1969 Sea King 20 for use as kicker

[cecho]

I have the chance to pick up a good running 1969 Sea King 20 HP motor for under $300. My plan is to use it as a kicker/trolling motor/emergency motor on my 20' cuddy cabin. My bracket will support up to 25 HP and it's lighter than the 10 HP 4 strokes I was looking at... not to mention it's 1/10 the price. Does this sound like a good idea? I don't know anything about these motors but was told it was made my Chrysler Force. Can parts be found for these? are they at least semi reliable?

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: 1969 Sea King 20 for use as kicker

Well, just a question to ask yourself......how are you going to control it? Throttle, shifting, starting..... you can tie in the steering to the outdrive but the drawback is controlling it.

 

[Georgesalmon]

Re: 1969 Sea King 20 for use as kicker

You'll have to carry mixed gas for it. A nice 4 stroke could run off your exsisting fuel tank.

 

[steelespike]

Re: 1969 Sea King 20 for use as kicker

Look up parts here at iboats for that motor.
If your going to go back that far for a motor consider the Evinrude/Johnson 18,20 or 25 hp up to about 1975.
Plentiful parts and only about 89 lbs.

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: 1969 Sea King 20 for use as kicker

Positives:
1. It is cheap. And if anything does happen, it can be thrown away.
2. you said it runs well
3. it is plenty of horsepower for your cuddy
4. you can still find parts for it if you need to do so.

Negatives:
1. You MUST carry premixed fuel for it.
2. You did not say what configuration the engine is: Electric start, remote steering etc. This could be a negative as far as mounting, starting, or steering
3. If it does have a problem, parts, while still available are a bit more difficult to find that OMC or Merc parts.

 

[cecho]

Re: 1969 Sea King 20 for use as kicker

The premix doesn't bother me. The weight savings of a 2-stroke hanging off the back instead of a 4-stroke is a plus and the boat has plenty of room on board to carry a spare tank It is manual start. It'd be nice to have electric start, but I'm OK with manual start if the price is right. It is rigged up for remote steering, but the tiller will also be included. Crafting a steering rod that connects to the outdrive will be fairly easy to do. I can also rig up a small throttle cable as well.

What does worry me is parts availability. I don't know exactly what to call this thing. Do I look for Chrysler Force parts or Sea King parts? If something major does go wrong with it, it is cheap enough to throw away.

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: 1969 Sea King 20 for use as kicker

Just about the only running or starting problem you may have is points and condensers. They can be had from franzmarine@aol.com. But first you would clean the points and gap them to .020.

Other parts would be Chrysler, but really, if you melt a piston or do any major damage, you are not going to rebuild--you will scrap the engine.

Lower unit and prop would be either Chrysler or Force and are found on ebay if you damaged either.