Way2slow

Ramp Stories, here's a real good one that happened a long time ago. I'm not going to use names because this guy is now in the pro football hall of fame, so I figure he must have done something right. About 40 years ago our small town had a special day for one of it's hometown heroes drafted by the Oakland raiders. Some of the stuff he recieved was a new Blazer from the Chevy dealer and a new aluminum fishing boat from the boat dealers. A couple of days later I was headed to the lake and this person was in front of me at the ramp, getting ready to make his first trip in the boat. I guess in a hurry to get off the ramp so I could launch he backed in, slid the boat off with a rope tied to it and pulled it back to the ramp with the trailer, untied and went to park the Blazer. When he got back to the boat, it was filling with water where he forgot the plug. He quickly ran back to the Blazer, backed the trailer in and I helped him load the boat. He pulled out to let it drain, I told him I was in no hurry but he was rushing anyway, put the plug in and backed in but the rope hung the trailer so he jumped out to untangle the rope. Well, this time he forgot to put the Blazer in part or missed park, either way the door almost knocked him down as it when by him headed for 12 feet deep water. The rope on the front of the boat was still tangled on the trailer and somehow it managed to pull the bow down and over sidedways so it took on enough water to sink it also. I gave him a ride back to town so he could get a tow truck to get everything back out of the lake. Kinda what you call having a bad day.

Look here, should be able to identify what you need. http://epc.brp.com/default.aspx?lang=E&brands=skidoo,seadoo,atv,sportboat,ej Just click on the go beside the evinrude pull down and select your year, then the model

Leave it alone. Most likely Stratos had a reason if it infact it's not straight. Stratos has done this in the past on different hulls. Some hulls have a bad tendency to lean to one side at low speeds and Stratos mounts the motor at a slight angle to compensate for this. Not saying this is the case with your's but I would check with Stratos before getting concerned. They use all kinds of high tech equipment to make sure the hulls are properly drilled for the motor.

First, to even consider three people in a 14 or 15 canoe is crazy they are barely usable with two people in them. I have used a square backed 17 Grumman cargo (wide belly) for over 45 years and would not even fell comfortable with three people in it. As for the square back, I wouldn't have any other kind. I've never had a problem with the way mine paddles. Granted, it doesn't look as "kool" as the standard canoe but try and put a motor on the two and see(TM or gas) which handles best and I can assure you, you will be using a motor a lot more than paddles. The only time the square back really looks funky is when paddling by yourself. This is best accomplished by sitting in the front seat and facing toward the rear of the boat. This gives better load distribution but looks funky paddling with the sguare back as the front.

First you need to find what's causing the bad numbers in your setup. At 5,100 rpm, the max speed a 21" pitch prop will give is 54 mph with zero percent slip which is not possilbe to obtain, usually about 15% is more of what the slip factor will be. If the tach is reading right and the motor is really only turning 5,100 rpm, then I don't think you will even get out of the hole with a 24". The is already not turning near enough rpm.

Might want to just make sure the nut hasn't loosend. The shear pins and prop shafts are pretty tuff. I've bent and distorted bunches of shear pins but never broke one and I've never bent but one prop shaft, but have broken and torn up more blades than I can count. As long as mine will pull, plow, knock and bang it's way though, I let it run. It's not until I comes to a stall or hopelessly tangled do I pull it up. Getting too old to hold onto that rope holding it up while the motor is trying to pull my butt in while getting out of a bad area.

The undercut section of the hull at the pad where the Xducer needs to go may not be accessable, the floor is problaby going to have it covered and he migth be stuck with that location. If that is the case, look for a piece of aluminum the width of the mounting, about 6" long and 1/8" thick. Mount the skimmer on one end, hold a straight edge on the pad, position the skimmer so the straight edge is in the center (1/2 the skimmer above and 1/2 below) and is pointing straight down, while holding the aluminum bar against the hull at the skimmers current location and trace around it. Now have someone hold the bar in the trace area while you either mark the holes from the inside of the hulls original holes to drill them or drill them using the holes as a guide. Thise will drop the Xducer down the inch or two it needs for proper water contact at speed and will not have to make more holes in his boat. Since the water is going to have some upward movement coming off the rear of the pad, you migth find the skimmer needs to be moved up about a 1/2" or so if it's making a big spray but trail and error is the only way to determine that. Leave a couple of inches of that bar above the holes for support.

