I notice that I get a decent amount of smoke with my Force 125HP. Is this normal? I'd say when I accellerate to WOT, I leave a cloud of blue smoke about the volume of a 15 passenger/cargo van. And there's always some smoke on the water even at idle.
Seems like these new Mercury Tohatsu motors are $300-$400 used and with low hours. I see old Mariners in the same price range (sometimes maybe $100 less). I see old Lightwins from $100-$300.
Would I be better off with a new Merc or an older unit mentioned?
I've read some bad things about the...
I've got a 125 Force and am now looking for a 3.5-5 horse for our canoe. Curious how these are. I'm also considering a lightwin (50's evinrude). Easy maintenance, good reliability and without having to scrounge to find regular use items is important. I don't enjoy searching for unobtainium or...
I grew up seeing these things on lakes and they were old then. Now that I'm in my 30's and my boys are fishing, I'm looking for something small to put on our square backed fiberglass canute (canoe boat).
I appreciate old iron and have used plenty of old Briggs engines but what I found with them...
Curious if the Yamaha/Mariners are good ones? I've got a Force 125 on the bass boat and am looking for something small for the square stern canoe. It'd be nice if it were light weight for loading.
When my Force 125 is primed, I notice drips of gas on the outside of the carbs coming from above the bowls. Is this normal? I also notice it when running trimmed.
Not to vent but I notice here and elsewhere it's pretty commonplace to see the suggestion of "change your impeller" every time someone buys a used motor. I understand the need for new impellers but after spending an hour trying to get the lower unit splines to go back into position in the motor...
I was about to reassemble the water pump after changing the impeller and noticed there was no gasket between the housing and the plate below it (part #14 in the picture). It was pumping water from the exhaust snout and spitting the two weep holes but this does concern me a little. Am I likely to...
I have a Force 125 and noticed that the mating point between the standpipe and water pump is just a white plastic sleeve. Should there be any kind of seal here?
This has become fairly popular with 4 strokes and it works to steam clean the cylinders. I'm curious if it'd be a bad idea on a 2 cycle since on a 2 stroke you have the intake fuel mix as the lube. Obviously water is not what we're after for lube. The water mist is quickly turned to steam and...
The seal and bushing fell out when I yanked this LU and I couldn't tell how it was supposed to go. Is this right? This is a 125HP from 1989 by the way.
Curious if I should change any other seals while in there? It doesn't seem that any leak and there's no water in the LU oil. I hate to admit it but I took out the shift pivot pin and it leaked at that seal but seems to have sealed itself.
I just got an 89 Force 125 and brought it back from 10-15 years without service. The impeller is a question mark but it's spitting water from the pee holes when hooked to the hose/ear muffs. It's not spraying a stream but it is spitting some out and a lot out of the exhaust hole at the lower...
I notice that the transom wood is wet and that there's no flange to seal the inside of the drain plug fitting. It's a simple bronze flange screwed to the outside of the transom and accepts a 1/2" NPT plug.
I'm not comfortable with the transom inside not sealing. But I think it's stock. Is this ok?
I just picked up an 89 bass boat and the fittings (hose barb fittings) to the pumps for the livewell are below the water line. Obviously if I replace these with more plastic barb fittings and these or the hoses break, I'll be in trouble.
Where can I find a plug type fitting that will eliminate...
Mine are broken where they pass through the transom and I need some new fittings. Any idea where to get this style of water sealing pass through pipe fitting?
I found a nice project boat and am getting it running. It hadn't been started in about 6-7 years. I checked compression and all 4 cyls have around 135 psi. I pulled the plug out of each cylinder pushed the ground side against the chassis, and watched as someone cranked and all but the 3rd from...
