Way2slow

It's your motor, run what makes you feel good about what you are using. I have at least a nickels worth of experience with motors, and I personally don't buy ethanol free; todays motors are designed to run up to 10% ethanol. 10% ethanol became pretty dominate back in the late 80s to where you had a hard time finding non ethanol. Back then the motor manufacturers didn't have all the bugs work out the ethanol caused with hoses, gaskets etc. From the mid 90's on, they pretty much knew what they were doing, and I've never given it a second thought about pulling up to an ethanol pump. However, like everything else on the internet, one person can have a problem and a million people will make it sound like they had it. A million people can never have a problem and you hear nothing about it. I only have two pet peeves about the gasoline I use. The main one is it has to be a Teir 1 brand, none of that discount junk. I don't even run that stuff in my lawn mower. The second is I only buy from high volume stations, that reduces the chances of getting bad gas. I also try to buy only what I think I'm going to burn with a little extra, that way I don't have to worry about having a lot of gas going bad in the tank if I don't go for a few weeks. I only use SeaFoam in the gas when I know it's going to be sitting more than a month. About every 50 hours I will add 1-1/2 oz per gallon, just to help clean the engine. It the gas you are buying is a good Tier 1, all those extra additives are just money dumped into the lake. Old/bad gas damages a hellavalot more motors than that little ethanol, it just helps make the gas go bad quicker. Today's gasoline goes bad very quickly. In a boat sitting outside in the sun, a month is the max I will leave gas in a tank, and stored inside, two, no more than three months is the max I will let gas sit in a tank and even then I want SeaFoam in it.

Sounds like he like a lot of people with their automobiles, all you have to do is put gas in and drive them. Everything else will magically take care of itself. I was over at a guys house picking us something I had bought from him and his teenage son pulls up in a Honda Fit. Motor was noisy as all h**l. I mentioned it to him, and he said it's been sounding like that for a couple of days but was getting worse. I asked him if he had checked the oil in it, his answer "how do you do that?". His dad didn't even know enough to realize it didn't have any oil in it.

Sounds like money is a serious issue if you are only looking to spend $100 and not $200. This should be the minimum battery for what you want to do and is definitely NOT one of the best. EverStart Maxx Lead Acid Automotive Battery, Group Size 27 12 Volt, 830 CCA - Walmart.com

Should be easy enough to figure out. If you have an ohm meter you can do it just by doing resistance checks. If not you should be able to just use one battery, but see if this helps you any

The pee hole, is nothing but a visual indication the motor is pumping water. I has absolutely nothing to do with the actual cooling of the engine. It is also a dangerous indicator to depend on, that why I say a water pressure gauge is an essential item. OMC recommends a minimum of 16psi water pressure on that motor. 10psi will give you a good stream out of the pee hole and will still fry it. What people fail to realize, just because water is circulating, that does not mean that motor is getting cooled. Just like with a car engine, they run a pressurized system to raise the boiling point of the water and it can run hot when it was full of water with a bad radiator cap. The engine develops hot spots while it's running that will cause the water to boil in that area, if it's not pressurized enough to keep it from boiling. When it starts to boil, the steam in that spot starts pushing the water away and out of the of the system. That spot grows and pretty soon you have not water in the cooling system. Even with an outboard that has a constant source of fresh water, hot spots will develop and not let water circulate through them if there is not enough pressure to keep them from developing. That water turns to steam, and steam does not cool an engine. That's why I say have a water pressure gauge and keep a good water pump. I never looked to see if one was peeing when running a water pressure gauge, could have care less if it was or wasn't. Lots of insects love readymade hole for nest, so if you don't keep something stuck in them when the boat is parked, that get plugged quite often. No pee hole is going to tell you if you have the pressure you need, just that there is water moving through the motor.

No, the heat sensor will not keep it from overheating, it's only going to make the buzzer sound if it's working. I hope you are running a water pressure gauge, that's a very important indicator to have. As far as the pee hole, on that motor, they take a little longer than most. It has to fill the exhaust chest before it starts coming out and that's close to five gallons of water. As mentioned also, you should also replace the water pump/impeller every three, no more than four years. Learn to do it yourself and it's fairly cheap insurance and not that hard to replace. It can be done by yourself, I've done bunches of them by myself, but the lower unit is a little heavy and having a second pair of hands makes it a lot easier.

