Way2slow

well, since I rarely use it, I rarely clean it. it has probably been five years since there has been any water in mine.

You will probably find several places that look like little leaks. Manufactures put small holes in cavities that might hold water so they will drain when you shut it off. Most of these are inside the exhaust so you don't see them, but sometimes they will have a couple outside the motor. If they didn't do this, those pockets could freeze during the winter and crack the housings.

First off, I'm not much on Mercs so can't give you a lot of info, but make sure you are using the water pressure line and not the speed ohmmeter line. If the line is exposed and coming up from somewhere in the lower unit, that's the speed ohmmeter and will only have pressure when running down the lake. The water pressure line is usually going to be in the main harness with all the wiring and fuel line Disconnect the line from the gauge, start the motor, give it a several seconds to fill the block and see if you have water coming out of the line then. Normally what happens to the water pressure, if you live where it gets cold, the water freezes in the gauge does bad things.

I'm not that patient, I use a Carter rotary vein pump that does 85gph @ 7psi. Mine stays mounted in the boat because it's also the pump I run when I put one of my hotrod motors on. Since I'm not doing as much fishing as I used to, and don't like leaving gas in my tank for more than a couple of weeks, I usually pump mine dry when I'm getting ready to cover the boat.

Aluminum and performance are not two words that go together when talking props. To be able to really tell what any prop is going to do you MUST have a good base line speed and RPM from a known good prop first, basically a brand new prop. Once a prop has been run for a while, and especially if they were prop that came with a used boat, or bought used, you don't have a clue as the what damage they may have. I've seen bunches of props that looked great or even like new that were trash and needed work because of edges being rolled or other damage the eye can't see. As for sending an aluminum prop in just to have special work done, for me, that will never happen. If I did happen to have one and it need to go in for repair I might have the pitch tuned a little or a little more cup if I felt it needed it. Shoot, don't know why I'm even saying that, if it's an aluminum prop, I throw it in the trash or give it away, don't care if it's good or bad. I guess they do make OK spare props because they are lighter, if you are concerned about weight, but I even use SS props for spares. If you are serious about wanting to buy a new prop, a lot of dealers will let you try before you buy. In other words, you want a new Raker prop, but not sure of the pitch, they will let you try one that should work, but if it's too much or too little, you can swap it for a different pitch that works better. Not many are going to let you just start tying props and then walk out the door and just say thank you, so you can order it cheaper on the internet. If you are wanting peak performance from a prop, there are not many out of the box props going to give you that on any boat. You get one that performs good and then send them to a good tuner with the data he needs to make it do what the boat needs. Some boats need aft lift, some need bow lift, some need both, and some, like a Tracker tin can, would be kinda dump to waste the money.

Mine have been somewhere in a storage shed for several years and will stay there as long as I own the boat.

I looked and can't find it, but I used the have a point of contact and the name of the company that made the seats for Stratos. I replaced the pedestal seats in my boat with some for a 201 I bought for almost nothing from them when they were getting rid of some seconds with minor flaws. They also gave me five yards of matching vinyl and enough of that trim to cover my boat seats so they would match. Thought if I could find it, you might be able to get some of that trim from them, but so far, no such luck.

That piece of trim is stapled on, not glued and is there to hide the staples holding the seat covers one. That piece is made by doing a double fold inward on a strip of vinyl so the ends touch in the middle. They spread it open with the nose of the staple gun and staple it on. When you take the staple gun out, the ends come back together hiding everything. That piece has either split or the staples have pulled through. If the staples just pulled through, you may have good spots in it you can shoot another staple into, if it has split, another piece of trim would need to be made, and finding vinyl like it might be kinda tough. I have serious doubts about much of any kind of glue will hold it. One thing you might be able to do is find you some plastic banding strap. Trim in down so it will just go inside the grove that piece of trim has for the staples. Then staple through the banding and that will provide a reinforcement for the damaged trim piece. Just make sure you get it so the ends fold back together to hide everything.

As mentioned, the lanyard is not on the remote key switch. If you have the full control head and using it, it would be located in it, but when using a remote switch, the kill switch is also remoted. My key switch is on the left, my kill switch is on the right side of the steering wheel. When I first get in the boat, I hook the lanyard to my life vest. My life vest always stays in the drivers seat, either laying in it while I'm fishing, or on me while I'm running and the lanyard stays connected to it the whole time. I don't fish with my vest on (unless it's cold as h*** and I want that extra insulation), I wear an auto inflating vest I put on before I launch the boat and don't take back off until the boats back on the trailer. I do this because I've seen more than one person end up in the lake just trying to get in or out of the boat. Trip up stepping off the dock into the boat, and you could wind up on America's Funniest Home Videos, hopefully with your vest keeping you afloat.

