Over Christmas my family and I made the annual trip to my mother's for christmas day and on the way I spotted an old Haines Hunter V133 ( 14 foot ski / runabout...fiberglass )with an '84 Mariner punching out what I thought were 75 reliables horses ! The boat itself has been garaged all its life and everything was in immaculate condition.<br />My wife immediately said this is the one and we rang the guy and arranged a test run. On the day of the test it behaves well and with 3 adults and my son, we hit 45 mile an hour. Gearbox seems fine and apart from a slight rattling noise at full noise, we were very impressed and made an offer. Trailer is in excellent condition and our impression is this is the seller's pride and joy and it has had no expese spared to maintain it in near new condition. Then there's the downside.The seller has told me he doesn't know the history of the motor as he took it off his new boat that he has recently restored. His old faithful has also gone to the new boat.He suggests I get the carbies and the timing checked out but all else fine, and the comprssion tests shows all is AOK.<br />After discussing with my wife, we decide for the price he wants it's worth the risk ( motor wise ) and we settle for around 5000.<br /><br />I never got 45 mile an hour out of the motor again. The first time we took it out I purposely didn't kill the motor until we returned to the ramp and waited 5 mins and she kicked straight back to life. I then let it sit another 15 but couldn't get her to kick again.I take it to my mechanic and he rebuilds the carbies saying whoever has worked on these has cutr a few corners and they were fitted incorrectly. he also says the starter motor needs to be refitted as it is not sitting in the right spot and a few other things nshould be looked into. His advice is to book her in and he'll check the whole thing out as it looks a lil suspect.He also suggest a tank of 25/1 to ensure the motor gets plenty of oil. The next few trips I had the same scenario( difficult to start when hot although I was getting it to kick if i used the choke) and on the last one, after spending around 1 hr on Sydney Harbour and cruising up to Parramatta on around 30 mph, the motor starts running like it has a dirty fuel filter. I pull off the filter and clean it out, the reconnect it. I still can't get any more than about 5 knots out of the motor so it's off to my mechanic who after 5 days , finally gets around to my boat. The news ain't good. He can grab the flywheel and actually move it 1 - 2 cm sideways and he suspects a bearing or 3. I ask him to pull the motor down and see just what I'm looking at moneywise to rebuild it.<br />Another 2500 and I'll have a rebuilt motor with 6 month warranty. <br />I have ok'd this and sometime this week I'll finally get my new toy back with a reliable motor, fingers crossed !<br /><br /> I am not suprised I have had to do a rebuild, as the motor is 20 years old and with no service history , we took a gamble. My friend with the tools said he thinks the seller pulled down the motor , noticed it was worn , but rebuilt it anyway. The thing went fine so he sells it and the motor slowly but surely fails.<br />New cam, reeds, a couple of pistons and bearings and she should be good as new.<br /><br />The question is, how many of you have also had a similiar experience and is it as common as I think it is ?
didn't take on a water test and they hid a damaged spot on the nose with the 'For Sale' sign. Fixed that, then found the old OMC Cobra Clunk. That is a clutch dog going out. So, 500 dollars later and a lot of mechanics work on first IO. It ran great. It also had a carb that had a float sticking so would put escess gas in float bowl. No where to go, so guess what, it dumps in the oil pan. 