I seriously doubt it and hope not. Back somewhere around 2008 I was having a hard time finding it so I called them to find a distributor. Since the nearest one was 25 miles and there was not one in the town I lived in, they told me if I bought 10 cases of the 16oz cans they would sell it to me as a distributer. With shipping it still cost me less than $40 a case. With 240 cans of the stuff, I'm still using that I bought back then, and have a huge smile on my face every time I open a can of it now, knowing it cost me less than $1.70 a can. Back then it was only costing me $2.25 a can though.

The first one was about 10 years ago, I cut up into small enough pieces with a chain saw to throw them in a dumpster because I couldn't find a source for disposing of it. This one was about to meet the same fate until I got curious and called the counties land fill. and supposedly they are taking them for $35. Guess where this one is going. As for saving parts, that ain't gonna happen. I'm about to start tossing thousands of dollars' worth of stuff I have accumulated by saving parts. It's all going. A half dozen motors will get sold for scrap metal, everything what's not scrap metal, cowlings and at that stuff will go to the dump. I don't even want to mess with trying to sell it. I'm going to call a friend that still works on them and see if he wants any of it first, then toss all of what he doesn't want. There's a couple thousand dollars worth of just carburetors. After 55 years of being married to the same women, she hits me saying she has found a new younger guy and wants the big D. Can't convince her it one of those Catfishing scams/cons.

I have a 17' Stratos I was going to restore but decided to scrap it. However, the trailer under it might be a little bit over kill for what you are wanting. I was considering just taking the axle out and put under my single axle utility trailer (I made from another boat a scraped) and making it a tandem axle.

I'm not going to say Ethanol gas won't cause problems with some motors, especially older ones from the mid 90's back that had not had the gaskets and hoses changed. Ethanol did cause the early rubber products to dry and crack, and some of them swell and leak, but for the most part, manufacturers made the production changes to correct those long before 10% Ethanol became the norm for fuel. I've had and still have older motors from the late 60's and early 70's I ran on 10% Ethanol based fuels and still have a 1973 9.9 Johnson and a 1982 25hp merc that I still don't hesitate to put it in them. I've run it in 300+HP, modified OMC's and a stock 225 Ficht for years, again, never thought twice about pulling up to the 10% pump. Like I've said before, it's like having oil injection on a motor. If something happens, that's the first and easiest thing for the mechanic to blame it on, even though that's rarely the actual cause of the failure. Most of the pictures you see and stories you hear about ethanol gas, it's not the gas, it's the poor maintenance and long periods of sitting, letting it evaporate out and the water and oil trapped by it caused the problem.

Sounds like me. I bought my first boat when I was 13 (17' aluminum canoe and still have it); my first car when I was 14 (48 Ford for $10), second car (53 Ford for $40) when I was 15 and first real boat (brand new 14' glass boat with 65hp Merc) when I was 16 and a senior in high school. I was allowed to drive at 13 (close to 14) but not into town, just the dirt roads and county roads near the house and to some brick yard ponds a couple of miles away to go fishing. I will say, if you have money you want to spend on your boat, unless it's something to make things easier, don't. Anything you spend on the boat is money thrown away, it's most likely not going to add any value to that old of a boat. The boat itself is only to get you to where the fish are at, it's not going to do one thing to help improve your catching fish. In over 60 years of fishing from a boat, I've never had the boat catch but one fish. I've had one jump in the boat when it got spooked. A good trolling motor can make life a little easier while on the water, and good electronics can help locate the fish better. Good tackle makes fishing more pleasant so if you have money you want to spend, spend it in those areas. The main thing you need to upgrade, money won't buy, and that's the big knot sitting on top of your shoulders. It takes a lot of homework and time on the water to upgrade that.

Age have very little to do with it. How it was rigged, maintained and stored are the critical factors. Back about 2,000 a dealer offered me a great deal on the three-year-old 19' Sprint bass boat with no motor. The owner had upgraded boats and put the motor on the new hull. Knowing a little bit about them, I noticed there was no signs of Silicon sealant that's used to seal the bolts, stuck to the back of the hull and looking in the bolt holes, they were black inside. Soooo, I stuck a 1/2 bolt with large washers on both sides with a nut on it and started tightening them down. On a good wood transom, it should barely pull into the glass surface. On this one, after the inside washer got about a 1/4" deep, and still not real tight, I asked him how much he was going to give me to haul it off for him. The thing about buying older boat is knowing what to look for and how to check them, and know how the boat was stored. If it was one of those you see sitting out, uncovered, after that long, it's probably junk. A good indication of that is what kind of shape the gel coat is in. Then there's the motor. It's critical to do a leak-down test on it and see what kind of oil he ran in it. If it was that cheap stuff, (which wears a motor a lot worse and creates mover carbon build up), that's a good indication he probably didn't spend the money to properly maintain it either. If it's valued at $7,000, and that's what he's asking, it had better be good, well maintained condition. That leaves no room to repair problems you will find once you get it. A new water pump can cost you several hundred dollars, which I always replace on any motor I buy. If it's been sitting, carbs or FI can run several hundreds to rebuild. If you take it to a dealer and have him go through the stuff that should be done every couple of years, you are probably looking at $700 to $1,000 minimum. Now, if you are like me and can fix anything about one yourself, you might not need that buyers cushion in the price. However, that is still no guarantee. I probably know boats and motors as well as anyone on this planet, add because of my confidence in being able to repair any problem, I've still been burned on a couple. Like checking a motor and see low compression on a couple of cylinders, normally less than $1,000 for me. However, pull it down and find the block and crank is bad also, which makes it a junk motor. That's $1,000 repair just turned into a several thousand-dollar repair.

