Opinions on 1977 mercury thunderbolt110 9.8 hp

[jitterbug127]

I have an ad up online that Im looking to buy a few old Johnson/Evinrude motors to work on while my son naps or whenever the weather is ugly. I had a lady message me and she gave me a mercury 9.8 110 thunderbolt electric start motor. It’s in phenomenal shape/came with the service manual. I put a new impeller on it and it’s pumping water really well!

I’ve been wanting to buy a 9.9 or 9.9/15 omc for a while, and I potlucked into this one. How good of a motor is this for durability? How easy is it to work on? How easy are parts to get?

I’m either going to keep this motor and run it as my primary motor this year or sell it (and some of my other motors) and buy an omc 9.9. I’ve only worked on omc meds to this point.

 

[dubs283]

Mercury (still in business) has better support for parts/service info than omc.

You ought to be able to source parts rather easily for your mercury motor, omc stuff is getting harder to find these days

 

[jitterbug127]

Sounds like long term I might actually be better off with the mercury? Right now I’ve got 4 OMC motors and this mercury. Trying to get my second fisherman up and going then I’m going to purge a few of them.

 

[racerone]

I do not believe the support for this older Mercury 2 stroke 9.8 is there from the factory !!!----There are lots of used parts available depending on your location.

 

[Scott Danforth]

only minor changes in the 9.8 and 7.5 up until 1985.

main difference in the 9.8 was stainless driveshaft in 1978

Dirt simple motor

 

[racerone]

The 7.5 models have smaller intake ports.

 

[jitterbug127]

Water pump was really easy to change out, so I thought rest of the motor might be pretty straight forward.

Would it be a big deal if i convert the fuel connection over to an omc one? I know it would be like a 2 minute job and super easy. I just didn’t know if it would cause issues with my motor to have this?

 

[Scott Danforth]

Would it be a big deal if i convert the fuel connection over to an omc one? I know it would be like a 2 minute job and super easy. I just didn’t know if it would cause issues with my motor to have this?

it will have the same result as crossing the streams....... dogs and cats living together......mass hysteria

 

[racerone]

If you install an OMC fitting on the motor and an OMC fitting on the hose it will reduce confusion and the need for different tanks.

 

[jitterbug127]

it will have the same result as crossing the streams....... dogs and cats living together......mass hysteria

Haha! Exactly what I suspected

 

[sopicki]

…and I thought I was the only one who quoted Ghostbusters! Hahaha