Re: New prop seals $250 "ballpark" becomes $379!
And did they tell you WHY they have to order a new OEM carb? I really can't see a good reason to order a new complete carb. Preventive maintenance is usually cleaning (let's say an hour of labor) and a gasket kit (something like 15$). Overhaul is a bit pricier (maybe 30 or 40$ in parts and the same labor than for cleaning) as it also include some new parts like float and needle but unless it has been crushed by a hammer, you don't have to change the carb itself...
Thx for your insight . . . it was not like that. It's not my boat it's my Daughters. So when she bought it last year I did the minor things to it like plugs, lower unit oil, gas filter etc.
But I knew it would need an impeller and it was running a little rough. What I didn't need was a call from her on some lake 2 hours away "Dad, my motor won't start". So knowing it was already a 10 year old motor and not knowing how well it was maintained I figured my choices were . . take carb off and apart and spray it out with carb cleaner. That's what my brother in law does periodically to his Yammy. But he never gets a carb kit with new gaskets. I can't work like that, so I would have had to get a carb kit and do it all myself. I ordered the kit from iboats and they sent me the wrong one.
Good thing I didn't start it myself. Because I would have had it all apart and discovered the wrong kit. And thrown a few tools around
. I was working on the O/B on the curb in front of my house too which was annoying to have to work like that.
So when I dropped the motor off to the Merc certified mechanic I asked him since he is doing the impeller how much to put in a new carb kit too. I also wanted only an OEM kit. So he said about $50 for the kit, but it's the labor that moves the price up. They get $23 per quarter hour. It would have ran about $150. So the new carb was $370 but I'm selling the old carb on Ebay for $100. So that brings the new carb down to $270 which is $120 more than if I had him do a rebuild. Now I know I'll have no future carb issues.
He said he tries not to rebuild them due to the cost and says it's not that much more just to bolt on a new carb. So it was my idea to just put on a new carb and not worry about a carb clean and kit acting up later on.
It runs super. But last week I noticed the oil dripping off the bottom of the skeg.
Picked it up today and he did say when I left it ballpark was $250. He saved the parts and showed me in the factory manual (I need to get me one of these, not those useless Seloc manuals) on how you check each part along the way for damage. The piece on the bottom of the linkage rod was cracked. Several of the seals were cracked and some were rusty which meant not only was oil leaking out, water was getting in which could have been costly in the future. He listed out all the parts which came to $97. He showed me about 12 parts that were replaced "besides" the $24 seal kit. 2.5 hours labor which is pretty much in line with AChris's less than two hour estimate. But he did replace more parts so 2.5 was fair to me. Labor came to $235 and tax was $28 all tolled $379.
So now we have put about $1000 into this 99 2 stroke into what I call preventive maintenance. I was the one who said don't bother with the pressure test as I saw where the oil was leaking from.
She bought the whole rig for like $2400. The Monarch 14 foot aluminum was in primo condition, always garaged, accessories, A 2 year old Minn Kota bow mounted V2 Powerdrive (Like $700 new) fully carpeted, Garmin Fish finder and the trailer was in great condition too. I was amazed when I drove down to CT to pick it up for her and saw it's condition.
So all tolled we are into it for $3400 and the motor is pretty much like new. A new motor if worse came to worse would be $3500 alone (with power trim and electric start).
So we are still way ahead of the game after spending $1000 to bring this rig up to next to new condition.
I appreciate your feedback as to you looking out for me with this repair shop. But he's OK so far with me for the 4 jobs he's done on two of our outboards. I know one thing, if I took it to the dealer where I bought my boat, they would be double for whatever jobs they would do.
Check out how the rugs came out after I washed them down 2 weeks ago with some laundry detergent in a bucket and I added a scoop of Oxyclean to it. They really brightened up for 11 year old rugs:
