Re: To buy or not to buy?
Hey mj05
Im no guru but here it goes...
Is it a lock up or a stall?
If its a Stall...
Well carbs shouldn't lock the motor up. Something major usually locks the motor up. It will just flood and stall or have lack of fuel and stall if it was just a carb issue. If it is just a carb job it is easy and cheaper than a rebuild.
Have him fire it up, if gas comes out of carbs and it stalls it the carbs. If it goes to stall pump the ball, if it comes back to life is gas starvation and is fuel delivery, still cheaper than a rebuild.
It will be expensive if it is a lock up...
If it starts up fine and idles of day long in neutral and then locks up when put into gear usually it a lower unit problem.
If it locks up all the time sporadically then it something major with the pistons,piston rods,crank, bearings ect.
When dealing with craiglist or any used situation I like it when people talk about the history of maintenace and compression and a rough estimate if not an exact number of hours the motor has. Also if they don't do their own stuff I like it when they have recipets and numbers to shop(s) they brought it to and you can call the shop up and they should have a history of the motor if they keep a file on motors they work on. Also when you hear them say will demo, they usally have nothing to hide but still do all the checks. Just the trust factor goes up abit and you can monitor the water PSI and temp better on a demo.
1978, depending on his maintenance habits get prepared to do atleast the water pump/thermos, fuel filters , and MABEY a carb job. Unless this guy gave this engine total TLC and took pride in his maintenance a 78 is gonna need some love.
First thing to do though is a compression test. If that checks out continue. If not get ready to rebuild. Expensive and is not worth it unless you have the bucks and want to bring a classic mercury back to life.
Ask him if theres a Temp gauge and/or water pressure gauge.
Pressure and temp gauge *could* rule out the water pump/thermostats(and if it has a poppit) if the temp is okay and water PSI is it the right range.
Recap,
Engine
Compression
Operating temp
Water PSI
If you find that the compression is good and the stall (he called it a lock up) is really just a carb job then its still gonna take some money to get her back to turn key , holding an idle / not stalling. After that is should be routine maintenace.
Trailer
Dont for get the trailer too, bearings and a grease need to be checked or redone , she is a 78 aswell.
Boat
Check for soft spots on floor. Look in bildge and feels around if its been wet or if theres soft spots were you can reach. Turn steering wheel back and forth to she if it's smooth. Check control box too for fluid movement.Transom and stringers.
Sorry for this long and un organized post, but I hope this gives you a place to start or a game plan to go with on Wednesday. This *could* be a deal if everything checks out and its just a simple carb job. Other than that its gonna take some money for the TLC hes talking about. If your mechanically inclined and you do the work yourself it will help on the pocket. You say its your first boat so I dont know if you worked on an outboard before or how mechanically inclined you are. If you taking it to someone else it will be more.
It's up to you on how much money you want to spend on it.
Hopefully even if you dont buy this boat, this info will help you in your next "find". And remember boats are popping up all the time and sometimes waiting and spending abit more for a turnkey that just requires future maintenance boat/engine is better than jumping on a cheaper good deal and having to spend too much money to get her back to life.
DamianJP
But... it started back up.... not sure how much time elapsed but he said it's still freed up now and probably should fire!? I'm supposed to go check it out Wednesday, so what do you guys think?? He said when it was running on the lake, it was pulling two skiers without much trouble! Of course it's only a 15 footer, but thought that was pretty good anyway.... ok I'll shut up now and watch for a response from the gurus!! Thanks!!
