I am now an official member of the “Let’r Burn” club....and the blame lies with this forum. 
I have owned several outboards, from used to new, and never had any problems worth mentioning. It was not until I joined this site that I discovered that the outboard trouble-free reliability that I have experienced was apparently unusual. <br /><br />For kick-and giggles, I decided to restore a vintage boat and motor that a bud had and wanted to trade for a military pistol I had and he wanted badly. The boat is a 15' 1971 Crestliner “Muskie” walk-through, mounted with a 1974 70 hp “rude “Triumph.” The boat was in great shape for its age (kept mostly inside) and the engine had been rebuilt 2 years ago and had less than 50 hours on the rebuild. <br /><br />Three months later, following complete restoration of the interior and exterior of the boat, including installing expensive 1/4" “Lexan” windows, complete refurbishing of the hull, new water pump kit and thermostat kit in the engine, and all components of the engine cleaned and tweaked, I took her out for her maiden voyage. <br /><br />She started on the first hit and sat and idled like a dream. Ran her for awhile to allow her to warm up her long idle (2 years) muscles. Engine ran as cool as a cucumber. Came of ½ throttle and slowly poured the coals to her. At about 3/4 throttle she lost power and began to surge. Tried all the tricks to get more fuel to her but nothing worked. No problem and no big deal. Appeared to be a fuel starvation problem that I would track down when I got her back home.<br /><br />Idling into to dock when I hear her “bang.” Tried to restart but engine would not turn. Once on the trailer, and although doing so is a no-no, I hit the switch and she fired. I immediately switched her off. Today I pulled the plugs and tried to turn the flywheel. It did for a bit and I heard nothing in the upper end that sounded suspicious, then she locked. I stuck a magnetic probe in the lower end oil fill. Pulled out a multitude of large and shiny filings. Lower end shaft has much play.<br /><br />I am now an official member of the “Let’r Burn” club because I was infected by joining this site.
I have owned several outboards, from used to new, and never had any problems worth mentioning. It was not until I joined this site that I discovered that the outboard trouble-free reliability that I have experienced was apparently unusual. <br /><br />For kick-and giggles, I decided to restore a vintage boat and motor that a bud had and wanted to trade for a military pistol I had and he wanted badly. The boat is a 15' 1971 Crestliner “Muskie” walk-through, mounted with a 1974 70 hp “rude “Triumph.” The boat was in great shape for its age (kept mostly inside) and the engine had been rebuilt 2 years ago and had less than 50 hours on the rebuild. <br /><br />Three months later, following complete restoration of the interior and exterior of the boat, including installing expensive 1/4" “Lexan” windows, complete refurbishing of the hull, new water pump kit and thermostat kit in the engine, and all components of the engine cleaned and tweaked, I took her out for her maiden voyage. <br /><br />She started on the first hit and sat and idled like a dream. Ran her for awhile to allow her to warm up her long idle (2 years) muscles. Engine ran as cool as a cucumber. Came of ½ throttle and slowly poured the coals to her. At about 3/4 throttle she lost power and began to surge. Tried all the tricks to get more fuel to her but nothing worked. No problem and no big deal. Appeared to be a fuel starvation problem that I would track down when I got her back home.<br /><br />Idling into to dock when I hear her “bang.” Tried to restart but engine would not turn. Once on the trailer, and although doing so is a no-no, I hit the switch and she fired. I immediately switched her off. Today I pulled the plugs and tried to turn the flywheel. It did for a bit and I heard nothing in the upper end that sounded suspicious, then she locked. I stuck a magnetic probe in the lower end oil fill. Pulled out a multitude of large and shiny filings. Lower end shaft has much play.<br /><br />I am now an official member of the “Let’r Burn” club because I was infected by joining this site. 