Way2slow

$65 and hour, that's very cheap in my neck of the woods, it's closer to $100. However you can't totally blame the dealership. Lets face it, there business is rather seasonal. Their over head is massive and the pool of skilled labor is very limited. The main thing is, if you can find one that is somewhat honest, you can consider yourself very lucky. Lets face it, unless you have my skills, you are at the mercy of someone else when it comes to having anything repaired, so honesty is the only thing you can hope for.

Normally, the regulators run between $50 and $150 for aftermarket ones for most common vehicles. Most are still a pain in the butt to replace when they are stuck in a position not contusive to removing it. However, when you get into the German made and some other foreign built models, they get very, very proud of their parts. They have very ridiculous prices on everything about that beetle. The whole interior is made of that cheap grade plastic and is very brittle. But they price it likes it's made of gold. Over $600 for a glove box door, and over $1,000 for a cheap, plastic door panel. Needless to say, I keep patching and doing work arounds. If you want to make you best friend, your worst enemy, give him one of the new style VW Beetle convertibles.

A college degree is just a piece of paper to help open doors in a career field you might want to go into. Now, if you want to go into a legal, medical or some other professional field that requires, it's hard to get around not having one. Yea, there's self study but very few have the fortitude to try that. However, if you have the credentials and a proven history to back up what you know you can bypass the college degree in a lot of cases. Even the degree doesn't prove you know your stuff. There are a lot of doctors, lawyers and other professionals that just use that degree for proof of knowledge and don't really know crap. Plus, not everyone wants to work with their hands. Sitting behind a desk with a computer in front of them is about the extent of what they want to do. Before I joined the Air Force, I was a maintenance superintendent at a huge particle board plant. This position normally required a college degree and an engineering background. I didn't have one, but I had proven my knowledge and skills there. I helped build the plant and was hired on as lead millwright when they started production, and proved time and again I was much more knowledgeable than their lead electrician. Since I couldn't be lead millwright and lead electrician, they gave me a pay cut and made me Maintenance superintend. (I went from $6.50 an hour, plus overtime, (in 1974) and 90+ hours a week to a straight salary. Now, I did have two years of basic studies at a junior college but couldn't afford to continue in one of the major universities. All that did was give me enough credits to make getting my electronics degree while in the AF a lot faster and easier. Even while in the Air Force, I was placed in charge of several special programs that normally had officers in charge of and I was an enlistee. The biggest problem today is kids are treated like kids until they graduated from high school. They have absolutely know skills other than video games, and then are expected to go to work. Not many places looking for video game players. I went to work in a paying job when I was 13, that's almost impossible today. I had a very well established skillset and four years of work history when I graduated high school

Wife's 2004 VW Beetle Convertible right rear windows regulator broke a couple of weeks ago and was stuck half way between open and closed. Knowing it was probably going to be one mean mother to get out, I've put it off until yesterday. Being stuck in the middle, it didn't let me down, it was on one major SOB to get out. Window is supposed to be all the way up to remove and install so you have room or access to fasters holding it together. Finally got it out, without breaking the window, and fixed it so it would close and stay closed. When it first broke, I priced a new regulator, over $500 for the cheapest one I could find and they went up from there, so I was just going to take out the cable system and fix the window so it would just stay closed all the time. I only paid $200 for the car, no way was I going to pay that for a regulator. Today I was looking at the cable and motor, the plastic spool attached to the motor to wind it up and down broke, so I was in the process of doing something to repair that one. Then I decided to see if any parts besides the whole regulator were available. Found the cable assembly with the spool was available. The first few I found were oem at $250 plus. Kept searching in different ways and found some after market in the $100 price range. After more searches using different methods, I found and ordered one for $18 with free shipping. pretty big savings from the original $500 plus dollars it started off being. Don't know what the quality is going to be when it gets here, but for that, I'll take a chance. At least this time, it won't be the mother to get out it was the first time. Nice part about being a convertible and working in the small back seat area. I can lay the top back and have all kinds of room.

Computer self diagnostic is great, when it's the part the compter is monitoring is what the problem is. However, computer self diagnostics is not 100%. That's when you wind up getting billed for several different parts, because the technician doesn't know how to trouble shoot the problem. He replaces what computer says, but that didn't fix it, so he replaces another part, and maybe even another until he finally finds the one that was really the problem. However, to justify this, you get told that first part was bad, but the last part was what caused all those other parts to fail, even though there was nothing wrong with them and had they known how to actually troubleshoot, they would not have arbitrarily just slapped the part in. The way the newer automobiles are a prime example of this. They can have seven or eight computers talking to one central computer, and very few technicians actually know how to troubleshoot the whole system. They just start slapping parts in until they find the real problem. Two years ago, I bought a Mercedes for $500. The guy had taken the car to the dealership and two independent mechanics. He had spent $2,300 and none of them could get the car started. Each telling him it's was going some stupid amount to fix it. The dealer quoted him $6000, the two other were around $4,000, so I gave him $100 more than a junk yard offered him. I never told him it cost me $65 for fix it and I sold it for $6,000.