All you have to do is fish in a hurry, and not sit too long. You don't need one as long as the boat is moving forward in the water. Many years ago, I was taking a friend back to where his parents were camped. It was about 60 miles by land and 18 miles by water, so I said we would just go by water. Not going fishing took me out of my normal routine because normally going fishing back then was always with my dad and we each had the things we did before leaving and when we got to the ramp. The boat was already behind my truck so we just jumped in, drove 3 miles to the boat ramp unload, parked, jumped in the boat and hauled butt to their camp site. When we got there, he jumped and I hauled but back to the ramp. Load the boat, and went back to take the drain plug out. That's when I found out it never got put in.

That's where you have one on me. Back in the late 80's and up into the early 2000's, I used to build my own computers and computers for friends. I also did some programming in assembly language and C++ but tried to build a website for a business my wife had back in the late 90's and finally gave up on that idea. Of course, they were nowhere near advanced as they are now.

Not a problem, I don't mind helping when or where I can. I do sometimes get a little self-conscious about it. I guess I'm fortunate to have a very broad knowledge base because I've always been of a very curious nature and constantly doing different things and not satisfied until I have mastered them. That's why I am a master mechanic, have a degree in electronics, was a state certified welder, licensed HAVC person and very good with refrigeration, excellent carpenter, a very good gunsmith and build my own precision rifles, and know how to shoot very well, had a 211 league bowling average. Make a pretty mean pizza in a large wood fired oven I built, and the list can keep going. There's just not many hobbies I haven't had or have. I even make very nice looking and sounding Native American Style Flutes. Because of this and the many different subjects I get into, I feel like sometimes I get thought as one of those "Know-It-Alls" so I've gotten where I try to stay out of a lot of topics because of that. I had a good doctor friend I took bird hunting a lot used to tell people I was the biggest liar on earth when it came to shooting, but somehow, I always backed them up.

That inner most ring that goes into the seal and against the bearing is doing the same thing as that section B you highlighted in red. All those other washers behind that ring and only serving as spacers to get the hub out far enough to prevent the back side of the tire from rubbing the trailer. The one smaller washer behind that ring going into the hub is also a spacer the keeps the back of the hub from rubbing on those larger washers. That ring going into the seal is the sealing surface for the seal, but not being part of the spindle, it's can't fully seal between the spindle and the inside of it. When new, it probably fit snug enough that it worked ok, but once worn some, it's going to spin on the spindle and cause it to even wear more and it's to let grease come out and water go in. One thing, if do put new spindles on, make sure you have that RED should part out far enough that the back side of the tire has clearance from the trailer. Now, typically, a 1,000lb spindle is 1-1/4" diameter, a 1,500lb spindle is 1-3/8" diameter, a 2,000lb spindle is 1-1/2" diameter and a 3,500lb spindle has two different size bearings, with the inner back one being large the outer one. So, if you do decide to try and replace the spindles and since you already have the new hubs and bearings, get spindles that match what you already have on hand. There are typically only a couple different size Bearing Buddies for boat trailer, so the ones on you old hubs stand a good chance at fitting your new hubs. AJ, that's why they make those slip on Bra's for them. You also have to be careful about putting too much grease in them. You might find you get to the lake or back home and you notice you are looking at the greasy nut and junk on the axles rather than the Bearing buddy. Too much grease will push them off. I've lost a few over years and always kept a spare in the boat because of that.

There are bunches of Very Good boats, it's just a matter of what fills the bill in a boat you are looking for. It would a much shorter list to ask what boats you wouldn't/shouldn't buy. Like Bayliner and Sprint to mention a couple, those were among the worst of the bad ones. Totally cheap construction. However, no matter what you list in that department, it will ruffle some feathers. It goes back to that old saying, "you can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but never all of the people all of the time", and that's what those cheap entry level boats were for.

