Way2slow

With an aluminum prop, you probably won't notice much of a difference, no matter which you get. A four blade usually helps a little on hole shot but will cost you a couple of mph on top end. I have a feeling if you stuck the proper pitch raker on it it, and the motor is good, you would be more than happy. Look on the end of the prop you have now and see what size/pitch it is. You may have to take the nut off because sometimes the washer under it will cover the numbers up. You should see something like 13 1/4 x 19, which will be the diameter and pitch. Understand, I'm not saying that's the size your's is, I was just using those numbers as an example The next thing you have to look at is how many rpm you're turning with your current prop at WOT. If you are not turning 5,300 or more, you need to go down one pitch size, for instance from a 19 to a 17. If you are only turning 4,800, you may need to drop down two sizes or possibly check you motor out, make sure it's good. The blades on aluminum props fold back so much under a strain, like hole shot and WOT, there is no way they can provide any kind of performance. Also understand, not all SS props are created equal. Your standard SST prop is nothing but a general duty SS prop, make to the same specs as the aluminum. You need to be looking at the Raker's II's or Renegades if you are working with a Johnson or Evinrude, if it's a Merc, can't help you there.

I've never had but one 14" V-bottom, it came with a 9.9 motor and a trailer I was buying but had to take the boat too. I thought, what the heck, I would give it a try and took it to a friends pond to fish. When I left there, I left the boat there also, I decided I had absolutely no need for a 14' aluminum rocking chair. You move and it rocks, which made it much worse than even my canoe because in the canoe, you didnt have to move, you can reach you hand in the water from either side. Based on my experience in that one V-bottom, I would hate to know I had to use a 12'. That was 14 years ago and the boat is still there, my friend says it's great because it's the only boat that has ever stayed on the pond that someone didn't steal. Even now, when I go to that pond, I take me a jon boat.

If you are going to be fishing rivers, with current and you typical trees and stuff laying in them, get a trailer and go with the 48". For two people, a 36 is fine in ponds and fairly calm water but you probably will not like it at all if you get into moving water. My wife will not even get in my 1436 when I go to a river near my house. As a bare minimum, you will want the 42". Two people who are very comfortable in a small boat will have no problems with a 1436, I even like my old 1432, I also like my 17' canoe but I've probably spent 1,000's of hours in it and small jons over at least 55 years. For comfort and safety, bigger is better.

First off, I would get a second opinion when it comes to something that major. Very well could have just been his compression guage, they do go bad. I rebuilt the engine in an old toyota truck with 260K miles because it had been running bad for a couple of weeks and skipping when I first started in. I came home for lunch one day, it was still skipping on #4 cylinder when I got to the house, so I checked the compression on #4 right quick, It had 85 pounds. That weekend I pulled the engine, rebuilt it and had it running the following weekend. I drove it for a week and did a full compression test on it, just to see how they looked. It had 85 pounds on all four cylinders. Got another guage and it had 160# on all four. I didn't feel too bad about it, because I had already planned to build it since it had 260K miles, and already had all the parts, just kinda stupid for jumping into it like I did because of a bad guage. As for your Opti-Pop, you are probably going to have a hard time getting a remain'd powerhead installed for less than $4,500. You are also opening yourself up for a royal sc****** if you pay someone to "rebuild" yours. If it even needs rebuilt. You might want to go over the Scream and Fly and ask those guys about your problems. You probably have the best collection of Mercury guru's on the planet there. http://www.screamand...ical-Discussion. Most reputable dealers don't rebuild them, they replace them with remaned powerheads. They get a warrenty with it and it takes too much time to rebuild yours. You average Joe Blow mechanic will "rebuild" one but you only have his word on what he actually did, and I've seen too many times where that was only a set of rings, a few gaskets and one outrageous bill, for nothing. There's a whole bunch of things I would be checking before even thinking the powerhead was bad. Those things don't have the most reliable ECM's in the world.

I've got some stuff a local company that's a customer of mine gave me. It's a thin, 2 part epoxy that soaks into the surface of the wood and makes it totally waterproof. It's used on wooded surface of yacht's. It can also be painted over when dried. I can see if there's a name on it but, it retails for about $200 a gallon if interested. Sure is nice to have friends, he gave me enough to make five gallons.

