Way2slow

First off, you should have never tried to run it with a bent prop shaft, he should have told you it would not run long if you did. The bent shaft most likely took out the front/rear bearings and then the gears after the bearings went, so instead of just replacing a bent shaft, which would not have been a major deal, the whole LU is most likely junk now It's not biggy to drop the LU. Undo the shift rod and Undo the bolts on each side and the ones in the back, take the trim tab off and make sure there are none under it. some motors like to hide one under there. With a little wiggle and shake the LU should drop. Oh, trim it up after undoing the shift rod so it has room to come out.

I've never tried the cheap ones, spend too much time on the water and care more about my eyes than that. I'm on my third pair of Maui Jims, just bought a pair of their newer, lightweight, no frame style, and wouldn't have anything else. They have also come down a bunch in price so they are not all that expensive now, I would stronly recommend you try a pair.

Hey FlyPhisher, I've got an a 1989 Stratos 285 Pro (18'5") that was totally redone a couple of years ago, new carpet, seats redone, new clear gel coat, very nice looking boat. I've just rebuilt the engine, Evinrude XP 150 and in the process of breaking it in now. I still need to get a couple of more hours on the motor so it can be run at WOT before I will turn it loose but in a few weeks I can make you a very good deal on it. If you're interested, go in the CVS pharmacy there in Oconee and ask for Brenda or BJ (my wife), she can tell you how to get hold of me. And don't pay any attention to what she says she want's for the boat.

Depends on how close you are to running at you motors max recommended rpm now. If near or at max rpm you would do ok droping to a 13 in a stainless. It's really hard to say what the difference in performance is going to be until you actually try a stainless. The blades on a stainless prop don't flex and roll back like they do on an aluminum so they are subject to knock a few rpm off top rpm because they don't loose pitch like an aluminum. On the other hand, depending on the prop, the blades are thinner on the stainless so they are much more efficient cutting through the water and give more speed. If you go with a perfomance style stainless, one with a high rake (something they don't make in aluminum) they give more bow and some stern lift than the aluminum so they have the potential (depend on hull and speed it will run) and give more speed which lets the motor turn a few more rpm. The next thing is the condition of your prop and the 13" prop you tried. Aluminum props get damaged extremely easily. A prop with a rolled or banged up leading edge can knock bunches of rpm off. So, to answer your question, you really need to try a stainless before you buy one. Most dealers will let you do that with the understanding you are going to buy the one that works on your motor. Just make sure you prop it to turn within about 100 rpm of the max rated rpm of the motor with your normal load, you will be much happier with the performance of the boat. DO NOT prop it down more than 200 rpm.

With any used boat you're buying the old pig-in-a-poke, it may be a great boat, it may be a nightmare. You try to hedge the deal by having it checked out by a professional but there are no guarentee's. I've seen people do everything right and stll have the motor grenade shortly afterwards from a problem know one could have possibly foreseen. With a new boat your paying a whole bunch of extra money got get a warrenty on evertything. It may not be any better than a good used rig, but you don't know that. All you can be sure of, you have a piece of paper that says they will fix the new boat for a certain period of time if anything breaks. Even that's no absolute, company could go belly up right after you buy it. Look what OMC did in 2000. No the condition of the motor is not the main thing. The condition of the boat is just as if not more important than the motor (depending on how new you get). I've seen three year old boats (hulls) that were junk. A couple of years back, I came close to buying a three year old 20' Sprint boat that had everything but a motor, and I had three motors) for $7,000. It looked like new, garage kept, all the best in electronics, TM, Hydraulic jack plate, hydraulic steering, very nice boat but changed my mind simply because it was a Sprint and realy didn't know much about them. I was telling a guy I know about it and he went down and bought it. When they hung his 225 HO Johnson on it, he got sick. Come to find out, they never sealed the bolts when the bolted up the jackplate and the transome was total junk. Cost him another $3,700 to have the transome replaced.

One thing that puzzles me in your post. You said you put the magnets back on the pins that hold them, so I have to assume you took the magnets out. Since I've never tried to take the magnets out of a TM I'm not sure what holds them in place but I would have thought they would have been bonded to the housing like most other permenant magnet motors. Just sitting in there one would thing the field would pull them against the armeture and have them rubbing on it. Might want to check with one of the TM motor repair shops and see if they float like that or are suppose to be bonded,

Seen it buches of times on my motors and can assure you they don't leak. If it's full of lube and no water, where did it leak from??. After all, the LU is the only thing down there that has an oil reserve. Still looks more like unburned fuel/oil from exhaust residue to me, but since I know nothing about them, what would I know. Level the motor, take the top plug out and check the lube level, or haul it to a shop and pay them $300 -$500 to replace what might be prefectly good seals.

If the lower unit lube is not low, and there is now signs of water in then it's probably from letting the motor idle a lot before loading. If you have to go very far in a no wake zone to get to the dock/ramp and then have to idle around while loading the boat, it's very feasable that is engine residue. If you are still running the oil injection hooked up, then it's highly possible, Those old merc oilers could really pump some oil at idle, and smoke like and old coal burning locomotove after they idle for a bit. One note, you should never store a boat with the motor trimed up, too many places it can keep water traped and could cause you some major grief if allowed to freeze in there.

They need to be secured in several places or they may twist, bow, and do all kinds of unwanted stuff if just left laying in the sun. Clamp a couple together with some thin strips between them and change them around every few days, and it's better if they are not left in the sun. You might get them to dry straight.

Pressure treated boards that were still wet.

You first thing should be to check on ebay and see if someone has a manual for the motor. If not, see if you can find one of those generics like the Clymer or something. Seriously doubt you're gonna find anyone real knowledgable of that motor that could answer your question of the top of their head. As for the tilt cylinder leaking down, that's probably the packing (seals) on the piston inside the cylinder leaking by. Could be a check valve but normally it's the seals. As for the fluid being added. If you had it trimed up when you added the fluid, take the plug back out and trim it down until the the cylinders are fully retracted. If it's over filled fluid will come out the plug hole, let it drain until it has slowed to a drip, then trim it back up and put the plug back in. If no fluid comes out when you trim it all the way down, you need to add a little more. Not real sure about where you are talking about the solenoid leaking. If leaking around the base where it goes into the T&T housing assembly, there are probably a couple of O-rings that you can pick up at a hydraulics shop. Don't depend on one of those generic O-ring kits, those don't fit anything. As for the TM, you said you replaced it what a new 70 lb MK. Serously doubt the boat has the cable of circuit breakers for that size motor. If you check, provided it even has them on the battery, you will find they are only about 30 amp, way too small for that motor. You need to replace those with 45 or 50 amp breakers. You may be popping the breaker. Is that a 12/24 volt motor or a straight 24 volt? If 12/24 you need four 6 guage cables, two possitive and two negative going to the TM batteries, anything smaller and the TM is going to suffer. If it's a straight 24 volt, you have at least 8 guage cable (four of them) connect the two TM batteries in series, connect both the red cabes to the positive of battery A and both the black cables to the negative of battery B and get you a couple of SB-50 connectors to plug the TM up with or just hard wire it straight to the boat cables if you don't have to take it off to secure it. As for the carbs, back to the manual, it will show you how to do that, where to set the float level and how to do a proper linc and sinc when done.

You need any area in the side, bottom, back or front that will give the room needed for the pump to stick out. You don't need to have room for the full threaded part of the tube. You will measure the thickness of the livewell area your going to mount in, the thickness of the nut to hold it plus about another 3/4 - 1" to screw on screen on it and you will saw the extra off at that point. Note, a screen is needed or fish (or their tails) can block the pump off. Just make sure if going into the back or side, your are not trying to go through a bulkhead and that you are going directy into the livewell or it may leak.

No that is not submersable but is very easy to install. Hopefully its at least a 750 gph pump. All you have to do is like cart7 said. Make a hole the size of the threaded pipe on the end of the pump in the side of your livewell. Just make sure you make it high enough off the bottom the nut fits fully on a flat surface. Then make a smaller hole in the top above the water line to mount the little plastic aeriator and connect the hose between them. If you don't have a timer already, you really need to add one, you still don't want that pump running all the time. You also need a add a toggle switch to turn that pump on and off. They make kits that have air pumps with stones but they are not very effective. The one you have works pretty good.