I have one suggestion, if you have access to a welder and know how, replace those spindles. I have been messing with boats and boat trailers for close to 60 years and I've never seen those on a boat trailer. Northern tools sell the spindles also, but this is the type you should have, and notice, there is a shoulder that the seal runs on. This picture is just one I grabbed for reference and not necessarily the proper size for yours. Yours look like it's probably a 1500-lb axle. The 1500-LB is usually a 1-3/8 diameter spindle. https://www.ebay.com/itm/305214747397?campid=5338767525&customid=4581939849542915_710314500_o.952b981426cd117f0aa2fd55fd844c41&mkcid=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&toolid=20006&var=0 As you can see, the spindles are cheap, having to pay someone to put them on is not cheap, unless you know someone. Anyway, what you have, those two large washers will go on first, and then the smaller one and then that ring. That ring is what provided the spacing to keep the bearing and hub off the big washers and the surface the seal runs on. I don't see how that's supposed to keep water out, but going by the looks of it's age, I guess it worked somehow. I just know I wouldn't want it. Also, I seriously doubt you can get a speedy sleeve to work on that, with that spindle not having a shoulder the sleeve is supposed to fit on. You might could press one onto that ring and it stay. Another thing would be it might make the seal fit tight enough to make that ring spin on the spindle, which could cause it to start cutting into it. To clarify, the repair sleeve will only go over the surface the seal is running on. It does not and will not go over any part of spindle the bearings inner race is on. There is not enough clearance for that. The outer part of that sleeve that goes on last and up into the hub is the surface the seal runs on and that's where a repair sleeve would have to go, NOT on the actual spindle. The way that thing is made is probably the reason the bearings inner race was spinning on the axle and wore the grove into it and it looks like that ring was spinning also. There is nothing you can do to repair that grove and the new parts are most likely still going to continue to spin on the spindle. The only repair for that is to replace the spindles. I know you said you bought new hubs, I don't see anything wrong with your old hubs, that would warrant replacing them. All your problems are with the spindle, not the hubs. Get the right spindle and you will throw all those washers and crap in the back of it away.

Wow, someone is actually considering preventive maintenance. I thought most considered servicing one after it broke, and they are trying to figure out how to fix it.

One thing I failed to mention, that is critical in what kind of gas you get. I ONLY buy Tier 1, top tier gasoline. If you don't know, here's most of them. You may notice, you don't see those discount, cheap brands on the list. I also noticed BP is no longer on this list. Found it was taken off in 2021, but they say it's still a top tier gasoline. There are a large number of well-known gasoline brands and licensed retailers that offer Top Tier fuels. Any of the stations listed below should offer only fuel that meets the Top Tier standard, though each brand uses a unique formula. If in doubt look for the Top Tier signage when you fill up, to be sure you are getting high-quality fuel that is better for your car. For a complete list of retailers, you can check out toptiergas.com. 76 Aloha ARCO Beacon Breakaway Cenex Chevron CITGO Conoco Costco Wholesale CountryMark CountryMark Plus Diamond Shamrock Express Mart Exxon Fast Fuel GetGo Holiday Harmons Fuel Stop Hawaii Fueling Network (HFN) Hele Kirkland Signature Gasoline Kwik Star Kwik Tri Marathon Meijer Meijer Express Metro Petro Mobil Ohana Fuels Phillips 66 QT Quik Trip Ranger Ranger Fuel Ranger Mustang Ranger Stallion Ranger Thoroughbred Reeders Road Ranger Rutter's Shamrock Shell Simonson Station Stores Sinclair Sunoco Texaco Tobacco Outlet Plus Grocery Valero Value America WOW Win Win Who Else Adheres to the Top Tier Gasoline Standards? There are two main parties involved in the support of Top Tier fuel: Automakers and fuel retailers. In 2006, General Motors, Toyota, Honda, BMW, Audi, and Volkswagen recognized that evolving engine technology, coupled with a higher level of detergent and other additives within fuel would benefit engine health and emissions.

