1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

[Jimmy310]

Just picked up my first boat over the weekend. I am very excited to put it lightly. I bought a 1961 Horizon Fiberglass boat with a 1967 Mercury 650 outboard.
The boat and engine are both in great shape. The boat was kept in a garage since 1980 so it has held up nicely. The engine is in great shape from what I can tell. I was told by the previous owner that the boat ran perfectly when last used. They disconnected the fuel line and whole throttle assembly and swapped outboards with another boat.
I have looked around the forum and have found some post which will help me with the restoring of my boat. I asked a question on the Mercury forum and I am waiting patiently for a response.
Check out my new/old boat. I can see many possibilities and upgrades so I can use it primarily for fishing and some skiing.
Thanks for looking.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

Very cool old boat. That Merc is gorgeous! Good luck with her.

 

[coolguy147]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

ya motor sheesh good luck with the impeller i didnt know i could get so mad

 

[kbomb]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

Just picked up my first boat over the weekend. I am very excited to put it lightly. I bought a 1961 Horizon Fiberglass boat with a 1967 Mercury 650 outboard.
The boat and engine are both in great shape. The boat was kept in a garage since 1980 so it has held up nicely. The engine is in great shape from what I can tell. I was told by the previous owner that the boat ran perfectly when last used. They disconnected the fuel line and whole throttle assembly and swapped outboards with another boat.
I have looked around the forum and have found some post which will help me with the restoring of my boat. I asked a question on the Mercury forum and I am waiting patiently for a response.
Check out my new/old boat. I can see many possibilities and upgrades so I can use it primarily for fishing and some skiing.
Thanks for looking.

Beautiful. I love it. You should have lots of fun with that boat. My motor is a '72 40 hp merc so not too far from yours. It was not too difficult to work on. Good luck with it! BTW, what part of the country are you from?

 

[Jimmy310]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

Thanks for the replies.
I am from Los Angeles, CA.
Here is an update.
I bought a battery, new oil & gas. Replaced the throttle cables since the ones that were attached were too long. Checked out the spark plugs, looked new. Checked out all the connections, had to clean a few. Checked the wiring had to clean a few lines. Connected every thing back together and whala we have a working outboard.
I just ordered the water impeller/pump. Does anyone here have a diagram or instructions on how to replace it?
Do I need any special tools to do the job?
I figure I will have it out on a lake by months end.

 

[Jimmy310]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

New update**

I now have a turnkey working outboard.

I am so excited, cant wait to get her in water. I just have to get some lights for the trailer, and register the boat. Wow I am only a few steps from boating.

1. What should I go through to make sure or lessen a chance of having to row the boat back to my launch ?
2. Since I'm in Los Angeles what are the least expensive overall launches around? I need to try her out and want to spend the least amount of $$
3. Once in the water what should I look for in my outboard?

Once again thank you for the replies.

 

[Jimmy310]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

Any suggestions on cost effective places to boat in Southern California?
The cheaper the better since I'm just trying my boat out.

 

[tmcalavy]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

Check the web site of whatever agency in your state handles parks...if that fails, pick up a road map...remember those?...and check out the parks/lakes before you haul the boat there.

 

[Jim Haswell]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

Shes a nice looking old boat. Lovin the old Merc.
Jim

 

[Jimmy310]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

Thanks for the suggestions.
I am getting my new impeller tomorrow so its off to the water later in the week.

Jim thanks for the props. I also think it looks good.
Thanks guys

 

[Jimmy310]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

UPDATE:

I just replaced the impeller. The copper pipe coming out of the water pump made it difficult to do so. Eventually it slid right into place.
I took out the Flush Plug on the L side of the motor. Connected the water and presto! Motor running.
I did not notice any water coming out of the top holes like in some videos I saw on youtube. What shall I do next? I bought a manual on a DVD format but it doesn't have the exploded illustrations for my 67 Merc 650.
Anyone have the diagram so I can look at it?

Thanks for the help which I know would not have gotten me this far.

