Re: advice on a reliable used 25 outboard
Hiya,<br /><br />I was in just your position earlier this spring, so I'll tell you my story... I wanted a 20-30 hp electric start tiller for not too much cash, and that had some life left in it. I ended up buying an older (1970) 25 hp Evinrude, short shaft, electric and rope start, tiller. It was in outwardly good shape, compression was real good (130 on both), I saw it run in a tank, checked lower unit, looked good with no water. Took it home for $350 (cdn), came with tank, hose and spare prop.<br /><br />Since I knew that it hadn't been used in a couple years, and was pretty sure it had it's maintenance neglected before that, I have done:<br /><br />new impeller (old one worked, but when opened found it was worn and the tip broken off one vane)<br />new points/condensers (was intending to do this for sure)<br />new coils (1 was original and cracked, I replaced both)<br />did carb rebuild<br />new "stop" button (old one had disintegrated)<br />new drive pin (old one had one side broken off)<br />new plugs<br />ran some seafoam through it<br /><br />runs good, but after running it a weekend I found:<br />a small lower unit leak (diagnosed with pressure test, didn't cost anything to fix)<br />the previous owner's repair of the starter mounting holes on the block sucked, so I have re-drilled & tapped the mounting holes and installed Keen inserts to give mounting holes proper threads... we'll see if my first repair attempt holds any better. Rope starting is actually no problem at all. (I think wifey could even do it)<br /><br />By the way, my motor has a rubber button switch on the side (same side as shifter) that activates the starter. It's the same kind of rubber covered switch as the "stop/kill" button.<br /><br />So, the upshot is that for the cost of the motor and about $200 cdn in parts (that's OMC dealer prices) I hopefully have a motor that can see quite a bit of use before it needs more wrenchin'. Time will tell. So, my advice to you is to consider that if you intend to use & trust whatever you're buying, expect to have to do some inspecting/parts replacing and factor that into your budget accordingly. Anything you buy (even newer) will need the water pump serviced unless you are sure it has been done lately... If buying older like I did, expect to go throught the ignition... coils can crack whether they're being used or not. As has been mentioned, the up side of older is that you can diagnose/replace/repair the ignition system yourself pretty easily (it took me a while to figure out how to set points accurately, but I guess I'm too young to have much experience with that
)<br /><br />BTW, sometimes dealership/repair places have decent deals on used ones. Usually not cheap cheap, but usually they've serviced them before selling (water pump and tune up) and often they'll give you a warranty of some sort. Often when an older OB breaks, folks just trade them in on a new one, dealer fixes and sells.<br /><br />Anyway, I thought I'd tell you my story (so far). Good luck... <br /><br /><br />Brent