Other than Lithium, the weight is going to depend on how much you plan to use it and how long. Weight depends on run time, the more runtime you want, the more lead the battery will have. The more lead, the more weight. If you only plan to go for a few hours and don't plan to do much max thrust running, a lower capacity group 24 will work just fine. Running on max thrust with a 12V TM, is extremely inefficient and will use up a battery quickly. The lighter the battery you want, the more efficient the TM you should have. That means using a digital and not one of those with the five or so set speeds. Huge difference in run time when you are just easing along and not trying to run max thrust. I would think some of the plastic boat guys with experience with them would have some suggestions since it really does not take a lot the move on of those things around.

From his second post, it makes it sound like he might be starting it dry. I couldn't count the times I've seen people dry start their motors at the ramp, just before launching. The bulk of these people are older people with older boats and tiller motors, but every now and then, you see one pull up with a newer boat/motor and fire it up before launching. Crappie fishermen seem to be the worst about it.

Sounds to me like you have missed some bolts and are trying to destroy the thing driving a screw drive into it. I have never seen a lower unit only being held on by two screws/bolts. Now, I will also say, if by chance to do get a the fasteners out, it's not uncommon for the drive shaft to be rusted into the crankshaft if it didn't get a good glob of grease put on it by the last person the took it off. I will also suggest, you may not have a problem with the water pump if you are just basing it on the fact there is no water coming out the pee hole. If it not running hot, might want to make sure the hole isn't clogged.

The location you fish can affect that. If it is only getting a couple of satellites or weak signals, it does not have enough reference points to hold on a locked position Might check your GPS see what kind of satellite signals it's getting. How many and how strong. More satellites, the tighter the holding pattern. That's why sometimes the can be accurate to within a few feet and other times maybe 30 feet. The greater the error, the greater the movement.

If you are dry starting it, why not go ahead a pay to have the cranking problem fixed while they are replacing the water pump. The friction from Just of few seconds on a dry motor can melt an impeller. If it has a plastic housing, you will be replacing the whole kit, not just the impeller. Running a dry motor, very dump idea. To answer your question, I never do. I've been dumping boats in the water since the early 60's and I've never had one that did not start. I guess that's because I keep a good battery and maintain my motor.

My first thought is carburetors. It's not possible to diagnose very many fuel or ignition related problems with the motor out of the water or without a load on it. For the fist part of the throttle movement, you are only advancing the timing and the motor will turn way too many rpms before it ever gets into actual throttle opening. The second problem, there is no back pressure on the exhaust, making the motor idle a lot higher on the hose than in the lake. So, what it boils down to, forget trying to analyze most anything other than a totally dead cylinder on the hose. I will also say, mercury carbs are not real easy to adjust, and I don't have enough experience with them to help you with adjusting or cleaning them. There are a couple other problems I would check if it was and OMC, but understand, I'm not as experienced with the merc's as the OMC, and not sure how to tell where and what to look for.

Oh, I'm not even going to get into that long dark tunnel of maintenance technicians, mechanics, specialist, or what ever the fancy title they have pinned on them to make it sound like they are experts in their field. Some are, but from what I've seen over my lifetime of doing things, a whole lot are not. I had a very broad work history from general maintenance, hydraulics and pneumatics, certified welder, lead electrician, lead millwright, maintenance superintendent, HVAC, degree in electronics, industrial equipment service tech, insure sales and financial adviser, just to name some. Then throw in all my hobbies, from boats, cars, Radio Control planes a helicopters, baking (yep,baking), making Native American Style flutes, electronics, machinist, shooting, gunsmith and a number of others, there just ain't a whole lot I don't know how to do. I recon I should also mention 22 years of military in the Air Force, but I was 28 when I jointed that. I guess it was in my genes, both of my grandfather's were highly thought of maintenance superintendents, one in the cotton mills, one in a manufacturing plant. My biological father was an excellent mechanic also, with a deck of cards of pair of dice. He could cheat you everyway under the sun. Professional gambler was all he ever did. About the only thing he ever taught me was how to gamble, and then why not to, because of how easy it was to get cheated and never know it. The person I refer to as my dad was actually my stepfather, but was more of a father to me and anyone would ever hope to have. I have always had a thing about how something worked. When I was a kid, wind up clocks didn't stand a chance, I couldn't resist taking one apart to see how it worked. By the time I was 10, I was finally able to take them apart and put them back together again. At 11, I had a lawn mower repair business going. I would collect all the mowers people put on the street for the trash truck or people had around and didn't want them. I would repair them and sell them for a few bucks. Then people started bringing them to me to repair or asking me to repair theirs. If I saw the hood up on a car or one on jack stands, you could bet I was going to find a way to be under it. By the time I was 17, I was already a very competitive drag racer and go cart racer. At 19 I was into circle track racing and boat racing. Back then, I was able to go to work at a service station and got my social security card when I was 13. Even though I worked a steady job form the time I was 13 and was driving my own car then (just wasn't allow to drive in the city), my main source of income from the time I was 15 to 19 was hauling moonshine. I was doing 80 to 120 gallons a week at a $1 per gallon. That was BIG bucks back then. WOW, I guess I got a little long winded.

