BKeith

Mine's aluminum and it has support ribs, the plate is mounted across two of the ribs like a floor plate in your standard aluminum boat. I just fastened two battery box hold down loops and strap it down. Picture is not possible. For the past couple of years I've been leaving it at the farm and using it on the farm ponds, that's 90 miles from me. My wife fell in the water getting in it a couple years ago so she will not get near it now, so I've just been keeping my 14' jon at the house and using it in the river and the few ponds I fish here.

You have a point there, but I took care of that many moons ago and didn't think about it. I had plate installed in mine that I anchor the battery down on. If you don't have it anchored and roll the canoe, the battery could be gone, and take the TM with it. Anything you don't want to replace and won't float, you had better have some type of a safety device that will keep it anchored to the canoe, or make it float.

Mine is ready to fish. The only thing not in it is stuff the might blow out, and I don't think a battery is going to blow out. That's why you run a long tongue, the wheels and support is near the back of the canoe. Now, if you have one of those molded plastic looking canoes, all bets are off, some of those things I've seen don't look strong enough to support their own weight, much less motor's, (TM and Gas) battery, cooler and other stuff you have. I guess I should revise one part of that, my TM is laying in the canoe until I get to the lake, then I hang it on the mount. I don't leave it hanging off the side of the boat to take a chance of it coming off. My mount is one of those temporary style that you just clamp onto the rails and it does get loose at times, so I have to snugg the wing nuts from time to time.

I'm not an advocate of hanging one on the side. I know two people that have lost there motors in the river doing that. The current pushed them against a tree limb and the next thing they saw was their motor going out of sight. I do that with my TM (have to if running a gas on the stern) and have knocked it off a couple of times but I have a safety rope on it and don't have it on the side when traveling in the river. Both of those I'm talking about loosing theirs thought they had theirs secured but the current tore them loose. Yes, it can get uncomfortable having the reach back for a motor on the stern. I have arthritis in my neck and back and it bothers me a lot at time reaching around like that. On my jon boats, I use a seat that you can slide to one side when using the motor but that's not possible with a canoe. If you have a Norther Tools close buy, you can buy one of their cheap trailer kits and just extend the tongue. I see them a lot of times for less than $300

First, it's not really a Mercury. Your old Chrysler outboards went broke because they had out dated technology and had a hard time staying running. They finally went broke, bought out and name changed to force, with very few upgrades so they could be sold as cheap, introductry engines. Bayliner loved them because they could put them on their cheap built hulls, sell them cheap and still make bunches of money. Brunswick bought them so they could have a cheap motor in their line. Somebody had the brainfart of putting the Mercury name on them (since Brunswick owns Mercury) along with the Force to make people think they were really getting something, and it has worked well for them. However, it's basically the same Chrysler motor from the 60's, it is not a Merc, in any shape or form. Yes, some people get pretty good service from them but if it's an older motor, as you are finding out, parts support can the a problem. Hopefully, you got one that will run a long time and don't need service.

Not knowing anything about either boat. Just going by boat and motor alone, I would lean toward the Stratos. I think the Champion has a little deeper V hull and might ride a little better in realy rough water, but I'm partial to Stratos. I also think I would have to lean toward the Yama over the Merc also.

Sounds like a jon or similar style open boat with most of the weight in the rear, if so, hears some things that will help. As Sam mentioned, turn around and fish out the rear of the boat and use the rear as the front. Move as much weight, as far as possible to the front of the boat. Gas tank, TM battery, cooler etc. Add a second person. You need to do something to balance the weight. You will find that if you just turn around and fish facing the rear, go backwards while fishing, the front is still going to want to go all over the place but adding weight to the front will help bunches. A second person if the biggest help of all, the added weight, and they can help control it with a paddle.

