jay mendoza
Petty Officer 3rd Class
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2009
- Messages
- 81
Well we finally got the whole engine back together and ran it on the lake for Labor Day without a hitch, thank goodness. It took three weekends of going up to our cabins by the lake to complete this project which has been hanging over my head for a couple decades. I knew the 1975 9.9 had been seized and had issues back in 1980 when I bought it used, and had purchased everything needed to rebuild it, including .030? over pistons, seals, bearings and gasket set, but I never found the time. Additionally, it just kept running year after year, so why mess with it? A recent find of a pristine ?Rude 9.9 power head from Rancho Marine about a year ago renewed my interests as it would preclude a complete power head overhaul and make things much easier. The original paint was also still available so that put it on the schedule for the 2009 season.
We also found that the gear case was full of emulsified oil and needed re-sealing, thank goodness Holloway?s had all the seals. The one thing I forgot however was the upper water tube grommet, and a fuel pump diaphragm kit, which meant that we had to wait another week for these parts. This was a blessing, as when we returned, all the fresh oil had wept out of the gear case as I failed to torque the drain plug adequately. So we refilled it and used a lot more torque, ?nuff said!
Next ,on went the new power head after a fresh coat of Johnson gold paint, retimed the ignition, synced the magneto and throttle cam, set-up all the linkage adjustments, lubed everything, and the lower unit with new seals and water pump was bolted on next. The only error was the coil primary wires were swapped, resulting a in a backfire, this was quickly remedied and she fired on the next pull. The engine ran super smooth and required just a minimal idle speed and mixture adjustment before heading out to the lake.
Even with three of us in the 12 foot Western W-12, we could outrun the dock hands at Holloway?s in the same boats with 9.9 hp engines, I love that 15 carb John talked me into back in 1982, it makes a real sleeper out of the 9.9. Looks like I?ll be back to just changing impellers, gear oil, and the occasional pull rope and recoil spring for the next 25 years. We did notice it now gets better gas mileage, with a small increase in power over the old engine.
We also found that the gear case was full of emulsified oil and needed re-sealing, thank goodness Holloway?s had all the seals. The one thing I forgot however was the upper water tube grommet, and a fuel pump diaphragm kit, which meant that we had to wait another week for these parts. This was a blessing, as when we returned, all the fresh oil had wept out of the gear case as I failed to torque the drain plug adequately. So we refilled it and used a lot more torque, ?nuff said!
Next ,on went the new power head after a fresh coat of Johnson gold paint, retimed the ignition, synced the magneto and throttle cam, set-up all the linkage adjustments, lubed everything, and the lower unit with new seals and water pump was bolted on next. The only error was the coil primary wires were swapped, resulting a in a backfire, this was quickly remedied and she fired on the next pull. The engine ran super smooth and required just a minimal idle speed and mixture adjustment before heading out to the lake.
Even with three of us in the 12 foot Western W-12, we could outrun the dock hands at Holloway?s in the same boats with 9.9 hp engines, I love that 15 carb John talked me into back in 1982, it makes a real sleeper out of the 9.9. Looks like I?ll be back to just changing impellers, gear oil, and the occasional pull rope and recoil spring for the next 25 years. We did notice it now gets better gas mileage, with a small increase in power over the old engine.