Re: New Starcraft Islander owner, looking for tips
I will give you an opinion, not meant to hurt anyones feelings. Please I mean that, so take this post for what its worth.
The omc out-drives can be some of the worst going. There is a spring in this model at the very bottom of the lower unit, that holds the shifter shaft and drive up and in place in the lower unit, when (not "if" but only when) that little puppy brakes it will let the shaft down. The tell tail sign is when you go in reverse it will act very strange like its high powered or something, and you will push it into neutral and think wow that was weird. That was the only sign that something drastic has gone wrong.
Then you will use your boat because it seems to work OK now and because you have never had this happen before. When you do use it, you will be grinding the spring into the bearings that in turn will destroy there mount, and then the gears leaving you stranded where ever you are. It will take about 10 to 25 Min's from the "that was strange" statement for you to ruin the out-drive. Then you will find out used ones are very hard to find, guess why? Thats right because it happens allot, so there isn't many around.
I personally will never buy an omc as a matter a fact i wouldn't take one given to me if i could not just sell it and had to use it. I personally have been cursed by them. If others have this vintage of outdrive and not had problems let him know please.
If I were you....
I would use it causally while looking for a mer cruiser set up, or plan on doing a conversion with a stern drive engineering kit to get it away from that badly designed omc. Your out-drive is one of the reasons that omc lost out to mercruser so bad as it burned so many people.
Do you know if he just had it rebuilt? Usually they go up for sale after being fixed and the new owner has no idea how short the life span can be on one. I don't know anyone that has owned one the same vintage as yours that dose not have a horror story, I'm sure there are some I just have never known one personally. (web rants excluded) I live by the water and am around boaters all the time so I have quit a bit of experience in this. The newer ones were better designed so they are not the same thing as what you have.
Sorry for my post sort of, but I would feel dishonest if I did not share what I have learned the hard way myself and from many others around me. On the bright side if it was rebuild with new parts you should have at least 2 or 3 years of use before you should start sweating.