I've said I think long term boat loans are rediculous, you will be wanting another boat long before you get the boat paid down to where the value of the boat is what it's payoff on the loan would be, and that's with the boat garage kept and in mint condition. At the same time, it's just as rediculous to settle for a boat that you're not really wanting. If you're wanting a nice glass boat and settle for a little tin can, you're not going to be happy, want to trade it in a year or two for the boat you really wanted and loose your butt getting rid it, either way you come out on the loosing end. So, why not go ahead and get the boat you really want and be happy, after all, odds are you will have to hold onto that boat longer than you will hold onto your wife, and getting rid of either is going to be expensive and probably ruin your credit.

You don't. RPM is your main indicator for telling if you have the proper prop.

When to rebuild? As cart7 says, when it goes bang is a pretty good time. When the compression is too far off (more than 10% difference between cylinders) or too low on all cylinders. When it's knocking or sounds like somebody rattleing a can of rocks inside. Most motors ten years old or older will cost more to have rebuilt than the motors worth. If you can do the work yourself is about the only time it's worth rebuilding. That applies to most anysize motor. Just to bore and replace pistons and rings you can be looking at close to $200 per cylinder, then you have labor charges and other parts involved. This is why it's always better to have a boat/motor checked out by a competent mechanic that know outboard motors and boats. By the way, age doesn't have a lot to do with what kind of shape a motor is in. The type oil, hours, upkeep and preventive maintenance has a whole lot more to do with it than age.

I run the hell out of mine (about 100 hours a year) and replace mine and grease the drive shaft spline every two - three years but change the gear oil every June and December. Since I fish more than several times a month year round, I don't winterize so I go through my standard maintenance every six months. Ooops!!, You said a Mercury, I'm not sure black motors will run 100 hours without breaking so you can have it done when it's in the shop each year. The water temp is going to be based the thermostats and I'm not sure what stats mercs run. I think 165 is getting right on the max of what you would want to see. Mine (JohnnyRudes) generally run about 130 - 135 at idle under any condititons and 150 - 155 at WOT on hot summer days. You could also have a sending unit or guage reading a little high.

Some info like the year, model and size would help. If the keyway is still lined up in the flywheel with the crankshaft, the timing didn't change. Other than that, not knowing anything about the type of motor I can't help you much. Oh, I can say you have way toooo much oil in it. Even the old motors that mixed 20:1 and 25:1 back when they were new will mix 50:1 now with TCW-3. Back in the old days they didn't have the oils we have now, that's the reason they rans so much oil. If you could find the mixing instructions for those old motors they would say you could use 30W non detergent motor oil. There is a hellava lot of difference between the lubrication value of the outboard oils of today over 30W oil and the early two cycle oils of the distant past.

For as many years as I can remember I've use the fancy ones, the one with a hairpin clip or a bolt and nut. Right now I have the hair pin clip on my pickup and a grade 8 bolt with self locking on my van.

Used them a number of times. I think I still have a set in the garage. If you plan to use the boat on a regular basis with lights, I would go ahead and wire it for lights and use a small 12 amp hour 12V battery to power them.

I think you will find that minute amount of drag would have little affect. However running without the motor in the water will probably make you use more battery because you will be fighting the boats position a whole lot more because you don't have the motor in the water to keep the rear of the boat from going all over the place.

Last year I was killing time looking at the new Stratos boats and they had payment plans that were for seven to ten years. I know one of the salesman and asked him if people really financed those things for 10 years. He said about 80% of the big boats they sold were on the 10 year plans. He said there were dealers that did 15 year plans but they didn't at the time but were considering them. So, that tells me there are a whole lot more of them fools out there than will admit it. Me, I'll stick with my repo's I buy at auction from those fools that buy them on those plans and can't pay for them. Usually what happens is the warrenty runs out, they have a major engine breakdown, can't afford to have it repaired and lets it go back. I buy a five/six year old $15,000 - $20,000 boat for $5,000 - $6000, spend about a $1,000 - $1,500 fixing it and have a nice boat that's paid for. Over the past couple of years I've made about $30,000 doing this and have my boat paid for so I kinda like those long term finance plans.

