Re: 1989 Force 125, should I buy it?
I am only a self-taught Force backyard mechanic, I have bought and fixed a few Force outboards, so I am not a certified mechanic by any means, but I can tell you this...when buying a Force motor, I check out the big three, then I chance the rest, that being... A.) Do the compression check, if it checks out (all cylinders within ~10% of each other, over 125 psi is good) go to B... B.) Check the sparc with an adjustable spark jump tester, get one that you can put all the 4 coil wires on, ground it before cranking it, you want to see the spark jump 7/16 of an inch, if true, go to C.) Check the lower end oil, do this by pulling the lower slotted screw, stick the appropriate gear oil nipple in the hole, then pull the top slotted screw, squeeze the gear oil until it comes out the top hole, this will tell you how low it was on fluid, then once fluid comes out the if there's any water in the fluid it will be obvious, then put the screws back in, replace o-rings if needed, tighten the screws firmly. If all that checks out, try running it with earmuffs, if it starts, watch for water to come out the exhaust port, it should be at least a light stream on earmuffs, if no stream best to shut it down and plan to replace the water pump, and be suspicious that it may have overheated before you got to it. The most common problem is low cylinder reading, followed by lack of sparc - typically caused by a bad stator, the stator's are inadequate and fail more than anything in my experience. If you get it running, check forward and reverse, and good luck......ed