If they are both OMC's of similar year, about the only difference you might run into would be if the motor you're installing has power trim and the one you're taking off doesn't. (T&T is a seperate cable from the main control cable) You can get around this by installing a seperate switch, or you can install the control for the other motor. It's just doing this can be a real PITA getting the cables down the gunwall on some boats. You can take it apart and leave the cables and just swap the control handle out but that's can be more of a pain than swaping the whole thing. The two controls should be completely interchangeable as far as function and cables go, just the tilt/trim switch won't be in the one on the boat if the motor does not have tilt/trim. Both motors will have the same connections at the motor so it's just disconnecting from one and connecting to the other

A couple of things you need to double check. Look at the Coast Guard data plate and see what the hull is rated for. If it's only rated for 140hp, some states have pretty healthy fines if you exceed that, and if you're going to insure it, most insurance companies will not insure an over powered boat. Second thing you need to check is the laws for the lakes you plan to use. I think some of the lakes in AZ are federal and you may not be able to use a two stroke engine on them. As for swapping motors, if they are the same make and similar year model, it's normally not a big deal, just disconnect the control cables, unbolt it and get it out of the way, and install the other motor and connect the existing cables back to it. If they are different makes, then it can be an expsensive nightmare. The control handle assy and cables will probably have to be swapped out. Sometimes you can buy adapter kits that will let one motors controls work on another but I haven't seen any of those things in a long time, and you still had to do a lot of rework. Even a big difference in year models on the same make motor can create problems because many of them have changed controls several times on the years. I know you really want the boat, but if it's that much underpowered, it's not going to be any fun what so ever to operate. It has to be proped down like a barge just to get on plane, and then it will still be very weight sensitive. Put a little extra weight in, like a couple of people and cooler, and you will find someone will be walking up to the bow just so it will lay over coming out of the hole. Unless you are just buying the boat, and it's dirt cheap, and the guy is throwing in the motor because he doesn't want it, I would have to walk away from it. When I say dirt cheap, I mean like he's almost willing to pay you to haul it off because you are going to find that doing an engine swap is going to make the total cost of the boat when done, more than it's worth. I personnaly have no desire to have a grossly underpowered boat, and wouldn't want to throw good money after bad doing an engine swap, unless maybe I already had a good engine that's the same make as theone on it so I didn't have to mess with swapping out control heads. Again though, if the motor you have exceeds the hull rating, you need to check with the state and see if you can even use it, and don't plan to insure it.

I still remember back in the mid 80's when I steped up from a 17' 6" to a 18' 4" stratos. Thought how in the world did I ever fish out of those 17' boats and couldn't see why someone would want one bigger. In the mid 90's I steped up to a 20' and realized just how nice it was for two people to have enough room. Now I think about how cramped it would be if I ever went back to a smaller boat. As you go bigger in boats, to cost of fishing goes up substantialy. They cost more to maintain and haul, and a lot more to feed them when running down the lake. When one of those big motors break, you can sometimes buy a new, smaller motor for what you spend to repair that big motor. One thing for sure, you will learn to spend a lot more time fishing and a whole lot less running. Now, with all that said, buy as big as you can afford. A 20', 3,500 pound boat with a 250 on it is not going to catch any more fish than a 14' jon with a 9.9, and you can fish all year with that jon for what a couple of trips cost with that 20' boat, but is sure is nice to have to room and comfort that 20' boat has. Also forgot to mention, new is always better than old. All the early DFI motors had serious problems and still should be motors you might want to stay away from. The early Ficht's/Rams before about 2003 (some will say 2000 but it was about 2003 before they got most of the bugs worked out of them), the early Opti-Max's have the nickname Opti-Pop and the early Yamaha's had their share of problems. I think most all motors from about 2005 on offer you a lot more reliability than the ones made from the late 90's till then. Even certain specific models had their share of problems but not going to begin to start trying to list those individual models. I would have to lean toward the biggest boat you can buy that's a 2005 or newer. That's not saying what ever you buy won't jump up and bite you but the newer ones have less of a tendency to do that. Just be sure to have it checked out.

