Its not that I'm unhappy with anything it's more that I worry about things breaking and the resulting parts and service availability. The trim/tilt mechanism worries me; it is a small electric motor at the back of the engine compartment with a little black box containing a few relays, all powering a shaft that does the tilt. I've already had to replace relays a couple of times, which isn't a big problem, but the whole design seems weak. I see these newer model outdrives with a couple of hydraulic cylinders from the transom to the outdrive - that looks like a good, solid, reliable design to me.
What got me thinking about this is, I see a lot of really cheap boats on the internet (Ebay, usually a Boat Angel unit), boats that someone has freeze damage to the motor or seized the motor up or just let the boat sit outside for years and rot away to nothing and I would assume the outdrives are still OK. Most of these are much newer models than mine. I just figured this would be an inexpensive way to begin the process of modernizing my boat.
