blue or red band?

[jeffdjpeat]

i have a question about the merc bands. blue, red, brown, etc... what is the break down. years? etc... and what years serviced what bands? besides the year of the motor was their any reason behind the bands? i have a 1986 60hp merc, just trying to understand everything about it, as i will likely never be able to afford a real mechanic to touch her.
i thought maybe there was like a heavy duty, and light weight version, or salt and fresh water version, you have probably aready guessed i dont know a lot about mercury.

thanks in advance.

 

[Starppy]

Re: blue or red band?

The band color means little. At best, they are a rough estimate to the age. The red stripes were late 60's into about 1971. The blue stripe lasted into the early 80's and the Browns were into the 90's. After that I beleive Mercury did away with the stripes. The model numbers and the serial numbers were the only true ways to identify a mercury and it's variants.

 

[jeffdjpeat]

Re: blue or red band?

i see.
i looked this up on the internet and one blog, elsewhere mentioned they used double stripes and faded stripes, and so on, i was just curious if its only cosmetic?? im kind of thinking like motor bikes, kawasaki green, yamaha blue, etc on their sport bikes, i figured merc would have their color and differ for a good reason. same with other brands of outboards, yamahas are grey and white, evinrude and johsons are white, suzukis are black and red? mercs are black and red and blue and brownish and??? how come?