Another similar motor and similar year model can cost you $2,000 - $2,500. Also understand, these motors love gas, I mean they really love gas in stock form. That's why the it's Johnson cousin has the 200 GT decals, the GT stands for gas thursty. By the way, the Johnson and the Evinrude back then were the exact same motor. The very first thing that needs to happen is to pull the head off and see what it looks like. If the seller is not trying to hide something, he should have no problem letting you do this. It's a very simple task to pull it off and put it back on. If nothing else, fix you up a small light bulb that will fit through the spark plug and long enough wires (very small wire) to reach the starter solenoid to inspect it through the plug hole. By putting the bulb into the cylinder, it lights it up so you can see inside pretty good. Understand a couple of things when making your deal. Expect the worst, because that's a good chance as to what you will get. More times than not, as a minimum it will need a sleeve in #4. If it has be previously rebuilt, it's a good chance it will need another block because it's very common for them to be bored .030" on their first build, and that usually doesn't leave enough for a second boring. It cost approx $200 per cylinder to resleeve it so it's not cost effective to replace all six when you can find rebuildable blocks for a few hundred, even a rebuidable powerhead for less than $500. If the crank is damage, those usually go for $400+. The crank, block and lower unit are about the only thing of any real value and there is even any market for, so most people try to get their money out of these. One major word of caution and you need to verify. Make dang sure no one has gone into it and modified it. These are very, very popular motors for people wanting to soup them up by doing port modifications and other things. The problem with this, every shade tree under the sun tries to do this because it sounds so simple and all they do is ruin a prefectly good block. They think it's very simple, when in fact, it's a very precision process to do it right and very few know how to do it right. I ruined about a 1/2 dozen blocks before I learned to get it right, even with one of the best in the country telling me how. If there are any signs or mention of being ported, most likely that block is junk and it will never keep all six pistons in it. It will constantly be blowing cylinders, and once it has be screwed up by some idiot with a die grinder, there's usually no cost effective method of fixing it. Just to give you an example of why they are so popular to modifiy, with nothing more than a different set of heads, (because that years models are junk) and the proper port work, I've gotten welllll over 300 hp and still keep the rpm below 6,800 Now that the 3.3's are getting more available, prices for the 3.0 parts (this motor) may be a little less expensive since the hot rodders are going after the 3.3's now.

There are some things you need to know that's different than building your car motor but with a little help understanding the do's and do not's, they are still piston driven engines and if you have no problems with car engines, you should have no problems with an outboard. Granted a V-6 is kinda diving in head first but taking your time, paying attention to details, asking questions and listening to the tech advise, you should not have any major problems. Now, for the engine, #4 being blown is a broad statement. That can be anything from reringing one cylinder to needing a whole power head. That can be from a couple of hundred dollars to a couple of thousand. If it's just low compression, put it in a tank or lake, crank it up and see how it sounds, don't use a hose because it will be so loud, it's hard to hear those stange knocks and sounds you want to listen for. If it's lock up, then you are taking a big chance. As a minimum it will probably need at least that hole bored, possibly a new sleeve and piston for it, and maybe all six. Then next failure could be the ring locator pin came out, hung the port, busted the piston and the rod end went through the cylinder wall, possibly destroying the block and head. If a piston comes apart, it's very common for a chunk of the piston to get between the rods big and and crankcase and destroying both block and crankcase. Usually meaning you will need another block and at least one rod. Just doing a rebuild, boring all six, new pistons, gasket set and a few other parts you will need, it's going to run pretty close to $1,200. There are a number of other small items you usually need, water pump, carb kits, recirc valves to name a few. As is, that motor is only worth about $500 max, and doubt you will find any boat motor savage company that will pay that much for it.

Get the bottom of the hull somewhat level use the tongue jack. Sit a level on the motor's anticav plate and level it with the trim. Measure from be bottom trailing edge of the pad to the leading edge of the motor. Normally you want this to be approx 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" per foot. The problem you are going to run into is the steering and possibly the control cables. In most applications you won't have enough additional length to set it back more than an additional six inches, and many times you can't even go back that much. If you have hydraulic steering, sometimes you have more extra hose than what you have with steering cables. You also have to look at where the cables come out at the rear. Most of the time they come out into the splash well. This causes too problems trying to make an S bend in the cables to get them into the motor after doing you setback the cables have to be run straight out the back. Again, hydraulic steering allows more flexibilty to make the S bend needed for additional setback. Check out everything before buying the jackplate, sometimes the jackplate is only half the expense when you have to start replacing steering etc. Also, double check with the manufactor and see what their max allowable offset is, most will void your warrenty, if you still have any, if you exceed their max. Some manufactors don't allow any additional offset. I just realized you are dealing with a G3 tin can. A major problem I've seen with a lot of aluminums is, even without any additional setback, they are bad about porposing rapidly (like taking your hand and slapping the water as fast as you can) when running in the mid to upper 40's and trimed out properly. Never been in a G3 but I've been in several Trackers that did this. Additional offset would make this condition even worse. This is caused by the flex in the aluminum hull.