My 2 cents worth. I never give it a second thought when pulling up to an ethanol based pump. To find places with anything different is few and far between in my neck of the woods. I have a "little bit" of experience with motors and such and I feel a lot of these ethanol horror stories are the same as the oil injection problems you hear about. 95% of them are the scape goat for the mechanic to blame a problem on, when there was some other problem that actually caused/contributed to the failure. Now matter what kind of gas you run today, you have to be prudent about how you use it, it's all junk! Hot roders generally prefer 91/93 octane ethanol gas, because the non ethanol doesn't make the HP (because it won't burn) the ethanol gas makes. The main thing is how you how and how long you store it. Back in the old metal tank it was considered wise to store vehicle/boat with a full tank of gas to prevent condensation from forming in the tank. With the plastic tanks mostly used in boats today, condensation is not as big of a problem, so you are better to store it with no gas in the tank and purge the fuel system if it's going to be for an extended time. PLEASE NOTE: when I say purge the fuel system, on a Two stroke engine, I DO NOT mean disconnect the fuel line and run the motor until it cuts off from being out of gas. That is actually a VERY BAD idea. It purges the protective oil film left inside the motor as well. Also, on multi-cylinder engines you can have some cylinders running with no lubrication and extremely lean as the last few burn the remaining gas. I always bought just a few gallons more than I planned to use, so the next trip, there would only be a small amount of old gas and the new gas would dilute that. If I knew I wasn't going again for several weeks, I would add 1/2 to 1 ounce of Seafoam per gallon. Even then, if the boat sat for more than two months, I would pump that gas out of the tank and use it in the mower or an older vehicle. This has worked fine for me for over 50 years. As for the original post, if that gas was only two months old, I seriously doubt that was the cause of his problem. Not unless he had almost a full tank of very old gas and just topped that off with a couple gallons of fresh gas. It's a fuel delivery problem, not a fuel burning problem. This fuel delivery problem is probably caused by improper storage practices and leaving old gas in the system. Doing that has an accumulative effect that eventually plugs things up. Now, when I say fuel delivery, I'm referring to the cylinders are not getting fast, that's everything from inside of the fuel to the spark plug.

When bass fishing, never. I never even kept an anchor in the boat. I let the trolling motor do that when I did want to hold a spot. Now days, every time I go. If/when I do go fishing it's with the family on the pontoon boat, and they are usually wanting to sit in some cove and fish for catfish.

I use one of these but in the Behlen brand. Agrimaster Galvanized Stock Tank, Approx. 103 Gallon - 50130028 | Blain's Farm & Fleet (farmandfleet.com) Mine just the right height I can usually slide it just under motor. Tractors Supply usually has them it's one of those things you have to shop around for to get the best price, because you will see huge swings in the price's, depending on where it's at.

You have two types of flotation foam, Open Cell and Closed Cell. Open Cell is lighter and has a higher flotation factor, BUT! is can also get waterlogged (fully saturated like a sponge) if constantly exposed to water and once it does, it's extremely difficult the "Un-waterlog it". I've had one 18' Stratos I took 285 pounds of saturated foam out of. Closed cell foam will only get about 10% wet, basically just the outer sides and it can dry if given time and not fully sealed where it can get air. Both of these are a two part solution and requires some know how to use. The biggest danger is they can expand at about a 10:1 ratio. They are going to expand, so if you put them in an area too small to allow for their expansion, that area is probably going to be made larger than the builders had intended on it being. I saw a boat a guy had pulled the floor out to get the wet foam out and after installing his new floor, he added too much floatation foam, and it raised his new floor about three inches. Very expensive lesson learned. I should mention, that Great Stuff spray foam you get in the cans, don't work that well and they will also break stuff if you put too much.

I guess I should have said, "if you don't know exactly how they work. They are more than the piece with a big hole in the middle that pulls gas up out of the bowl. Granted, a lot of the times it's just the crud that's left in the bottom of the bowl from the gas evaporating clogging up the main jet and if you are lucky, you clean it, put it back together and it works. However, they are much more complicated than that, so if you don't know how and what each one of those tiny little holes do and what to look for when rebuilding one, it usually won't work right, if at all. A bad rebuild or a dirty carb that needs a rebuild can actually cause a lean condition that melts a piston. Then you have those like the one on this Mercury where the fuel pump and carburetor all one unit. A lot of people don't really understand how a two stroke motor even works, much less how the fuel pump works and all the things involved with actually rebuilding it and making sure everything is doing what it's supposed to. For example, how many know that the piston does not pull gas into the cylinder. As the piston is coming down from the compression stroke, it's compressing/pressuring the crankcase. As it gets down far enough to clear the intake ports in the side of the cylinder, the pressurized fuel charge is blown into the cylinder at fairly high velocity and just the right angles. It's also the pressurized crankcase that supplies a pressure pulse to the fuel pump to compress the diaphragm to pump the fuel and check valves in there keep gas going in one direction.