The funny thing retiring. When I first retired, I picked all kinds of new hobbies looking for something to do with all that free time on my hands. Nine years later, I don't have enough time to do half the stuff I want to do.

On that 70hp, check the compression. If it has reasonable compression, compression, I can probably walk you though the steps needed to check out why it won't start. As for looking at the pistons, that won't accomplish much. Like this motor I'm doing, I'm only boring one cylinder and replacing one piston and installing new rings on the other two. The person that did yours may have just installed new rings and not put new pistons in it. This is where you get into all the different gray areas of two stroke motors. When someone says they freshened it up, that means they probably just installed a new set of rings. When they say the rebuilt it, that can be a whole host of things, from just rings, to one or a couple new pistons, to being bored and all new pistons, but reused all the old bearings, or some of them or could have even replaced all the bearings. A remanufactured engine is 'supposed" to be bored and have all new piston, bearings, basically all moving parts except the crank and rods, and those are inspected to ensure they still meet factory spec's. If all the sleeves mic out to be good with only one or two thousands honing, and piston mic out good, then it's a very common practice just to slap a new set of rings on them. If bearings look good, and have no pitting or blue tint, they will thousands and thousands of hours, so just to do a freshen up, it's very common to reuse them. However though, you have to know what you are looking at and looking for to determine their condition. I will say, it would scare me to know someone not knowing what they were doing built a OMC motor, Johnson and Evinrude. The big end on the rods are broken in half to make the bearing cap. There is a special, very expensive tool used to align them when installing them. This can be done without the tool, if you know how. If not, the bearing can destroy the rod and crank.

Trying to help my neighbors daughter, I rebuilding the 90hp Merc she blew (destroyed number two cylinder) on her pontoon. Was at a fairly large dealership picking up a part and the parts man that has known me for years commented about it has been a long time, and I was explaining to him why. A mechanic that near by and started offering me suggestions on things I should check. I very quickly realized, he didn't even know how to two stroke motor works when he started his explanation. Started off saying on the intake stroke it may not have been pulling enough fuel into the cylinder. Rather than get into a useless discussion, I let him finish his spill and went on my way and feeling glad he didn't have to work on anything of mine. A quick 101 on how a two stroke actually works. They don't have valves like a four stroke, they have holes (ports) in the sides of the cylinder the let the fuel/air mixture into and the exhaust gas out of the cylinder. Reed valve engines have flapper type reeds that open and close depending on which side has the lower pressure. Rotary valve engines have a disk with holes the crank is turning to open and close. We will start the top of the stroke and the fuel/air mixture is in the cylinder, the spark plug fires and drive the piston down until the exhaust port hole opens and the gasses start exiting the cylinder. During this time, the reed or rotary valves are closed and the piston coming down is pressuring the crank case that's full of fuel/air mixture is being pressurized. A few degrees rotation past the exhaust port, the intake ports start to open. The pressurize charge is being forced into the cylinder hat high velocity, where it continues to push the exhaust gasses out. As the piston start to come back up, it covers the holes of the intake ports and starts puling fuel/air mixture into the crankcase (technically atmospheric pressure is pushing it in) and just at the perfect moment on the way back up, the piston covers the exhaust port before the gas/air mixture charge can escape out it. (there are pressure waves and other stuff involved at that point but this is just the basic). As the piston continues toward the top, it's pulling more charge into the crankcase through the intake system. When it gets to the top, the plug fires and the process starts all over again. This the name TWO STROKE, the piston on the down stroke is doing the exhaust and intake in that one stroke, the piston goes up, compresses the fuel/air, has combustion and starts all over. Four Stroke, on the compression stroke it fires, The piston goes down and comes back up to push the exhaust out. Then goes down to pull a new charge in, then goes back up to compress and fire on that, so l have two down strokes and two up strokes for completer combustion.