Depends on the year model and size. If they are both carbureted two stroke engines, they are basically identical. In about 1997/8 Evinrude started changing over to the ficht DFI motors, starting with the four cylinder motors first. Even then, a lot of the parts were the same and you could actually convert the ficht DFI to carbureted with the heads and intake system, ecm and a few other parts from a carbureted motor. Now when Johnson introduced the four stroke, they did not even build that motor so nothing about it is similar to the Evinrude, other than it's an outboard. Also, depending on the HP, it could be a 60 degree V or a 90 degree V. The 60 degree motors are a lot thinner looking as the back than the 90 degree motors. A 150 before 1992 would be a 90 degree Cross flow, very good motor but not very good on gas or great on power. In 92 they went to the 60 degree looper, a little better on gas and power.

If you do stick with the tubes, get the rod gloves anyway or you will hang the tips up in the bow. Been there, done that too many times. After breaking a G-Loomis and a ST Croix in the same week from tips getting hung together, the tubes came out and will never go back in, unless the next owner wants to put them in. I decided if I was going to have to use rod gloves anyway, why bother with the tubes. Mines a dual console and with the console and windshield in the way sliding them out of the tubes, it's actually easier getting them out after taking the tubes out.

Actually, unless it was one hellava deal, he probably did you a favor.

Do yourself a favor. Throw all that tube crap in the trash and get you enough of these to do what you want. http://www.ebay.com/itm/HOTSALE-NEW-DIY-Stick-Skin-Casting-Fishing-Rod-Sleeve-Cover-Pole-Glove-Protector/111782078574?_trksid=p2045573.c100505.m3226&_trkparms=aid%3D555014%26algo%3DPL.DEFAULT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20150817211623%26meid%3Dd66270d3b78945a8bbd4e4fbec211c3a%26pid%3D100505%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26 The sleeves will not go all the way to the bow and you will still have tips to get tangled up in the bow and will break one, always on your best rod when you do. Taking those things out was one of the best things I've done to my boat, other than repair the motor so it would run when I bought it. My boat has rod lockers on both sides but I only use one for rods so I need it to hold more than a handful of rods. I can easily put a dozen in the one side and not have any problems getting them in and out using just the rod gloves.

That's the preferred, but I don't think Arrow makes a hand stapler that will shoot something like that. They use the T-50 which is a big wide staple and looks ugly as crap if it's where they will be seen. I know they make electric staplers that will shoot them, I have one of those also, but I've never had a need to see if anyone makes a manual stapler that will shoot them. When you start pricing electric and staples, if you find a shop that has stainless, it might be cheaper to have it done.

If you have an air compressor, Harbor freight sell a cheap upholstery style staple, that I think will hold Senco staples. I use a Senco gun for one, I used to get them free and two they are one of the few I've found that has stainless staples but a Senco gun is a little expensive. I think Campbell Hausfeld makes a gun and a couple others. Here's an ebay listing for the stapes and they say find a gun that uses 80 series staples. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stainless-Steel-Staples-80-Series-1-2-Crown-3-8-Leg-5-000-NEW-Upholstery-/251288700553?hash=item3a81f94689:g:a5wAAMXQCgpRz5H9 By the way, I don't try to be a no it all, I am just a person of many talents, actually a huge number of talents. While sitting here putting my R/C heli back together, I'm beginning to think flying these things is not one of my better ones.

Actually, the tach reads off the rectifier and the numbers on the back of the tach relate to the number of poles on the alternator (stator) on the charging system, and is set to half the number of poles. Your motor should have a 12 pole stator so the number on the tach is set on 6. Bad and no readings on the tach can be caused by a bad rectifier/regulator since that's what provides the tach signal. If the motor seems to be charging fine, checking the output voltage of the rec/reg, then I would suspect the tach. I'm not sure what the rev limiter in that motor is set for, but if it was really hitting 6,300 rpm, it would probably be bumping it. That motor has a max rpm rating of 5,500 and it performs best if it's propped to turn 5,500 and would not hurt it to turn another 100 or so more but not 800 more. I have my suspicions that tach is reading wrong, or you have a bad prop on the motor.

