Re: Are Force motors obsolete?
it all depends what you want. like any engine, if you take care of it then force should last almost forever. like any engine, if you don't take care of it then you need to know a good mechanic.<br /><br />If you are a Do It Yourself type then force are great because <br />1) the are simple, like a big lawnmower engine<br />2) many of the parts are based on automotive industry stardard or easily machineable. The engine comes from a time when design engineers frowned upon proprietary parts. Modern engines embrace proprietary parts as a way of creating revenue and profit.<br />3) for now, good used parts are dirt cheap on Ebay because so many people are parting out their engines when they blow a piston.<br /><br />on the other hand, force are bad if you want a motor that you can just drive until something goes wrong and then pay someone else to fix it.<br />1) the mechanic won't be that familiar with force because it's not that common. He won't want to work on it because most of the ones he does see are way old and full of seized bolts. Mechanics usually get x hours of labor for a certain job based on book rates. If they finish early, then it's free money. If it takes too long, then it's lost time. If they do work on a force, it will be straight time rather than book but the generally accepted book still creates a glass ceiling of how many hours they can charge. Just one or two seized bolts can put them into a lose/lose situation. The net result is that they'd rather fix a yammaha than your force and they will tend to cut corners and do sloppy work.<br /><br />2) if the machanic needs any parts then he isn't going to waste time searching the internet for a good price. He is going to order it from merc and charge you full list. Mercury is hyper-expensive on force parts. For example - a $3 industry standard oil seal with SS casing will cost you $3 from a seal supply house .... $12 from mercury. A $4 industry standard square bridge rectifier will cost you $4 from an electronics supply house and $35 from mercury. Etc, etc, etc.<br /><br /><br />So - it depends what you want. Dirt cheap DIY maintenance or reasonably priced marina maintenance? Force is great for one and terrible for the other.
, got into a feud with Prestolite and Prestolite told them to f... well, you know. 