The right motor height and the right foil, the foil will have no affect on it because it won't be touching the water. I've run the SE Sport 300 on my hotrod motors for several years and I never know it's back there except for when coming out of the hole. I would start chine walking at approx 72 mph, with and without the foil. If you have it down low enough for the hydrofoil to be in the water when running WOT, it's going to slow you down and I'm not sure what kind of handling quirks you might get into. Chine walk is just a matter of learning to drive the boat, compensating for the walk before it starts. Once it starts, it's usually too late when you are first learning and don't think you're gonna just hang on and drive through it, that can be a serious mistake. First things first when dealing with it. Make sure there is no slack in the steering wheel, not even a little bit. When the wheel moves, the motor moves. Make sure the motor mounts a nice and firm. I've seen top mounts that were more like sponges than firm rubber. If the steering has slack or mounts are sloppy, the motor can dance back and forth causing it to walk and there's nothing you can do that will control that. Next would be the motor height, the more of the lower unit buried in the water, the more apt it is to walk. Three blade props have a tendency to want walk more so than four blade props. Once everything is setup properly, you just need to learn to zig when the boats is about to zag and zag when the boat is about to zig. Learn the feel of the boat and only make micro corrections on the wheel to control this, don't saw on it. Pretty soon you will get the rythem. Since chinewalk is caused by the boat wanting to fall off the pad to one side, start by not having the motor fully trimed up. When at WOT start bumping the trim up until just start to feel it want to walk. Keep it right there and play with making your corrections. The tendency to walk will be much slower and you can learn to feel and correct for it. Get the hang of that and bump the trim up a little more and learn to feel and correct those. As you go up with the trim, the corrections will come quicker and qucker. Before you know it, it will be automatic.

Either would work better than and electric TM but neither will work great. Seriously doubt you will get on plan, and can just about inusre you won't with two people in the boat. Depending on the condition and age of the motors, you might be able to sell them next year when you find what you're looking for. They will be much harder to sell that if they were 9.9 or larger. Anything smaller than a 9.9 is hard to find a buyer for especially in a pre 80's when they actually had 10 - 15 percent less prop shaft hp that their stated HP.

One thing I forgot that is also a common problem, towing at the wrong ball height. Even on trailers that come with the axle's aligned, that alignment if for a certain ball height, higher or lower than the set height throws off the alignment. Sometimes it's stated on a sticker or samped in the frame up near the hitch. For most modern boats, you should be able to email or call the manufactor and find out what that measurement is suppose to be. On my Javelin it's 13 1/4", To get that on my 4 WD pickup I have to run a 6" drop on my receiver.

That measures tracking only, does nothing about casting, camber and tow in/out. Casting, camber and tow is what eats up the tires. No less critical than an automobiles alignment, just most people thing because think so because after all "it's just a trailer". Ranger's axles are aligned when they are installed on the tailer but many companies could care less, after all "it's a trailer" why worry about how it drives. Doesn't matter they eat a set of tires a season. I've had friends trailers that would eat a set tires in a couple thousand miles until I convinced them to get them aligned. They worried more about dry rot than tire wear afterwards.

With my back and my arthritis, I sit most of the time while fishing now days. The most comfortable seat I've found is the full size pedistal seats used in the 2005/6 Stratos 201's. They don't fully fold down but they are very comfortable for sitting. Since my dad is my fishing partner and is pushing 80, I bought one for him also using mine for a few months. He had tried mine and agreed it was the most comfortable seat he had sat in. The good part is I have less than $200 in both. I bought the first one new off ebay for $75 without the Stratos logo on it. Bought the second from the manufactor for $100 when they were clearing excess inventory. I think Stratos sells them for about $250 each.

It's a 100% gurantee the carbs are not gummed. I don't have any. Etecs are direct fuel injected. If stored for long a long period of time without being properly conditioned for storage, the injectors can get gummed, and that's about $1000 to have them removed, sent off to be cleaned and recalibrated and put back on and the ECM recalibrated. About the only thing he can do himself is change the fuel filter.