DO NOT take the caps off a battery while you are charging it. It creates excessive water loss and actually increase the chances of exploding. Any body that thinks a battery CAN NOT explode is full of it. While it's not likely it will explode if the caps are left on and it's charged in a well vented place at the proper level, it can happen, the gases released by a charing battery are explosive. Usually, it only happens when one has just finished or not quite finished charging and someone disconnects the chargers cable and they cause a small arc. This possiblity bcomes much greater when one is charged at a high charge rate that's causing the water to boil in the batterty. Anybody that has ever worked at a place with a big charger and putting a one hour fast charge on one has seen or heard of them exploding. Another time it's subject to happen is when someone is hooking jumper carbles to one and they hook them backwards, that sudden, heavy current surge can explode one. I've seen them explode in boats where they were being charged by the onboard charger with the lid down on the battery compartment, someone opens the lid without give it time to vent out and start disconnecting the batteries, causing a small arc. So, don't think they can't explode, I've seen dozens of exploded batteries over they years. Now, other than ruining the cloths you have on and possibly getting in your eyes, and making on big mess to clean up with baking soda, the danger of getting seriously hurt, or of it causing a fire is very slim. Add that to the fact that with a little proper handling and charging at the proper 10% charge rate, it's not very likely one will explode, I wouldn't worry about it.

No, actually you're the one making it more difficult. Now you are throwing using the ohm function in. That's even more difficult for a beginner. Fishing Rhino gave him good advise, you told him he didn't know what he was talking about. I agree with Fishing Rhino so now I don't know what I'm talking about. I guess in my thirty years of electronics, and many years of trouble shooting vehicles, industrial equipment and boats, I never understood what I was doing, yet all my customers have always thought I was extremely good at it. Using continuity is about the hardest what for a beginner to check it. The only time I use continuity is when the draw is so great, it's blowing the fuse. Actually, I rarely use continuity then because I have $400 circuit tester I can hook in line and see and follow a short or open all the way to the source with a toner wand. Oh, by the way, even if it's blowing the fuse, all you have to do is leave the fuse out and connect a light bulb of the proper voltage across the fuse terminanls. The light bulb light up until you disconnect the wire causing the voltage. If the draw is not enough to light the bulb, try a small one watt bulb. If it that burns dim, then the draw is probably not enough to cause any problems. See, don't even need a voltmeter to troublshoot the problem. A little 12 volt bulb will do everything he needs to do by connecting it between the battery and the cable. He just disconnect one wire at the time until the bulb goes out and then see what that wire goes to. See, you don't have to make it no more complicated than a little 12 volt bulb.

Cajun Ben Read the very first reply from Fishing Rhino and listen to what he has to say, he is giving the proper advise. Just about everything after that is only going to confuse you. As his last line stated, a current reading will tell you if you have enough of a draw to bother with, but that's the only benifit of doing one. Most of the rest is only going to confuse you.

Call it what YOU like, no matter what you want to call it, you are measuring the difference in potential. Why try and confuse the poster with terminologies when what he is doing is a very common and often used method of checking for a drain on a battery. NO, with this method he can't tell how much drain there is. It could be a few milliamps that would never be noticed by the battery, and it could be enough to run it down in just a few hours. He can still start disconnecting until he finds the source of the drain. Another little indicator is when you put the cable on, if there a small arc, then the drain is pretty substantial. Using the voltage function lets you see there is a drain, using the current function (if the meter has one) lets you see how much of a drain (provided it's not more than the meter will measure). Fishing Rhino gave the guy good advise without trying to confuse him with a whole bunch of what he should, could do and telling him all this other stuff, when the method he is using is perfectly good. Just help the guy with the method he is using and if you don't understand electronics enough to know what he's doing, don't try to confuse him with a whole bunch of other hog wash.