Yep, you can connect any 12 volt battery in series or parallel with any other 12 volt battery. In parallel, it's not so critical, both batteries are seeing the same voltage and only putting out the current it needs to at that voltage. The problem comes in with series batteries, they both are seeing the same current, which may or may not be what both batteries can handle without doing damage to one of them. Contrary to what some have said, you never want to install two different size batteries in series, and as a general rule, even on like batteries, they should have no more than 25 cycles difference between them. Now, this only applies if you want to get max runtime and life out of your batteries. If you don't mind constantly chasing battery problems and wondering why the TM seems to be running slower after a short time on the water, you do them any way you want. For me, batteries are too cheap to replace for aggrivation they can cause.

NO, Since they are going to be running in series to give you the 24V's you need, the need to be identical batteries and the same age.

You should not need the float, I wouldn't order it if I was going to build. The needle and seat is in the kit. Carbs are very simple looking but there is some knowledge required in building them. A manual will help, if nothing else, just to show you the breakdown and how to set the float level. The biggest thing is getting all the orfices clean, knowing where they are, and being careful not to do anything that will inlarge any of them. You can't look at it and think it's clean, a lot of times they can look clean but still not run right, it only takes a few microns to make one run bad.

OH!!!! So, you took the lower unit apart, I didn't realize that, I though you were replacing the lower crank seal. There is no telling what all you might have out of place if you took the LU appart. I hope you know there are several special tools and guages you were suppose to use to set it up before you put it together. The first thing you need to do is check the shift rod length, there is less than a 1/32" leave way on it. Drop the LU and see if it shifts off the motor, if it does, you may just need to adjust the rod, If not, have fun doing it again. At least you can look at it this way, if you didn't get the gears mesh right, you want have to worry about that one any more, you can just buy another one. You probably missed with the shift lever, or the cradle where it goes on the horizontal shaft.

ProMariner Pro Tourny 300 for past 10 years

Congrat's! Like we said, many of todays companies know the power of the internet and will do things in the way of customer service that was unheard of 10 - 15 years ago. I'm glad to hear you are dealing with one of the good ones. I've run a number of their trolling motors but luckly, I've never had to check out their customer service.

I went to BRP's parts site, and looked at the linkage he's dealing with. Looking at his, yes, it's different, the the lever on the shaft should be pointing down instead of up. As for shift lever, it's hard to tell if it can be installed upside down or not. If it works, here's a link but it only gets you to the main index, select the model in the open block, then find the year and then the model and look at the shift linkage. Yes, if he screwed on the rod going into the lower unit, he screwed up and has got to get it back to the proper setting. I would also disconnect my shift cable from the motor,until I got it shifting right at the motor, just to make sure you don't have it wrong. http://epc.brp.com/I...16-7ee71862ecf5

Sounds to me like you have the shift lever upside down, the one on the lower right front part of the engine, it should be pointing up. That or the one under the carbs you hook the shift rod to is on backwards. Since you said you had a very hard time getting the screw back in, you may have the aluminum shifer block fliped over, because the screw should not have been hard to install. When you move the shift lever at the console, from neutral to forward and reverse a few inches, you should see one cable move back and fourth, moving the shift lever on the engine in both directions. The other cable should not be moving, it should only start moving once you have gone a few inches with the lever and should only move in one direction, regardless if it's forward or reverse.

Usually, most companies will try to work with you. If they can repair it, they will at minimal cost. If they can't repair it, a lot of times they will offer you a replacement at a very discounted price. Most of them realize the power of todays internet and try to make any dealings you have with them or their products as pleasant as possible. Granted, their are still some companies that haven't gotten the message or so large they don't seem to care, and there are some people you couldn't please even if they sent a full refund, a new unit and a technician to install the new one. If it was me, I would box it up and send it in if I didn't think I could fix it myself.

To me, it's a no brainder. Install two new batteries for the trolling motor and take it off the cranking battery. I have serious doubts about you being satisfied with trying to go to any 12 volt system. It's going to seriosly limit your run time and the TM's power, 55#'s is about the most your going to find in a 12 volt. Keep the 75#, 24 volt system and just run three batteries.

When you put it back on, you want to make sure you have the right tension adjustment on the idle mixture screw. The nut needs to be snug enough you can turn it but if it's too loose, it will vibrate out of adjustment and suck air. Before lock the screw down in the knob, you need to get it running, let it warm up, adjust the idle screw so it idles smooth and then put the know back on in the center position. That gives you room to richen it up when cold and lean it out after running it a long distance and go to idle.

