luvsfishing
Cadet
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2005
- Messages
- 18
I wanted to share with all of you my experience in repairing a 1987 Force 50 HP. There may be some information that somebody can use. First of all, I wanted to say that I am a novice when it comes to outboard engines. I have owned a few over the years, but never had to work on them because they were new or newer when I got them. I am good with tools, and I can read, and Ihave a friend who is knows a lot about them because he has rebuilt a few. With all that being said, I am grateful to the iboat forums, and had I found them before I embarked on my project, I might have saved some time and money. The previous owner told me it didn't run, suspected it may have overheated, etc... there was a story. I was glad to get the motor for $200, take my chances, and if it didn't work out, it would be a learning experience and I could part it out to get my money back.<br /><br />I bought my engine on eBay. I know shipping is expensive, so I limited my search to a reasoable driving distance. I found one less than 20 miles from my house. The first thing I did was buy some 2x6 lumber and build a sturdy work stand. It was assebled with a nail gun AND some liquid nails for additional strength. After I mounted the engine to the work stand, my friend and I began to trouble shoot. We noticed a few things right away. The throttle tower was snapped in half! There was a broken wire away from the connector on the wire block. Two of the head bolts and the spark plugs were loose. Four of the plastic ball joint connectors were cracked at the threads, so those rods couldn't be adjusted properly. The cost on a new throtle tower was over $50, so we decided to repair this one. It was a clean break right in half, so we drilled a hole and tapped the bottom half. We put it together with JB Weld and pinned it with a stainless steel screw. I believe it is stronger than the original cast alumimum piece. We aren't sure how it go broke in the first place, but if the engine quit running and an angry user slammed the throttle hard enough while in neutral warm up position, that would do it. The wire broken away from its connector at the block was an easy fix. A new connector, solder, and some shrink tubing took care of that in a few minutes. The plastic ball joints were kinda spendy for what they do, and my friend was a mechanic for the army helicopters, and he had a great idea...wire them shut with safety wire, and that is what we did. I would put it on the new one now if I ever get them just to prevent them from cracking. <br /><br />The head gasket was a different story. It was stuck onto both the head and the block and in different places, so there was no way to check compression with it leaking. I carefully scraped all of it off. We examined the piston heads and the cyclinder walls for any signs of overheating, and there were none. So we were confident in replacing the head gasket. We squirted some heavy oil in there since the poor engine had sat outdoors on a pallet for 3 years, and let it soak and turned the flywheel to move the oil around in the cyclinders. We reinstalled the head and put the plugs in. Then we fired it up to see if it would run, and it cranked right up! We weren't too surprised since the rest of the engine looked pretty clean - the carb looked good and clean. The screen in the fuel pump looked brand new. We had the muffs on, and just ran it long enough to see if it pumped water. I did not, and we suspected that it wouldn't so I had already purchased a new impeller. When we replaced the impeller, the lube in the lower unit looked very good, almost like new. After replacing the impeller, we cranked it up again and it pumped water like crazy! We were still a long ways away from an actual test run on the 1966 16' StarCraft aluminum boat i bought to pair it with. I still needed cables, and a control box, since I couldn't get the Chrysler control box to work with whatever connectors I had found. I eventually found a US Marine shifter complete with connectors and cables on eBay, and that is what I am using. After getting the boat ready for the water, we were quite anxious for a test. We were very disappointed when all we did was blow bubbles. We thought the prop was spun because it would get up and go! I mean, a 50 HP on a 16' boat rated for 50 HP max should really scoot, but no go this time. So I took the prop to a reliable prop shop, and he said it was barely spun, and when he tried a new hub the prop hub housing snapped open! He is fixing it for me, and has sold me a new Michigan wheel prop at his cost to use in the mean time since he broke mine. Well, after putting the new prop on, we thought we were good to go. We launched the boat and again....bubbles, and lots of them. It started to go and then when the power was ramped up the rest of the way, the engine started to race. We putted back to shore and loaded the boat onto the trailer. Just when we were strapping down the motor to the transom saver, my friend noticed that the exhaust snout was missing...we were blowing all of that exhaust at high RPM right in front of the prop!!! No wonder it wouldn't go anywhere. I found a matching exhaust snout at the local Force dealer...he has a bunch of old parts and newones too. I