| The price sounds cheap enough. A good 25HP Mercury OB would go
that much. Why is the person selling it at that price?
I would suggest that you have someone who has owned a boat look
it over with you. If it requires work or the engine has some problems,
the $800 will only be a drop in the bucket on what you may have
to spend to make it seaworthy. If it is wood construction and has
been laying around for a while, I would be very careful. Ask the
seller what problems he/she has had with it.
You can also take the motor to a local outboard shop and have them
check it out for you. They can run it in a tank and determine if
it has any problems.
Watch out for corroded spots on the trailer. Why were tires replace?
Trailer tires hardly ever wear out. If the tongue and tires were
replaced, it could spell trouble throughout the rest of the trailer.
Was it ever used in salt water (unlikely in your area but the boat,
motor, and trailer could have been brought in from a salt water
area).
Also review note 486 (I believe) for some information on used boats.
Good luck, you may have a rare find (or someone else's headache).
Frank
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If it goes 45 then it has to be running on all cylinders, so a timing
check will tell you nothing. A compression check *may* show up a
'failing' cylinder, but can also be inconclusive. A compression check
is easy, just make sure you know the RIGHT way to do it.
Kenny
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| Forgot to mention, be there when they check it out, without the current
owner around prferably, make sure YOUR paying for a mechanic of YOUR
choice to get the info YOU need. Watch them check it out. It's a good
chance to familiarize yourself with the motor, ask the mechanic all the
questions you want. Let him tell you whats what, maintenance suggestions,
etc.. If your paying him by the hour, it's your dime. Get as much as
data as you can, then, if appropriate, to use this data while negotiating
your purchase price.
-donmac
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| I have an OMC electric shift outdrive with a v-8 and also have a set of
service manuals that cover all thos emodels.
The mechanism is an earlt attempt at power trim. TH old electric shift
I/O's could tolerate NO misalignment of the drive gears. The outdrive
is rigidly connected to the engine and a rubber bellows type seal keeps
all taht nast water from pouring in through the transom.
The outdive bolts directly to the mbell hHousing and there is no dive
shaft or "u" joints as in the mercruisers and Cobra outdrives.
Power Tilt is accompliushed by a small electric motor an external gear
mechanism and it is quite a tilt- the outdrive goes almost horizontal
and mine gets almost completely out of the water.
Engine power was small block chevvies (307) 302 fords (later years),
250 in line chevvy 6's, Buick v/6's,(later years) , 153 and 181 GM
blocks. The very early units were V/4 outboard powerheads laid on
their sides.
The outdrives were pretty much the same- all they did was change upper
gearbox ratios depending on the engine used. THus the higher the hP,
the more stress.
The advantage of this unit is that the drive gears are an exposed,
water lubricated "ball gear" . The ball gear drive plus the use of
electric shift allows the lower unit to rotate through a wide arc and
provides tremendous manueverability. I can literall rotate my 22'
boat around the cockpit; i.e: the stern will mover to port and the
bnow will move to starboard if the wheel is hard over.
THe two biggest problems with theses units is m3echanics that don't
know how to work on the outdrive and screw things up (there is a horror
story about that in here somewhere), and using the wrong lubricant in
the lower unit. you MUST yous OMC type "c" lubricant- designbed
especially for these motors.
I would worry about this boat- Pushing 300HP through taht unit is
pushing it beyond the Max (245 HP was as big as they got), so you are
20% over design specs. Also the electric trim was not available in the
v/8's- only on 4's and 6's, so it sounds like somebody has been
modifying the installation. I think the V/8 small block shevvies take
the sam mounts as the 4 bangers, so I suspect someone dropped a v/8
on the 4 cylinder power trim mount.
The biggest problem I have had with this rig is water pumps- ever two
years. Tou need to take off the whol leg to get at the pump, which is
between the lower unit and upper gear housing. The other problem is the
dinky log type OMC manifolds with the small bore (read easily clogged)
water passages. I've changed my manifold high rise center outlet OSCO
after market manifolds, and this winter she gets a VOLVO raw water pump
so I can change impellers INSIDE the boat. I keep my boat at a slip and
I am tired of using the tides to help me get the boat out of the
water.
Get an OMC mechanic to check the outdrive- parts are expensive and
OBSOLETE (read even more expensive).OMC isgetting out of the outdrive
business (they wer purchased by VOLVO), so service/parts are expected
to get scarce in the near future.
If the boat has been in salt water these outdrives could corrode pretty
bad, if not protected properly with Zinc anodes.
Gut feel tells me there could be a lot of modifications. Make sure
that:
You don't hve a cooling (overheating) problem from plugged manifolds or
bum pump.
chek the electric shift cable in the outdriv leg .Turn the wheel all
the wat to the right (starboard),tilt the leg up part way, and you will
see the cable between the leg and the housing on the left side. Check
for any cuts, abrasion, etc. a small nick in that cable will
cause corrosion rather rapidly because of the current in the cable.
Replacing that cable is about a 4 hr job and about $125 worth of parts
IF the sctrews and bolts are not corrodded in place.
Make sure the engine has got MARINE acessories. The starter is a delco
(look for an M after the model no),the fuel pump should be a double
diaphragm marine pump, motorla alternator (could also be a delco marine
alternator-,and the real give-away is the marine prestolite distributor
with teh plug wires coming out the side vs the top. The carb should
have a C>G> approved flame arrestor.
Since the bellhousings on the Chebbies al have the same pattern,you
can bolt up a 4.6,0r 8 to the same outdrive.
A freind of my sons boought a grady white (72) with an OMC and a
chevvie V/8. The previous owner had yanked out the 4 cylinder and
dropped in the 8 out of a car. The problem was that he upper end gear
ratios were all wrong and resting in the final drive shaft turning at
1/2 the speed that it was supposed too. A higher pitch prop made the
boat's speed OK (it flew!), but since all drives use the sam water
pump, it overheated from not enough water flo for the V/8.
Transmitting twice the HP through the drive at the same speed meant
that teh torque on the driveshaft was doubled and that boat used to eat
shafts. The cooling problem was solved by putting and engine driven
pump on the motor. When the gear ratio problem was discovered (after
snapping several drive shafts),it cost the kid $1500 and change to get
the gears replaced ,and the outdrive rebuilt to specs for the engine.
The coup-de grace was when the CG fined him for all the non-marine,non
approved carb,distributor etc.
I'd be worried about a modified engine on any outdrive.
In my estimation all outdrives are headaches- IF I didn't have to dock
frequntly in shallow water (low tide) at my cottage, I'd opt for a
straight inboard.
Check the ball gears-if they need replacing, a new set of gears was
$600+ the last time I checked and that is not including labor. These
gears run at engine speed,so the load/wear is proportional to the
Horsepower.
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