Don't use the gray plastic looking stuff, pure junk and gets hard and brittle. Try to find you a name brand that's still made in the USA. I'm yet to see any of that cheap imported crap worth installing. Gates used to be my go to brand, but dang if I didn't get some that was supposed to be Gates that was imported. So, look closely, if not USA, don't bother with using it, I have not seen an imported one that does not get hard and brittle within a couple of years.

There are probably a couple of issues going on. First, it sounds like your float levels might be set a little too high. Second, it sounds like you might be running a portable six gallon tank and towing it with the vent closed. When towing it, the gas getting bounced around in the sun, it's building pressure in the tank and causing the needles in the carbs to push off the seats and some of the gas is getting into the engine. Quick check/fix is to leave the gas hose off the engine until you get to the lake and open the vent before you connect it to the engine. Another thing you might be doing is over pumping the primer bulb and pushing the needles off the seat, causing it to flood the engine. Try pumping it until you just start to feel a little pressure, don't squeeze it until it's hard. A weak spark or bad plugs can also cause plugs to wet foul extremely easily. Make sure you have the recommended "Champion" Plugs in it. Could be the wrong heat range. Some of those earlier 40's had carburetors that were not that easy to adjust, it's very easy to get the low speed too rich on them and that will cause it to wet foul.

After reading my post again and your skepticism with all that junk on iBoat, I figured probably your best bet is to go with a pump designed for your motor.

Don't screw around with those cheap vibrating pumps, they generally won't work. You motor can burn as much a 20 gallons per hour (GPH) at WOT. A lot of those little cheap pumps only deliver 5 to 10 GPH. This pump is the one you need. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/crt-p60898. This pump has the 3/8 fittings and the perfect pressure for your system. Connect it using a relay from the key switch through a 10 amp toggle switch on the console. That way, when you turn the key switch on, the pump powers up, but just incase you need the key switch on, but don't need the fuel pump on, the toggle switch lets you turn it off. DO NOT install it to the key switch without a relay, the switch is not designed for that much of a load and can burn your key switch up. Starting is like a DFI, just turn the switch on, press the key in to prime it a couple seconds and it fires right up. Mount the pump at the same level as about the middle of the fuel tank. You can leave the factory pump and just bypass it. I generally take if off, but if you do that, don't forget to remove the pulse valve and plug the hole it's treaded into. The pulse valve is that brass looking fitting in the block that a line from the factory pump goes to.

Don’t keep one in the boat I guess I should clarify, I only bass fish so they don't have the potential to poke holes and remove large amounts of skin if you try lipping them like some species do.

I deleted my post since it's not needed. I see he posted the same question on iBoats and figures they have better info over there, so it looks like wasted time trying to help here so I figures no need taking up web space with help someone doesn't want.

I'm glad this was not what it seemed like to start with. When I sold my Stratos years ago, the guy buying it commented he had never seen a boat with turn signals on it. Puzzled, I asked what he was talking about. He was looking at the tilt/trim control lever on the side of the steering wheel and thought that was a turn signal lever. As for the direction indicator on your TM, about all you can do is make sure it's not binding on the hole going through the cover. Never had one to break off but I've had them strip out for what seemed to be no reason at all.

The main problem you run into using the Sonar at the bow with the Xducer on the transom is the distance between them. In shallow water, when moving forward, you are not seeing what's under you are seeing what you just went over. In deeper water and trying to fish structure, again, everything you see is behind you, not directly below you where you want to work you lure. Basically, it gives you a depth finder and sonar that lets you see what you just missed.

A lot of the larger dealers keep usually have a pretty good assortment of used props. Might want to check around for something like that. If you have a prop repair shop close by, the will sometimes have reconditioned props for sale Weight wise, aluminum props are good spares. Since about all I run is SS props, that's what my spare is also, got bunches of those so can't see buying an aluminum just for a spare.

There are so many of the Johnson's and Evinrude's still running and being used, someone is going to be making parts for them a long time. As long as there is a market for a dollar to be made, somebody's going to make it. I think it will be a long time before anyone has to be concerned about lack of support. Look at the motors made in the sixties and seventies that are still supported with parts by aftermarket manufactures. Now, as mentioned, the newer, high technology motors might suffer from lack of support for new high dollar replacements parts than the older stuff. Things like ECU's can get expensive and can become not economically feasible for some after company to continue to make, but a huge number of parts are so common between different models parts shouldn't be a problem for numbers of years. They haven't made an American Johnson since the early 2000's and I've not known anyone having a parts problem to support for those.