It's a very good chance you could have blown a LU. As mentioned, do a quick compression check, you can buy a cheap guage for less than $20, If all cylinders are fairly close, it wasn't a piston. There is still the posibility a rod could have let loose or a bearing but the Next step would be to drain the LU oil and see if metal pieces come out. If you know how, you can drop the LU and crank it up without it and see if rattle is still there. Just don't run it for more than about 30 - 45 seconds since there will be no water going through it. Even if it's the LU, you're still not going to be very happy. They don't cost as much as a powerhead, but it's still going to ruin your day when you buy a replacement or get that one repaired.

Take the spark plugs out and see if they all look the same. I would guess not, one is going to be full of aluminum. Sounds like you lost a ring locator pin. The first ticking was the warning, the oh!!CRAP!!!!! was when it took out the piston. If that was the problem, trust me, you won't fix it for $1000, you won't even be able to do a halfass repair for that. A Merc remain'd power head is going to cost $5000, from other sources they run about $3000 if your motor is still a rebuildable core. One word of caution, if in fact it did loose a pin, don't just repair that one hole, all six pistons must be replaced or you will stand an excellent chance of getting to do it again. One other cause is the plastic drive gear on the oil pump broke. If that happen, very good chance the motor is scrap metal.

If that's all the rpm you're turning, I would drop to a 15 even if I wasn't moving. You are already on prop size too large.

First thing is to take the air silencer off and make sure all four butterflys in the carbs are fully closed. Then check the mechanical advance and make sure it's coming all the way to the stop and that the stop hasn't gotten turned in too far. If the carbs are fully closing, the timing should only take it to about 2000 rpm so even if the mechanical advance was sticking, it would still have to be getting air to hit max rpm. So, if the carbs are fully closed and the mechanical advance to coming to the stop, you probably have a major air leak somewhere in the intake system.

NO, that sounds like your stator wires. Should be near the fuel pump/vro pump. There are some wires coming out of the VRO end of the fuel pump going to a connector, unplug that one. Fuel pump it that black thing that looks like a turbo and the fuel and oil lines go to it.

The low oil warning just meant you didn't have enough oil in the tank or the float sensor is bad. To disconnect it, just unplug the two wire plug under the cowl that goes to the tank and unplug the larger 4/5 wire connector going to the VRO. There is a world of difference between the power of a 3 cyl Johnson and a Chrysler, even when having what they claim to be the same HP. However you almost doubled the horse power and torque with your upgrade so I'm sure you did have an ear to ear grin. Figure the old motor only had about 45 propshaft HP and your new motor has about 75, plus twice the torque, makes for a world of difference in fun factor.

Not difficult but I think I would wait until you get the rattle checked out. If things turn out ok with that, have the dealer order you a factory service manual for it. They are usually less than $40 and worth their weight in gold when it comes to doing minor maintenance like that. You will save enough just on changing the impeller to pay for the manual. The Clymer manuals are better than nothing but you can't beat the factory manual. A lot of your chain autopart stores have them and most larger boat dealers have them for sale. If all else fails, you might even find the service manual or Clymer on ebay.

There's a very good chance you're going to find out why you should fog a motor that's left outside during the winter. I also hope you know how to do your own motor work or that 25 is probably going to make you a parts motor. I think you're going to find the repair bill is going to be more than another motor. Now, you can keep on running it until what ever is causing it makes a lot of internal parts become external parts, destroying the block and what few good parts might still be in it or you can have it checked out. If you're lucky, it will only need a new piston or two where to wrist pin or skirt is slapping. If not so lucky, it will need a crank, bearings and rods where they rusted from not being winterized (which would be my guess). You could also find that something has gotten on top of the piston and has reuined the block anyway, but don't try to pull the head off, I don't think it has one, just a water jacket cover. Since I don't have the motor so I can listen to it and check it out, and my crystal ball is not working right at the moment, I can't tell you exactly what's wrong with it, but I can tell you it won't fix itself and go away and it don't take long for one to grenade itself. One thing you can check, take the spark plugs out, turn the crank until the top piston is just past top dead center, then use a big screw driver or something that will fit in the plug hole and push down on the piston. Then do the other the same way. If you feel absolutely any free movement before the crank moves, you have a serious problem. Even if you don't get any free movement, that doesn't mean you don't have a problem, it just hasn't gotten bad enough to feel the free play or could be a main bearing of skirt.

I seriously doubt there's a velcro made that will hold that thing on the transome. You are looking at over 60 pounds of pressure applied to that thing by the water when you are running down the at 40 mph. Also, make sure the blade is inline so it's cutting straight through the water or it will even have more force applied to it.