installed the new snout, and then back to the lake. It pushed the boat better, but still wouldn't get up and go. We messed with the carb settings a little, but knew that it couldn't be that since it idled fine, and even ran OK...jsut not the kick in the pants we expected. We were now concerned that there wasn't adequate compression, or that maybe since we had the throttle tower apart, which controls the timing advance as well, that we needed to check the compression before we did anything else. The compression checked out fine. I did a cold test with the throttle blocked wide open and the spark plugs grounded to the engine block. They both were good - 110 PSI on the top and 112 PSI on the bottom. We also knew that if it were warmed to operating temp and tested warm, that the numbers would go up some do to expansion of the metal and the lubrication from the gas/oil mix sealing the rings better. That quieted our fears for the moment. Then it dawned on me that I remembered reading right here on this forum that a 2 cyclinder 2 cycle engine could run quite smoothly and nicely out of the lake with the muffs on. I looked closely at the plugs. The one on top was wet with fuel mixture and the one on the bottom looked normal. So I checked for spark, and sure enough, no spark to the top cyclinder. So my friend and I set out to trouble shoot the problem. We tested the coils by switching the wires around. The coil for the top cyclinder still didn't work. We pulled the flywheel to look for other trouble since I wasn't ready to blow any more cash on this motor yet. As we were looking around we noticed the purple wire that goes up to the common post for the #1 coil on the stator was stuck to the engine block and melted to the point where the bare wire was exposed and grounding out the coil! Problem solved!!! We repaired the wire, moved it away from the block and put the motor back together. We did take the opportunity to clean up the magnets in the flywheel...they were a bit dirty and corroded. We now know that this motor may have overheated, and we were pretty sure no serious internal damage had occured, but can make this conclusion about overheating due to the melted wire. I can touch that block now and not burn my hand when the motor runs and is warmed up!!! So it did get hot at one time and melt that wire. The nearest launch ramp was only 8 miles away, so we went for a test run, knowing for sure it had ot be good now. We fired it up with the muffs on just so we wouldn't tie up the ramp if it wouldn't start up. We launched the boat. Fired up the motor and cruised out to the edge of the no wake zone. I applied the throttle gradually. This thing sounded completely different...and it was really pushing with a lot of power. I eased the boat up onto plane and ran it there for a few. I looked at my buddy and said, OK, let's see what she has for speed. Wow!!! This was great! This motor was kicking this boats butt all over that lake! I need a new sending unit for the speedometer still, so I don't know how fast we were going, but I do know this....There was very little wake because there was very little boat in the glass like water! Since I am not one to beat on any engine, especially one that has seen this kind of abuse before me, I backed it down to about sixty percent throttle, and it planed nicely with a comfortable ride and a good sense of control. The engine was bought with a hydrofoil fin on it, and I find no difference in planing with it on there, but more speed at the top end. I get easier steering without it so it will stay off.<br /><br />I borrowed the Clymer manual from the library. A manual is good help and good reading, if for nothing else, a good sound knowledge base of your outboard. Here is a listing of parts I purchased to do this project:<br /><br />Impeller, lower unit lube, new prop (went from 15x10 to 15x11.5), exhaust snout, head gasket, shifter, cables, connectors, fuel tank and line, spark plugs, zip ties (handy for securing wires, etc.), rigging hardware(to attach the steering to the engine), and a deep cycle marine battery.<br /><br />There are a few parts suppliers that are worth mentioning since Force parts are hard to find. Locally here in Salt Lake City, Joe's Sporting Goods and Marine (the only Force dealer in town) and Marine Products, Inc., also here in Salt Lake City. On the internet, I found two places that sell some Force goodies. laingsoutboards.com has some parts for my outboard, and dougrussell.com has every part from the bottom up for my engine. <br /><br />If any of you more experienced owners have anything to advise me about this project, please do so. I am human and so is my friend, so if you see any holes in out thinking here, please let me know! I think it is appropriate here to thank my friend Randy for all of his help with this project, especially since I used his tools, his space and took valuable time away from his family. Thanks to all of you here on iBoat forums for posting your stories and suggestions, as this is a very valuable forum for me. I learn a lot here. <br /><br />Lastly, if realize this story is long winded, if you moderators wish to move it to another space, please do so. Or if you think I should edit it for length, I'd be more than happy to do so.<br /><br />CYA later....gone fishing.... 
