Recent content by spareparts

Impeller mives anytime the engine is spinning over. The two tan wires on the positive side of the coil,one supplies reduced voltage during normal operation, the other supplies full voltage during starting from the R terminal on the starter solenoid. The reduced voltage is supplied by key on...

Btw, you won't get full 12vokts to the coil key on

Going to take me a minute,been a while since I've used the old color codes, they were standardized in the early 80s. Tan wire is key on power. There's two wires at the coil because one wire is resisted voltage,the other bypasses the resistor and gets power from the solenoid on the starter when...

clean the contacts on the points, use a little sandpaper and scrub the points, with power to them, they should spark when you spin teh motor over. You can see it with the cap off. You are applying reduced voltage to teh coil when the engine is running, when starting it gets full voltage from the...

heading to Sneads Ferry this weekend, probably wont have time to fish, I'll be working on the house, may drop the 'Searona" in the water for a quick ride though.

heat shield wrapped line is for the choke, it draws heat from the manifold. Ditch the vacuum gauge and plug that hole. Odds are, you're going to need to rebuild that carb, they are pretty easy, so if the engine checks out, order a carb kit for it, it should come with a base gasket. Before you...

fix the vacuum leak, put a new set of points in and see if you are gettin an spark. Once you've determined the engine is good, Id invest in an electronic ignition conversion for it. Scook, his engine is the 250 cubic inch straight 6 chevy motor, your engine was the Mercruiser 224 cubic inch 4...

try to get it to run before you spend a lot of time on it, run it with the water hose so you can get an idea of the cooling system( checking for cracked block). After you get it running, do a compression test. Look for similar numbers on each cylinder. If you check it after sitting this long...

I always check the water pickups and thermostat housing if i find blades missing. On those small impeller drives, I recommend a new impeller every season. The later model outdrives( Alpha 1 Gen 2) have a much more forgiving impeller and they can go three seasons or more

easy compared to the stringer drive. Parts are readily available. The merc impeller will not tolerate being run dry, the OMC was a bit more tolerant than the merc.

the 175-225 are V6 4 strokes, and currently the best engine option in that horsepower range. In the 150, its hard to beat the old style Yamaha 150 4 stroke. Its a bit heavy, but it makes close to 170 hp. The current Yamaha 150 and mercury 150 4 cylinder are pretty much on par with each other...

check the transom before you spend any time on it. Tap on the area around the outdrive with a screw driver handle, listen for dull hollow sounds. With the drive up, put your weight on teh drive and see if teh transom flexes any, pay attention to where the drive meets the hull. If that's good...

depending on your horsepower needs and weight, its hard to beat the newer Mercury's. The old style Yamaha f150 is still the standard by all others are judged, just a bit heavy. Suzuki has made major strides in combating their corrosion issues and are on par with Yamaha( hint, they both have...

My friends that run the Charleston water taxi got 18000 hours put of a pair of yamahas 4 cylinder 200s, it took some work,but during covid they couldn't get replacements. The older 150 yamahs actually held up better but they were selling them off at 10000 hours.

I was getting free scraps at the time, they were redoing a bunch of docks at Bohicket Marina, I did a little dumpster diving when i spotted some good boards thrown in the pile. I had planned to build up a flat platform off the deck and thru bolt the fairlead on top. Would have looked nice. that...