 

[coolguy147]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

uh oh u ran the motor while running the flush screw on the side of the lower unit? i dont believe that motor runs water to the water pump while u r running the motor. its made just to flush it by it self i think

 

[tmcalavy]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

Did you connect the water source to the flush port/plug, or to the water intakes? Need to put water in the water intakes, not the flush port. If you ran it awhile with no water hooked up to the intakes, you may have fried the impeller...water is the lube for the rubber impeller. You need to get a service manual...the factory/printed one...watch for one on Fleabay, I seen them pretty regular there. Best bet to run a motor on dry land is to drop the LU in a trashcan/barrel of water...make sure the water is deep enough to cover most of the leg. Can't run it in gear of course, or you'll empty the barrel real fast...never run the rpms up too high when running it in a barrel or on a set of muffs.

 

[Jimmy310]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

Connected to the water intake. Simply pulled the flush plug out while running water through it.
I don't know if having the plug out has anything to do with water not coming out of the exhaust holes at the top of the outboard.

 

[tmcalavy]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

Yes it does. Try it with the flush plug in. You may not get much of a tell-tale stream at idle...my old Merc 500 (73) would put out a minor stream at idle, but really throw a stream at higher rpms on the water. Run some wire or weedeater line down the tell-tale hole to make sure mud daubers didn't get in there and leave you a present. When running, you should be able to touch the water jackets on the right side of the cylinders...should be that cool because of water flow. If hotter than that, recheck your impeller install and reassembly...it's easy to miss the hole with the water tube.

 

[Jimmy310]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

tmcalavy - Thank you I will try that. I had surgery so it is going to be a few days before I get to tinker with it again.
I appreciate your help.

 

[CheapboatKev]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

Any suggestions on cost effective places to boat in Southern California?
The cheaper the better since I'm just trying my boat out.

Go to Redondo Beach Marina..Used to be 10 bucks to hoist your boat into the marina...Might wanna double check the $$ now..been a few years..

Theres a few ramps out by Seal beach on PCH that were 5 bucks, just pay for parking..

It may depend on how far you want to drag her to get in the water..

btw..I knew you were soCal from the area code..having been relocated from there myself!

 

[Jimmy310]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

Well left the house around 5:30 AM
Pow, blown trailer tire. Had a spare. Back on the 91 for 2 miles, pow again.
Took the Bellflower exit and parked the boat at Fritz'. Ofcourse no one opens early on Sundays so waited till 9:00 for Pepboys. No tires that I needed.
Called around 12 tire shops around the area and nothing.
Finally headed to Wallmart in Lakewood. Got 2 new tires but they would not mount them on my 8" rims. WTF!
Found a Mexican owned tire shop, they mounted both tires, new valve stems, even greased my trailer for $10 bucks. I gave the workers a tip for being cool with me.
The shop is located off Paramount & Artesia Blvd. behind McDonalds. Stop by if you need tires, rims, or anything along those lines. Cool *** people.
1:00 PM finally getting to Perris Lake only to be turned back since "there were too many boats on the lake"
On to Elsinore, stinky launch since they lowered the level and there was a lot of dead fish floating to shore. Successful launch, turned the motor on, hit the boat in front of me, just bearly I was in Nutral
Got out past the bowies running OK for a bit then disaster.
Outboard shuts off. Turned it back on for a while. Had no reverse only forward on both ends of my throttle controls. Shuts down again this time I see smoke. Good thing I have a trolling motor. Back to launch and out of water for repairs. Once back home the following day I turned the engine on for a minute and it worked fine. Reved it up to 2500 RPM's and all looked good.
Decided to mount rod holders and fish finder today. Will mount VHF radio and CD player & speaker later this week.

Any ideas as to why it would shut down on me, blow smoke and then once back home it would run normal?

I finally broke down and ordered a Seloc manual along with some other stuff I need for the trailer & boat.

 

[THEPATRIOT]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

Very Nice Boat!

 

[Jimmy310]

Re: 1961 Horizon with a 1967 Mercury 650

Thank you.
If I can get the outboard running correctly I plan on painting it and adding some much needed carpet, new seats, rod holders, a bimini top.
Make it look nice, but only if I can get the 650 working correctly.
Once again thank you