reelfishin
Captain
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2007
- Messages
- 3,050
I bought my first newer Mercury Outboard the other day, a 1995 115.
Very low hours but it's been sitting for a few years in a barn.
Other than the obvious new water pump impeller, there's not much it needs to get on the water. The boat will need more work than the motor in just refitting it to use all the Mercury controls and gauges. (I got the whole dash package with the motor).
I took a trip to the closest Mercury dealer, no luck, no parts in stock, so on to the next closest, about an hour away. That too turned out to be a total waste of a trip. The problem wasn't them having what I needed, not totally but their prices. They wanted $62 for a water pump kit, no housing, just the impeller, plate and gaskets. One side of the lower cowl gasket is deformed and won't sit right, so I figured the right thing to do is to replace it, that turned out to be a special order part, $63.99 plus $17.50 shipping, then I figured that after all these years some fresh fuel lines and new plugs would be in order as well. I also wanted a few spare keys to the new controller since the motor only came with one.
They wanted $21 per foot for the fuel line and it calls for about 2.7', then $15 per spark plug. The total with sales tax would have been $287 or so for 4 plugs, a gasket, basically a water pump impeller, and some fuel line. They didn't have just the impeller, it's apparently only available as a kit, the plugs are nothing but NGK plugs that I eventually got from a local small engine shop for $13 for all 4, I got the impeller at Napa for $18, and the fuel hose I left alone for now. The cowl gasket will have to wait till I either find a good used one or I'll live with the ill fitting one. They also wanted $15 per key, I got those cut at a local key shop for $2 each. It turns out the blanks are just standard common Ilco blanks.
It's no wander the local dealer can't compete with mail order. All on top of this and the one dealer kept harping on how two strokes will soon be banned so I should buy a new engine now while my old one still has some value. A salesman kept harping on how much gas I'd save if I spent $11K on a new motor. It would take me a long time to save enough in fuel to make up a $11k price tag of a new motor.
When I asked why they still had brand new 2 stroke motors for sale if they were banned, the subject just reverted to all the fuel I'd save.
I told the guy that if he thought there was any chance that I'd spend $11k on a new motor for a 40 year old boat I had a bridge for sale too.
I've been running mostly Johnnyrudes for a long time since there's no local Mercury dealer, (the closest OMC dealer used to sell Mercury but now only sells Yamaha). I started buying Evinrudes when they switched over. Their prices were fair and their great to deal with but a new motor just isn't in my plans or budget. The only reason I bought this Merc is because it's so clean with such low hours. The guy that had it only ran it a few times before parking his boat way back then. It's also a good excuse to update my power by a few decades and to add power tilt and trim. I got the motor for less than the cost of a good used power tilt unit for my Evinrude, so that pretty much sealed the deal. I wasn't going to put maybe another $400 into the old motor just to gain tilt and trim, but my back these days can't take the manual tilt on a 4 cylinder. The power T/T will be nice. Oil injection is another plus if it proves reliable.
The motor has 151 psi on all 4 and looks new. I probably could have just hung it and run it but I like the piece of mind knowing it's 100%.
Anyone have any online suggestions for Mercury parts? Mainly the cowl gasket, if not, anyone have a good used one for a 95 115 4 cylinder?
I'll also need to get the right length cables for my boat as the ones that came with the motor are about 4' too short.
Very low hours but it's been sitting for a few years in a barn.
Other than the obvious new water pump impeller, there's not much it needs to get on the water. The boat will need more work than the motor in just refitting it to use all the Mercury controls and gauges. (I got the whole dash package with the motor).
I took a trip to the closest Mercury dealer, no luck, no parts in stock, so on to the next closest, about an hour away. That too turned out to be a total waste of a trip. The problem wasn't them having what I needed, not totally but their prices. They wanted $62 for a water pump kit, no housing, just the impeller, plate and gaskets. One side of the lower cowl gasket is deformed and won't sit right, so I figured the right thing to do is to replace it, that turned out to be a special order part, $63.99 plus $17.50 shipping, then I figured that after all these years some fresh fuel lines and new plugs would be in order as well. I also wanted a few spare keys to the new controller since the motor only came with one.
They wanted $21 per foot for the fuel line and it calls for about 2.7', then $15 per spark plug. The total with sales tax would have been $287 or so for 4 plugs, a gasket, basically a water pump impeller, and some fuel line. They didn't have just the impeller, it's apparently only available as a kit, the plugs are nothing but NGK plugs that I eventually got from a local small engine shop for $13 for all 4, I got the impeller at Napa for $18, and the fuel hose I left alone for now. The cowl gasket will have to wait till I either find a good used one or I'll live with the ill fitting one. They also wanted $15 per key, I got those cut at a local key shop for $2 each. It turns out the blanks are just standard common Ilco blanks.
It's no wander the local dealer can't compete with mail order. All on top of this and the one dealer kept harping on how two strokes will soon be banned so I should buy a new engine now while my old one still has some value. A salesman kept harping on how much gas I'd save if I spent $11K on a new motor. It would take me a long time to save enough in fuel to make up a $11k price tag of a new motor.
When I asked why they still had brand new 2 stroke motors for sale if they were banned, the subject just reverted to all the fuel I'd save.
I told the guy that if he thought there was any chance that I'd spend $11k on a new motor for a 40 year old boat I had a bridge for sale too.
I've been running mostly Johnnyrudes for a long time since there's no local Mercury dealer, (the closest OMC dealer used to sell Mercury but now only sells Yamaha). I started buying Evinrudes when they switched over. Their prices were fair and their great to deal with but a new motor just isn't in my plans or budget. The only reason I bought this Merc is because it's so clean with such low hours. The guy that had it only ran it a few times before parking his boat way back then. It's also a good excuse to update my power by a few decades and to add power tilt and trim. I got the motor for less than the cost of a good used power tilt unit for my Evinrude, so that pretty much sealed the deal. I wasn't going to put maybe another $400 into the old motor just to gain tilt and trim, but my back these days can't take the manual tilt on a 4 cylinder. The power T/T will be nice. Oil injection is another plus if it proves reliable.
The motor has 151 psi on all 4 and looks new. I probably could have just hung it and run it but I like the piece of mind knowing it's 100%.
Anyone have any online suggestions for Mercury parts? Mainly the cowl gasket, if not, anyone have a good used one for a 95 115 4 cylinder?
I'll also need to get the right length cables for my boat as the ones that came with the motor are about 4' too short.
