My mechanic problems started two years ago...<br />I took my boat to the mechanic where I had bought the boat used. After giving him a month to fix my boat before I needed it for vacation (he said I would have it back in 10-14 days) he "got it done" just in the nick of time....actually I picked it up on my way out of town. The repair cost me $600 and when I got to vacation the boat still did not run. We called, the mechanic told me exactly what it needed and how to make it run temporarily (choke module needed replacing)...this told me he had never tested it after whatever repairs he said he had performed...or did not have the "time" to repair it properly...either way it was the last time he was going to work on my boat.<br /><br />The next mechanic I took it to charged me more than twice the going local labor rate...$135 an hour...and when I asked him about it he commented saying..."Well take the F$&#@ing thing back to the guy who screwed you then"<br />by the way he was supposed to replace my manifold and instead simply patched it.<br /><br />The third guy seems to hold the attitude that as long as he gets the boat back to you before the water freezes he has done good work. After having had my boat for more than a month, my repeated calls to get a idea on when the boat would be done (I knew others whose boats had gone in after mine and been repaired and returned already) he told me I needed a new power head...my compression on the middle cylinder was low, it would be $2400 and I should just come pick up the boat because he wanted nothing to do with it anymore.<br /><br />The fourth guy...<br />automatically before I even finished explaining my problem...it was the VRO...the mechanics favorite three letters. He came back with $800 dollars of repairs my boat needed. I did not have the money (but did have my share of suspicions) so I pulled my boat.<br /><br />HERE IS THE GOOD PART<br />A friend of mine in our Bass club put me in touch with a retired Johnson outboard service guy who also used to be a service instructor for Johnson back in the day. I told him about the list of $800 in repairs (VRO, oil pick up, sensor, alarm module)<br />this guy said "They have no damned idea whats wrong with it. They are covering all the bases and their asses, bring it to me"<br /><br />I took my boat to him. He had it two days and came back with this...<br /><br />the first guy had installed the wrong size hoses on the secondary side of my fuel filter.<br /><br />My compression on the middle cylinder was normal for a 1989 60 horse Johnson. He said it is a "restricted" 70 horse and the porting on the carbs used then makes the center cylinder run "soft". He said all motors of that era with my carb and head will read soft on the center cylinder. He said it was fine and never let anyone tell me different.<br /><br />He replaced my manifold, rather than just patch it, which should have been done in the first place...<br /><br />My VRO was fine.<br /><br />Oil pick up was fine.<br /><br />My alarm...the buzzer itself, up under the throttle box, the plactic jacket on one terminal was worn off causing it to occassionally pick up a ground off the hull and ring.<br /><br />Carbs were out of balance...one running way rich and another running bland...he adjusted them<br /><br />He fixed my boat for $60 plus parts...it has never run better<br /><br />How can we trust our mechanics when they behave this way?
) understand that some of the things the human race made a long time ago are just as good if not better than the modern stuff. I still use a 1948 Sidchrome socket set that my father gave me in 1963 when I was five and his arthritis stopped him using tools. It is battered and shows traces of rust, but the twelve point faces are still perfect despite being buried in my childhood sandpit, then resurrected and subjected to years of use and abuse ever since.