[LMTWA]

late 90's Mariner 50. Had the carbs rebuilt, new water pump impeller and new trim motor. ($800) put it in water and started great - ran smoothly. put it in gear and it was like the prop was hitting the bottom (it wasn't). Dealer said after looking at it for 2 minutes "Lower unit - another $700." I said "no." and parked it until this week. I tried to start it - turned over fine but wouldn't start.
Appears to be getting gas to plugs and we think spark.
1) Any ideas for starting?
2.) Any ideas for the lower unit problem. This boat has 50 hours on it and just sat for years. Feels like gear shift cable is very stiff. Is this something that's relatively easy to work on?

[shanew]

Without more information about the starting problem, would not want to guess. Not sure how long ago it was serviced? If it was a week ago it should be fine. Hard to say on that part, but if it ran fine and the only thing you did is put it in gear, it should still run fine now.

It sounds like it could be cables that are causing you the problem. Maybe not going fully into gear. If the guy told you 700 bucks with a two minute evaluation, find another dealer. About the lower unit, the answer is NO! stay out of it! It requires many special tools to do any gear set up work. If you are not trained to do lower units, the boat that you want to use to have a good day with the family out on the lake, is not the one you want to practice lower unit gearcase wrenchin' with. I once had a friend who was bugging me to change his water pump impeller. I told him I did not have the time that day. He said "is this something I could do"? I thought, how hard is a water pump, I could do them in my sleep and this guy works on vehicles, sure I told him and sold him the impeller. I explained all of the steps to change the impeller; put it in forward gear, yada-yada-yada. Next time I heard from him he was holding his lower unit in his hands and it had a hole in the bottom of it. He had not matched up the splines on the shift shaft and forced the lower unit to the intermediate housing driving the shift shaft right out the bottom of the lower gear case. He forgot that one step and now it was time for a new gear case. So, now when anyone asks about working on their own lower unit, the answer is always no. Good Luck