Re: new to boating
An engine manual will be a good investment. Sometimes the library has the 3rd party ones around. You can get 3rd party manuals (from Clymer or Seloc) here at iboats, but the OEM ones are more detailed, but more pricey. The OEM manual does assume some level of repair experience, however. They are sometimes available on ebay and always at outboardbooks.com
Anyway, here are a few pointers:
Always run the motor with the motor's water pump either hooked to a hose adapter or submerged in a barrel.
Check the cylinder compression first. A compression gauge can usually can be borrowed from an auto parts store. You don't want to put money into a motor with bad (uneven) compression.
Next check for spark using an adjustable spark tester, which is 6 or 7 bucks at the parts store. It should jump maybe a 7/16" gap with a nice blue spark.
If you have both compression and spark, then it needs fuel. If the motor has been sitting for a long time, then it is likely that the carburetors need rebuilding. That sounds worse than it is, since these are very simple carbs, but they need to be spotlessly clean inside.
Next, if everything checks out, replace the water pump impeller if you don't know how old it is. It is made of rubber and disintegrates after a few years.
Finally, check the lower unit oil for water (maybe do this step way earlier!)
If water is in there, the gears may be trashed.
This sounds like alot, but I can do this in a day if nothing terribly bad happens along the way. You DO NOT want to get out on the water with a motor that is not been gone over carefully. That is a way to have a real bad day,,,,
Best of luck to you!