Actually, it weighs a little over 100 pounds. The 18, 20, and 25 were all the same motor, just a different intake/carb. It's pretty much straight forward job removing the carb. Hold the knobs, remove the screw from the center and then pull the knobs off. Undo throttle linkage and choke, remove the two flange nuts. I think you have to take the lower cover off but it's been so long, can't swear to that. I ran those motors for over thirty years, my first was a new 66, 18hp. You probably won't notice much difference between that 18 and a similar 25

Before I gave it up for dead, I would do a little trouble shooting. Most likely your only problem is a connection/switch that has corroded and overheating. Not sure if you're talking about the plastic casing on the tiller head or if it's a foot control, but where ever it's getting that hot, you have a bad connection there. As for no reverse, that's most likely just the switch. For the batteries not lasting, again, that could just be the voltage loss caused by a bad connection, or time to replace the batteries. I'm just the type that checks everything before I spend my money on a new replacement. Now, if money is no problem, get a new one, fixing old crap gets to be a pain in the butt at times.

There are a number of salvage yards that sell them if you do a search on the net for used parts. Might find one on ebay. You will need to make sure it's one that fits your motor. You can't just throw any cowling on any motor. Be ready for the sticker shock when you do find one, they are usually not cheap.

Tritons are probably the most abundant and they are good boats. All you will have to do is learn how to drive one. With most of the boats like you mention, you will have to learn how to drive a chine walker. Any of the name brand boats and motors, Triton, Ranger, Stratos, Champion etc. I think it's going to be what you can get the best deal on with a motor that still has the most warrenty. With motors that size, a good warrenty is critical. Any brand motor can blow a powerhead or brake a LU and with these new generation motors, that's one hellava expensive repair if you have to pay out of your pocket.

As mentioned, the fuel pumps are fairly easy to rebuild. Another item a lot of people don't know about, or think about, that can cause your problem is the anti-drainback valve in the tank. The barbed fitting in the tank the fuel line is connected to, if someone hasn't already replaced it, has a check ball in it that can be sticking. This is in the line to keep fuel from draining back into the tank from the fuel line. A coast guard requirement so if you have an engine fire, it can't be pulled into the tank by the fuel draining back. Take the hose off the primer bulb that's coming from the fuel tank and see if you can blow back through it, into the tank. If you can, it doesn't have the check ball and don't need to go any further. If you can't blow through it, screw the barbed fitting out and replace it. I replace them with a straight barbed fitting and do away with the check ball. One other check you can do is, with the engine cover off, pump the primer buld until firm and keep pressure on it while you closely check all the fuel line. If there is a leak anywhere in the system, letting gas come out, then it's probably sucking air there.

The only way you're going to be able to determine the value is by finding a similar similar year and model for sale. No way under the sun is the insurance going to give you $2k - $2.5k for a 26 year old motor, that's almost the new price, but I seriously doubt you can replace it for $500. All the control cables and wiring is going to cost close to what a motor will cost. If you can find a good used one, I would guess somewhere between $800 and $1,200 for a good motor with controls. Most likely, even if you find one, you will have to buy new control cables, they're going to be somewhat expensive themselves.

Probably about twice what the motor is worth. Is this a motor you're trying to convert to a long shaft and remote controls? The reason I ask, if it's a manual motor, most likely it does not have a charging system in it either, so you would have to add a starter and all the other stuff. Probably could by a brand new motor for about the same price as trying to do all that.

The way I see it, for now I wouldn't worry about it being cracked. It has to be torn down and resealed to fix the leak and to check the gears and bearing to insure they haven't rusted. While the LU is off, replacing the water pump is pretty much a given. If the seals are all they find wrong, you are still looking at $500 or so (provided the gears/bearings are good). Shop around and you can probably find a good used LU for less. If you decide to have your's repaired, they can pressure check/inspect it when it's torn down Your next option is to keep running that one and change the gear oil every few trips. You can run Valvolin synthetic 85-90 and save a little over what the merc gear lube will cost

The only way you're going to keep it somewhat dry is to put an exhaust fan under it to circulate air through it. I found a small fan and made me a box with a 4" dryer hose. I sat it in the back and dropped the hose out the rear. I made sure there was an opening at the TM for the air to exit. I would also use my float markers to prop all storage lids open so the would stay dry. Check at Home Depot and places, they may have a wall box already fixed for a 4" flex hose. If not a lot of home AC installers can make you one that you can stick a small fan or squirrel cage blower in for a minimal cost.