DEAL or NO DEAL...HELP

[watermellonI]

I have come upon a bass boat for sale, less than a grand, the owner cannot find the key and knows little about the boat, somewhere between a 1985-1990, has trolling motorand 50 horse merc on it, but i tried to hand turn the merc w/o plugs and got some compression on all 4 cyl but the crank would only turn one revolution, boat has been sittin out of weather, but im sure motor was run without muffs and all the other stuff that people do out of not knowing
I really need some help on this as my wife will kill me if I buy this boat but I figurre its a great deal.
sorry its a 15 ft bass tracker, and has many toys but they re a little dated.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: DEAL or NO DEAL...HELP

If you cannot turn the motor over by hand with the spark plugs out then you have either a bent connecting rod in the powerhead, or some trouble in the LU Gearcase. Both will require some $$ to fix, since you will need to replace the busted component (powerhead or gearcase).

Sounds like no deal!

BTW the missing key is not much of an issue. A Merc Dealer could get you a new one easily, and you could hotwire the motor to run it if you needed to.

 

[j_martin]

Re: DEAL or NO DEAL...HELP

Keep lookin'. One thing that is hard on a wife is a project boat.

After looking at umpteen "deals" that needed work, I found an 18 year old boat that lookes like it's 2. Ran OK as delivered. I spent some hours and a few bucks on it over the winter and it's a screamer.

88 18' tracker fiberglass, 65 lb 24v trolling motor, 3 depth finders, sit seats, bicycle seats, ski boom, 150 XR4 motor. Dual rack steering, runs in the 60's:
$5 grand.

We all have a blast, including the wife.

John