Looking at late 80's tracker with 90hp Evinrude

[fir3hawk]

Hey all -

Looking at a couple 89-90 trackers with a 90hp evinrude outboard. I found one that seems decent for just under $3k but its 2 hours away and seller lives 45 minutes from a lake so hes not been very open to my request to test drive it. He's willing to hook it up on muffs and show that the water pump kicks on and it'll shift into gear, etc.

My concern is that I wont be able to see if the boat takes on water, if the engine overheats, shifts into gear okay, etc.

So my question is this, do yoi think hooking it up on muffs and hearing it run along with inspecting the condition closely in person is adequate? Again its only a $2500-3k investment but I want to ensure I'm getting a decent boat for my money.

Another option I've been considering is having a local boat shop inspect it. Im pretty mechanically inclined but this would be my first boat so if I bought it without a test drive I'd be taking my dad who use to have a early 80's tracker with a merc 40.

 

[64osby]

Running the motor helps, a compression test would let you know it is healthy. It still might need carb work or some other maintenance but that is not usually fatal.

 

[flyingscott]

My first question is why doesn't he want you to drive it, a test drive is not an unreasonable request. Running on muffs is not worth going for this site alone is full of people whos motors run good on muffs and not on the lake. Minimum you want is a shop to look at it a $2500 boat can turn into much more if you don't do your due diligence.

B bust
O out
A another
T thousand

 

[emdsapmgr]

In order to see if any of the rivets leak on a boat, fill the boat with water with a garden hose. You don't have to put that much water in it-you don't have to fill it to the floor. You'll be able to see any rivets that are leaking. Crank the dolly wheel up/down to get the water to flow to/through all areas of the hull. I'd recommend you do this as Trackers tend to be leakers with age/abuse.

 

[David Young]

Even if everything checks out you'll have to buy a OMC factory repair manual, carburetor rebuild kit and a new impeller just to give you peace of mind

Learning to do these things 'yourself' is half of the fun when owning a boat plus saving a lot of money...