MASTERBrian
Petty Officer 3rd Class
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2011
- Messages
- 84
I'm looking at buying a late 80's bass buggy pontoon with a 50hp Evinrude on the back. I believe the engine is a 90's model. It's a neighbors boat and I helped him somewhat go through it early last year, now he's wanting to sell it. The price seems very reasonable, but I am curious how hard some of the issues will be to fix because if I buy it, I'll probably look at replacing/redoing most of the interior, so I don't want to be out lots of extra cost.
Here is a list of problems he points out on the engine:
1) doesn't shift into reverse. - I'm assuming that's just a matter of messing with the linkages and getting them set just right. My concern with that is when I rebuilt my '86 XP150, on my other boat, a few years back, I had a hell of a time adjusting mine and had to have the shop finally time the motor and get the linkage set. I'm hoping since this motor hasn't been apart, it's just a few turns of the linkage and it should be good. Is there anything else to look at? Mainly huge hidden costs...
2)He said the carb probably needs rebuilt, which I don't think will be major, as I did the carbs on my other motor and they weren't too bad. I really figure I'll run a decarb through it and see if that cleans them out.
3)He also said the lower unit seems to be leaking a bit from a seal. Are those real difficult to rebuild? I figure I'll look through the manual on my engine to get an idea, but sometimes what looks easy in a manual isn't in real life.
Here's the other part of the picture, this was his parents boat and I believe it sat for a few years prior to him picking it up last year, he's mid 50's, so his parents are 70's. He only had it out one time last year and hit a submerged stump, I'm not positive if it was the engine that hit or the pontoons, but I do know the lake levels were very low and from what he said the nose dove down.
Part of my fear is that the lower unit could be trashed, but curious how I tell that without putting it on the lake. My understanding is it's almost as cheap to buy a rebuild as it is to fix them, but again, I don't want to get this if it's going to take tons to fix it up as I would rather spend my $$ on the interior.
Here is a list of problems he points out on the engine:
1) doesn't shift into reverse. - I'm assuming that's just a matter of messing with the linkages and getting them set just right. My concern with that is when I rebuilt my '86 XP150, on my other boat, a few years back, I had a hell of a time adjusting mine and had to have the shop finally time the motor and get the linkage set. I'm hoping since this motor hasn't been apart, it's just a few turns of the linkage and it should be good. Is there anything else to look at? Mainly huge hidden costs...
2)He said the carb probably needs rebuilt, which I don't think will be major, as I did the carbs on my other motor and they weren't too bad. I really figure I'll run a decarb through it and see if that cleans them out.
3)He also said the lower unit seems to be leaking a bit from a seal. Are those real difficult to rebuild? I figure I'll look through the manual on my engine to get an idea, but sometimes what looks easy in a manual isn't in real life.
Here's the other part of the picture, this was his parents boat and I believe it sat for a few years prior to him picking it up last year, he's mid 50's, so his parents are 70's. He only had it out one time last year and hit a submerged stump, I'm not positive if it was the engine that hit or the pontoons, but I do know the lake levels were very low and from what he said the nose dove down.
Part of my fear is that the lower unit could be trashed, but curious how I tell that without putting it on the lake. My understanding is it's almost as cheap to buy a rebuild as it is to fix them, but again, I don't want to get this if it's going to take tons to fix it up as I would rather spend my $$ on the interior.