Mercury 1972 650 Timing Pointer Missing

Hi, I am putting back together a 1972 Mercury 650 3 cyl that I had a machine shop put oversize pistons in. The motor was running before when I got it, but had a burnt piston.

I have the manual, and it shows lining up the flywheel static mark with a plastic pointer that sits in a slot on the motor's bracket. This plastic piece is long gone, just the slot remains. The picture shows a plastic piece that slants to the left from what I can tell in the picture. Otherwise, if it was straight, I just would have made something to fit. Does anyone know what this piece is called, or if any dealers would still stock it? I tried putting my serial number into the Mercury Marine Parts search online, but they apparently don't work on stuff this old, as they are asking for 8 digit serial numbers and mine only has seven. Any help would be appreciated. I want to set it up following the service manual's instructions exactly, and it looks like this part is needed for that. Thanks, John

Re: Mercury 1972 650 Timing Pointer Missing

The timing indicator for your motor is p/n 62397, but shows as no longer available NLA.

You may have better luck finding one from a used motor somewhere, for parts. Ebay is always a remote possibility.

You can also get by without the Mercury one, by using a dial indicator method to determine TDC from scratch. You then fabricate your own pointer out of anything you have handy (rigid wire, coat hanger, etc).

Re: Mercury 1972 650 Timing Pointer Missing

Johnnyx, You can get one at www.dougrussell.com. I fabricated my own out of a piece of sheet metal

Re: Mercury 1972 650 Timing Pointer Missing

Thanks Chris and AMD for the info. I ordered one at dougrussell. Their web page seem pretty good, although the graphics on the "fiche" pictures was very poor and hard to read. Once I had the P/N you gave me though, I located it on the diagram.

I'm not against making my own (although the part is less than $7). I just wasn't sure that all you had to do was make sure the line from the point matched the flywheel at TDC. The flywheel had another mark on it labeled "alignment mark" or something which the manual refered to when putting the belt on the distributor. If the marker comes in, I should have no problem. I plan to keep the advance slightly lower, as I've seen others here state is best.