I have two motors I haven't used for a while, but I had prepared both for long term storage.  A 1996 4hp Mercury and a 1978 9.9hp Johnson.  The Merc has not run in nine years, the Johnson in six years.  Both are used on my 1436 jon and the Mercury is also used on my 17' canoe (which I haven't used in many years).  I've only used the jon in big lakes for six years, so I've been running the 25hp Mercury on it, when I did.

I plan to use the 9.9 in a few weeks, so I put it on the jon to check it out in the tank.  Third pull and it started right up.  Water pump was a little slow but I knew it would need an impeller so that was already on order.  It ran great for a couple of minutes, and then not so great.  Diagnosed that to a bad power pack keeping #1 cylinder from firing.  Pulled power pack off a 28hp Johnson and it ran great again and when the impeller gets here, it will be ready to go fishing.  I thought I would save myself about $100 and repair the power pack myself.  The transistors have inhouse part numbers I can't cross reference.  One tested bad, so that didn't pan out.

Put the 4hp on the back of the jon to hold it in the tank.  Four pulls and it fired up and ran great.  Ran it for about 10 minutes in the tank and prepped it to go back in the garage.  I will replace the water pump on it, if and when I ever plan to use it again, but not putting one on it now, just to sit and the garage and go bad again.

 

You ended your post too soon there, Doc. You showed us the end results but forgot to give us the recipe so we could duplicate your results, minus the bad power pack, of course.