Stupid question...

[raven174us]

Ok I feel really stupid asking questions like this but I'm very new to boating. As in I haven't even put my boat in the water yet. Anyway, this boat I got I had to replace the transom. The guy had a transom saver on it and I took it off when I got ready to take the motor off. I got to thinking today. The motor went down like it would when I'm in the water. When I lifted it up(manual tilt) and started to let the pressure up it started going back down.
Anyway the question is, should the motor stay up when I lift it? If so then that would mean the pistons/shocks are bad right?
I'm sure I will have more stupid questions once I put the motor back on.
Thanks

 

[gcboat]

Re: Stupid question...

Depending on the motor you have all those pistons do is to keep the motor from flying up if you hit something in the water. Look on either side of the engine and you'll see a latch that will pull up and lock it in place.
Without any other info that's gonna' be my best guess.

 

[raven174us]

Re: Stupid question...

I'm sorry, the motor is an old (not sure of the year just yet) 65hp 650 Thunderbolt Mercury. I'm going to check the serial number to get the year tomorrow.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Stupid question...

Those old Mercs had hydraulic cylinders to provide friction to keep the motor down, when you cut the throttle at high speed. When you lift the motor, you lift against that friction. When you release the motor, it has some friction to allow it to go down slower. There should be two latches on the midsection that will lock the motor up. These tended to break over the years, and you needed to use a 2X6 in the transom bracket, or a transom saver to lock them up.

 

[raven174us]

Re: Stupid question...

OK, thank you. I'll go take a look. Atleast I have the transom saver if the latches are broke.