanks!
Last Christmas we took our boat out and on the way home the engine suddenly died on us. Long story short one of the cylinders got so far corroded that it got a hole and water got into it. Because we didn't have money for another outboard I decided to try and breathe new life into the old Merc. I got the power head welded up which surprisingly went really well! The mechanic also sold me a 1972 Merc 500 which has some parts missing. This is a fresh water engine though so it is in a good condition. There are however quite a few different parts between the 72 and 77.
The power head is all back together and now I'm looking at what other parts need to be replaced and or fixed. The pin locking the engine in the up position and the pin locking it in reverse were really corroded so they got a good clean and a coat of paint. (What a pain to remove them!) Right now I'm working on the manual tilt / lift rams. These aren't working on either engine so I've taken them apart and I'll try and get some new seals for these. What I'm curious about though is does anyone know what kind of fluid they take and how much should they be filled up? I've heard power steering fluid or ATF would be fine but I'm not sure about this. I couldn't really identify the fluid that came out as it was just black or there was no fluid to start with. Would anyone be able to help with this? Thanks!
There is no mention of them anywhere. I'm a bit stuck on that to do now. I've considered a power trim unit but from what I've seen online so far these are really expensive. As Merc850 said I could leave them off but i don't really like that idea. I'm based in New Zealand too and parts here are just super difficult to come by.