Not sure where the idea voltage is always read in parallel came from. If you know what you are doing, it's used either way. All a volt meter is doing is measuring the difference in potential, this can be what you are calling in series or in parallel. Read the voltage drop across a resistor or checking for bad connections you read them in series, measuring the same wire across a connection. Fishing Rino had it right to start with before the water got muddy. If you want to check a battery to see it there is a drain on it, you can take a cable off and measure between the battery terminal and the wire you took off. If there is a drain, you will read voltage, if there is no drain, you will not. This is a very common method for trouble shooting a problem, while the meter is connected in series with the cable and battery and it's reading voltage, you can just start disconnecting accessories and other wires until you find the one the makes the voltage go away, you just identied the source of the drain. Not everybody understand current drain and don't really know how to use the current function of a amp meter plus, not all meters have the current function and the fact that sometimes the drain can be more than the meter will handle so you use the voltage function as this poster is doing. Now, for the posters first, original post, what that is telling you is you have something is probably draining the battery. If you have accessories connected to the starter cable, start disconnecting everything going to that starter cable until you see the voltage go away. If you have nothing but the starter cable and still reading voltage, there's possibly something going on with the solenoid

There should be a sticker on the left side of the transome mount. Top line is the model number and the year model is coded in two of the last letters in the model number. Spell out INTRODUCES, the I is number 1 and it counts up one number for each letter, E is 9 and S is 0. So, if it's a 98 the two letters would be EC, if a 97 they would be EU. The serial number should be the next line under the model on that sticker. There is also what looks like a freeze plug in the block with the SN on it.

I thought you said it was a 92. I looked at the 97 and I see you are correct, they did throw some three cylinder models out there, I've never seen one but like I said, I don't work on them for others and I don't do much with those small motors. As I said, you can not use a DVM to check the coils input voltage. You MUST use DVA when trying to read it without a Peak Reading volt meter. A DVM is not going to show anywhere near the 275 volts you are looking for.

First off, I don't have a clue what you have and the three cylinder ignition is totally different from the two cylinder ignition. If that's a three cylinder motor, I'm going under the assumption it's at least a 60 and somebody has done some fancey stuff with numbers. I don't work on outboards for a living and don't work on other peoples but I've been building and racing them a long time and three cylinder 35hp Evinrude is something I haven't a clue about. I even went to the BRP online parts and they don't show anything smaller than the 60 hp motor in a three cylinder. On both motors, the power pack is what supplies the 275 Peak Volts to the coil but that's the only thing the same. On the two cylinder 35, the power pack is the ignition system, except for the charge coil and igntion coils. On the three cylinder motors, the Timer Base generates the initial exciter voltage and sends it to the power pack, the power pack steps that voltage up to the 275 Peak Volts to the coil, so, on the three cylinder motor, you can have a bad timer base, a bad power pack, or bad coil. All these parts are expensive and just throwing something at the motor can get very expsensive. I agree that it might be the power pack, I've had more than one that would be intermittent like that. Motor can be extremely hard to get started, and once it does, runs extremely rough, but keep the rpm up for about 15 seconds or more and all of a sudden, it starts hitting on all cylinders. You could run it the rest of the day and even the next day and never miss a beat. Let it sit for a couple of days and it's right back to not wanting to start and skipping badly when it does until it warms up some. However, I've also had two different timer bases do that same thing, and some coils that did that. Understand too, that's 275 Peak volts. You can not measure peak volts with a standard DVM unless you use a DVA. For instant, an AC wall outlet will have 120 VAC but with a Peak Volt Meter, you will read about 170 volts

Not real sure why you are pulling the flywheel just yet. Before going there, you need to use a Peak reading volt meter or DVA with a good DVM to check the input to the coils. They should be approx 275 Volts peak with the motor spinning at least 250 rpm or more, a good fully charged battery.

Sorry, but a three cylinder 35 is something I've never heard of. All OMC's (Johnson's & Evinrudes) from 9.9 - 55 that I know of are two cylinders. Most OMC/BRP motors use fine thread bolts to pull the flywheel, the bigger motors use 5/16's

I know you have already blown me off so I'm not getting involved but now I'm kinda dumb founded and have a question, if that's a 35 hp, how did you manage to pull three plug wires off?

What ever turns your crank. You'd start with the fuel pump, I'd start with the carbs, and when we both get done, may find out it's an ignition problem. I've never been very good at getting my crystal ball to work over the internet. I've never claimed to know much about these things, that's why over past 50 years of building and racing just about everything with pistons, and build some pretty wicked outboards now, so I can only go buy what my past experience tells me, that's why I usully don't work on other peoples. That last line of his post about bogging and having to hit the choke/primer, still pretty much tells me he's got dirty carb problems.