chillybilly
Cadet
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2002
- Messages
- 14
I live in Minnesota. This spring I had a '87 Force 85hp needing replacement. I just bought the boat and motor mid summer '01 and the motor never ran right. I went to a local dealer in the Twin Cities looking for a good used moter. I seetled on a '96 Evinrude 88SPL. The dealer charged me ~$4700.00 for setup and the motor with a new tach installed. They did have to put in a different command center (also used) and mount the motor. This seemed a little high to me, but not being fairly new to powerboats I thought the one year warranty might be worth a little extra. I bought the motor last Friday, they told me it would be ready on my boat mideweek. I called on Wednesday noon and they hadn't even started on it. Okay, I'm still doing alright with the situation. I asked them if this motor with a long shaft would be a good fit on my boat,('87 Bayliner Capri bowrider) before I bought it. Remember, I'm new to all this and I'm trusting the dealer. Anyway, they said this model was made almost exclusively in a long shaft. Does that sound right?<br /><br />Anyway the boat is ready Friday noon and I pick it up. We (my sons and I) haul it down the block and fill the fuel tank. I'm not sure why but I asked my son to climb up in the boat and turn the key to check the fuel gauge. It doesn't work. Back we go to the dealer. They say "We wouldn't have done anything that would affect the fuel gauge." I point out thet they put in a new ignition switch in the command center and the fuel gauge only works when the ignition is on. They say "Oh" and proceed to go under the dash and find a loose wire that goes.... to the fuel gauge. That's fixed, but my son noticed one of the seats is really wobbly and has a broken hinge. I point out to the service manager the broken seat also. He responds "We didn't do anything that...." You can guess the rest.<br /><br />Well, being a fairly patient person I decided maybe we could have broken the seat a different time and getting out on the water after a 4 week stretch without a motor is more important than a $10.00 hinge on the seat. So we go to the closest lake and launch the boat. It seems to run fine, starts great, and I'm thinking this is definitely better than the Force. Then the tach starts bouncing without any change in engine pitch. Okay I'm gritting my teeth but the boat is still great. After about 1/2 hour the engine starts to miss. I'm sure the mix is right, and I'm wondering what's up? I throttle back to idle put the engine in neutral and remove the shroud and after a little "farm boy" troubleshooting. I discover that removing the lower starboard cylinder spark plug wire doesn't affect the engine. I replace the wire and on the way back to the launch the motor runs on all four about 60% of the time and the tach works about 45% of the time. <br /><br />Here's the question; I know the missing could be just a bad plug and the tach could be a loose wire, but would any of you trust the dealer to fix these things? I guess I'm considering calling the credit union in the morning and stopping payment on the check and returning the motor. Sound too extreme? Should a consumer have to work on a used engine from a dealer that's supposed to have a "same warranty as new" (This quote is from the purchase order, their phrase not mine.)<br /><br />Sorry for the length of this post, but if nothing else typing all this let me vent a little. 