Mine's a 99, Renegade 20 DC and bought it at auction eight or nine years ago for about $4,500 and have really like it. Now, a lot of the motor was in the storage boxes when I bought it. As for rough water, about the roughest thing I've had it in was maybe two foot waves with white caps and it was fine then, and for a big boat, it's pretty dang quick, and it's just down right fast to scary fast when I put one of my modified 325hp motors on it. I do that from time to time just to embarrass a few Tritons but mainly run the 225.

I have a 20' javelin with a 225 ficht, it turns a 26" Raker 5,800 rpm at a touch over 70. I've seen a couple people trying to turn 26's on 201's with 200's and they still turned 4,800-5,000. That would have to be one seriously water logged boat for a 26 to kill it that much, no matter the size. Not being there and my crystal ball not working, I can only speculate, but I doubt it's the prop.

Understand, if it has been idled or just run on a hose, plugs are all going to black and won't show you anything. When doing compression check, it needs to be warm and make sure to have the butterflies in carbs open. If you get the feeling it's something simple and cheap, I hope you have an extra $500 you are willing to spend after the deal, and that's if you can trouble shoot it yourself. It can easily cost you that.

I'm not certain the sun will rise tomorrow, but I do have a hellavalot of knowledge and experience with that motor. Even on a 20' boat, a 26" prop is not going to cause no where near that much loss. A plug dump will help. Run it at WOT for few minutes and while holding WOT shut it off. Do no restart it or let it idle. Pull the plugs and they should be off white to paper bag brown. None should be black.

if built properly, good engine. Just remember GT stands for gas thirsty. As mentioned, rpm sounds like you are only running on five cylinders. Compression should be within 5% on all six. If it has the stock heads, that year ran open chamber heads and they were all the same size. Factory spec was as low as 80psi. The key is being within 5% A whole host of problems can cause one cylinder to be out. Some require knowledge, others require money to diagnose. Just a little gee wiz, that's actually most likely a 225. Most GT 200's were 225's. Kinda like a 200HO. If the venture in the carbs is 1.45", it's a 225, 200 carbs are 1.35 something. compression ain't gonna show what causes most problems. Timer base and power packs are very common failures. Magnets coming loose in flywheel is also common. Trust me, be prepared to spend several hundred dollars.

go down about 4 rows until you see the unbelievable turn in bass boat. That's if you know what you are doing. Then watch the one right after it, that's if you are an idiot. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bat+turn+in+bass+boat&&view=detail&mid=C93D7B36A3565E3E4DF5C93D7B36A3565E3E4DF5&FORM=VRDGAR

One more explanation To load a grease gun. Loosen the head part with the pump from the tube that holds the grease cartridge a couple of turns so it can get a little air. You do this so the plunger does not pull the grease out of the pump and loose it's prime. Pull the plunger all the way out and you will see a notch in the rod. The hole in the back of the gun the rod goes through is elongated so that notch in the rod will slide over into the enlongated slot. That locks the rod and plunger back so it's easy to get back in with a fresh cartridge in it. Take the plastic cap off the tube of grease and slide that end down into the metal tube of the grease gun. Once it's fully inserted, pull the cap with pull ring off the other end of the tube of grease and partially screw the tube back into the head of the grease gun, leaving it a couple turns short of being tight, so air escape. Unlock the rod from the slot and let it go forward. Now, you will notice the rod has two positions if you turn it a little while all the way back and pushing it into the tube. One way lets the rod slide freely all the way in, but if you turn it a 1/2 turn or so it won't slide in, or if it won't slide in, turn it a little and it will slide in. That's so, if needed you can put pressure on the grease in the gun to get the air out so it will pump. That's also why you leave the tube backed off a couple of turns. Now pump the handle a few pumps and get grease to coming out. Once you are able to pump grease, finish snugging up the tube in the grease gun and you have the rod pushed all the way in out of the way. The rod goes all the way in but the piston stays back and the spring pushes it forward as you use the grease.

Since the holes are going to be covered by the motor, you don't have to worry about having some chipping around the edge of the holes. Putting masking tape over the spot you want to drill helps minimize the chipping and a good, sharp bit does also. Usually, 1/2 and smaller holes don't tend to chip bad anyway. If you are drilling from the back side into the finished side is where you get you usually get your worse chipping.