18' Chris Craft with Mercruiser I/O

[phillip arnold]

I am thinking of buying a late 60's Chris Craft corsair runabout with a 120 hp I/O mrecruiser for $1,200. It needs a shift cable, gimbal bearings and exhaust bellows. The person who owns it said you can buy a kit with all 3 of those parts for $217 but you need a special tool to do the job. He was also quoted $1,000 for a mechanic to do the job. Is this boat worth the money that needs to be put into it? If these things need to be fixed is that a sign of other serious problens down the line? If I do buy this boat will it be fairly fast? I had to throw that question in there. Does the motor have any problems associated with it at this age. That's a lot of questions but if I could get some people's opinions to help me make my decision that would be great. Thank You.<br /><br />Phill Arnold

 

[KEITH122]

Re: 18' Chris Craft with Mercruiser I/O

Phillip,

 

[KEITH122]

Re: 18' Chris Craft with Mercruiser I/O

Phillip, I would say that $1000.00 is a bit much for this repair. You CAN dit it yourself, But putting on the bellows is diffacult. If the gimble bearing is a two piece unit, you can replace it without any special tools. Just rap the inner bearing with a hammer and big screwdriver at the bottom. It will pivot in the out race. The race has rwo slots cut in it so you can line up the bearing with the slots and pull it outward. You can the reverse this operation for replacement of the bearing. make sure the alignment of the shaft to the drive coupler is correct. An old drive shaft with a handle welded on the end works great for this. Get a good manual, and be prepaired to spend a good day at this if you want to do the whole job (inc the bellows) yourself.