Re: purchasing used outboard, advice please!
I totally agree with the above. Also, I know some folks have plenty of money and wisely replace their outboards after 7 or 8 years of use just to be reasonably safe from breakdowns. Then again, most folks don't have plenty of money and don't replace an outboard unless it's having some kind of problem. If you can work on it, you can get a good deal from the latter because the problem may be a very cheap fix. It also could be an expensive fix, like lower unit gear/clutch dog problems or electrical problems, particularly if you have to hire a mechanic to do it for you. You should be able to tell when you drive up to the guy's house which one it is and how well he takes care of his stuff. I'd want to see it run on muffs at least. I'd also want to do a compression check. A tester is only about 20 bucks at the local autoparts store and all you do is take out all spark plugs, screw the tester into each cylinder one at a time and turn the engine over till you get the highest reading on the tester's gauge. All cylinders should be very close to one another. If there's one cylinder that's quite a bit different from the others, don't buy it because the powerhead is no good. You really can't check the lower unit for anything but water and whether it actually shifts onless you run it on the boat. That's when you find out if it slips out of gear or not. There's no book that's any good for prices on stuff that "old". If it looks really nice with no scratches and the skeg looks nice with no dings/ deep scratches that's a good sign. The prop is also something to look at. Turn it and make sure all the blades are nice and true. The boat it came off of is also a good indicator of the kind of use it's had.
Just a few thoughts,
JBJ