New axle aren't always so easy. A lot of the bass boat companies don't use standard axles you can run down to Northern Tool and buy. The best cure is have it aligned but this ain't so easy either. Don't bother taking it to these computerized alignment shops, they don't have a clue and can't help you. You have to find one of the old timers that still has the equipment a couple of generations past and could align the old straight axle pickups, these had to be aligned by bending them. Find you one of the old front end men that knows how to bend them and still has the equipemnt and he can make have the best towing trailer around. The good ones can also weld extra bracing on them to keep the true for many years.

Very common problem on steeper ramps, too much of the boat is still floating. I don't like winching and wrestling with them so I do just the opposite, I pull the trailer back out of the water some. This lets the bow get onto the bunks boards and they lift the bow before it gets too the wench stop. Where this might create a problem for you, if you have to pull very far forward, small motors have a hard time pushing the boat all the way to the stop, (even big motors if your on a really steep ramp). On ramps I have this problem, I'm very used to loading my boat so I just hit the trailer with a little more speed and nail the gas once it starts up the bunk boards. I've been doing this a long time and I would not recommend taking running starts at your trailer until you have practiced this more than a couple of times.

If you get them from Graingers or some place like that you can order one for 6ga wire to fit your boat calbes and one 8ga or what ever you TM calbe is. They even come in different colors if you have a preference. Just be sure you order both the same color. Only same colors connect together, unless you cut the center key out of them.

My error on crossing up and refering to his 92 200 rude as a 200 Venom but both are still the same identical motor. You said yours was a 175 rude, and as I have said several times already, your 175 is nothing like his 200. Never has been. Not sure how you got where you got off into talking pistons and cranks when the only thing that was mentioned was power packs, but none of that is the same in a 175 either to a 200. You should also make it sound at least a little like you know what your talking about when you start giving out information. The dates I posted for the different versions of the 175 are correct. The FastStrike (a carburated 60 degree Eagle block) was first on the market in 1992. Before that was the 2.6 litre 90 degree Xflow. Before that is was a 2.4 litre 90 degree Xflow. They kept the carburated eagle block through about 1997 or 1998, Then they converted it to the Ficht. They kept it the Ficht for several years until the converted to the Etec, close to the mid 2000's. His motor is the 3 litre block. They put that block in production in 1986 as a 2.7 with bridge port exhaust. In 87 the converted the electric system from the twin packs to the single pack but left it a 2.7. In 88 they opened it to a 3.0L and changed to oval exhaust. It stayed this way until 92 when they changed it from an open deck block to a closed deck block. In 93 they added auxillary ports (better known as finger ports). Other than a few other small changes they kept the block the same until 1999 when they coverted it to the 3.0 Ficht motor. So basically, when you look at any 200 hp Evinrude or Johnson motor from 1986 to 1998, they are going pretty much the same and absolutely nothing like your 175 Now, enough said, I didn't get on here to get in a ticking contest with you and your lack of knowlegde on a motor I happen know extremely well. I only rebuted your sensor post to keep him from making a wild goose chase looking for things that are not there. If he want's my help I'll be glad to try and help him but I will not get on here and argue. I've made several attempts to explain why your 175 is nothing similar to his 200 and to argue with an idiot, I have to come down to and idiots level and just don't care to do that.

Not sure what you are using for a parts manual but I don't want to anything out of it. The 175 was either a 90 degree crossflow carb motor, a 60 degree carb looper motor, a 60 degree DFI looper, or the Etec, all depending on the year model you are talking about. The 200 Venom is a 90 degree carb'd looper motor, again as I have already stated, there in nothiing similar about the 200 Venom to those motors powerheads other than the fact thery are two stroke V-6 outboards. Just in case you have doubts about that, if you would like to check, up through 1991, the were 90 degree Xflows, 92 - 98 they were 60 degree carb motors. In 99 they took the carbs off and coverted them to Ficht DFI. Somewhere along the way they have been converted to Etecs. The venom has been a 90 degree carb'd looper motor from it's first day on the market until it's last day on the market.

The first rule in soldering is to make a good mechancial connection before soldering. You should always properly crimp the terminals before soldering them.