76 1500 maintenance- good news ???

[AllAboard]

Hello, I have a (new to me) 76 Mercury 1500 150 HP outboard. I picked it up last weekend. It ran on the muffs but would cut in/out when you'd wiggle the plug @ the outboard. I'm ordering a new engine harness and thought I'd do some maintenance while waiting.

According to the PO, it just had a tune-up, new water pump, and new spark plugs this year and he only took it out once.

Well, I thought I'd change the lower gear lube. Draining the lube revealed black, pretty thick old lube...but no signs of water or metal. GREAT !!!!

Next, I grabbed my compression tester & out came the plugs, grabbed my jumper wire & 5 out of 6 are 130 PSI, 1 about 120, Whoo Hoo !!!

Spark plug wire for #4 didn't feel right. Well, the boot came right off the wire and someone put a little spring up in there to fit the end of the plug. It looks like I should add plug wires to the list.

Well, anyway I'm a pretty happy camper right now. I do my own auto repair but am new to boats. Thanks to reading and posting here I've already learned quite a bit.

Sorry for the long post but I had to tell someone ...LOL.... I have an aftermarket service manual but will be picking up a Mercury version soon....just wanted to make sure those compression numbers looked good. These were on a cold engine, does it matter? Thanks,
Doug

 

[Chris1956]

Re: 76 1500 maintenance- good news ???

Doug, All the spark plug wires have the little springs that connect to the plug. Plug wires are pretty pricy, inspect them for arcing to ground, before you condem them.


The distributor rotor is not removeable, treat it like glass. The cap is pricy. Clean it up and inspect the center carbon electrode. They are a couple of bucks, if it is worn out.

Inspect the motor wiring harness. The insulation fall off after a while.

Since the PO seems to have lied about the tune up, the carbs might be dirty.
Anyway, hit the zercs with a grease gun, change the oil, and fire that mother up on the flusher device.

Fuel mix is 50::1. Use TCW-III oil, at 1 pt per 6 gal gasoline.

 

[AllAboard]

Re: 76 1500 maintenance- good news ???

Yah, my engine wiring harness is pretty shaky, alot of bare wiring. I plan on replacing that.Thanks for the advice on the ignition parts. The wires ohm out good except for the broken one of course. I've noticed some minimal dripping from one of the carbs so yes, I think I'll find some rebuild kits.

After I posted, I checked my other five plug wires and seen the little spring was actually normal. #5 is broken off. This thing couldn't have been running on any more than 5 cylinders. I'm going to do a temporary solder job on my broken plug wire for now if they're that pricy.

It's hard for me to believe this was given a tune-up, by a professional anyway, as I've found several issues already.

The cap "looks" new and I haven't had it off yet to check inside, so thanks for the heads up on the rotor. Lotsa good info, thanks,
Doug

 

[Chris1956]

Re: 76 1500 maintenance- good news ???

Plug wires are solid stranded stainless steel. The ends screw into the dist. cap. The springs for the spark plugs as well as the boots are avail and cheap. Replace the spring if it is broken. Solder will not hold up.

Motor wiring harnesses are avail at multiple web sites. Check surplusunlimited.com for a price.

 

[AllAboard]

Re: 76 1500 maintenance- good news ???

Oh cooll. I've been looking for plug wires but can't pinpoint the right ones. I've seen the springs in quantities of 10 for pretty cheap. How do they attatch to the wire? Are they crimped?

And I've found the engine harnesses from several places, just won't be able to order until Friday. boatfix.com is quite a bit cheaper than anywhere else I've found.

Thanks alot for the advice, you've really helped out.
Doug

 

[Chris1956]

Re: 76 1500 maintenance- good news ???

The plug wires are 36" yellow "Tiger tails". Check oldmercs.com or vintagemercs.com for them.

The springs penetrate the plugwires to make contact with the core wire. Strip the wires a bit and seperate the strands so they also make contact with the springs. Use some WD-40 to help install the boots, over the springs.

 

[AllAboard]

Re: 76 1500 maintenance- good news ???

Thanks again, I guess my old spring was just wore out. I can probably get by with a new spring, and hold off on the wires until after I see how she runs in the water. I'll check those sites for the wires. Awesome !! I've been on a gazillion websites & hadn't located them yet.

I found them!! Cool. oldmercs.com is an Awesome site, but vintagemercs.com seems to be a bad address. Any idea?? Need all the links I can get to keep this old 6 purring.