What does a major maintenance routine consist of?

[dragulaky]

2000 Mercury 150 EFI Two Stroke. I bought this boat about six years ago. The only thing I've done to the motor so far is replace the plugs, change water pump and foot oil.

I'm about to replace the reed valves, water pump, plugs, fuel filter assembly with dual filters and change all of the fuel lines (ethanol has has been used a lot in the past). Also going to change the foot oil and install new seals.

What else should I do to it to keep it as dependable as possible?

Anyone have other recommendations for maintenance items to take care of?

thanks for the help!

 

[Texasmark]

Include the squeeze bulb and associated fuel line from the tank to the engine replacement. A pair of thermostats and a pop-off valve assembly would surely be in order especially if used in salt water.

Prop removal and shaft greased.

Grease zerks on throttle linkage at the front of the clamp bracket and over on the Port side for the mid section pivot.

Since there is no drain, I have used a 20 cc syringe and piece of lawn mower fuel line attached to the end to suck PTT fluid out of the sump; as much as I could get, refill to the threads, plug back in, run the pump up and down a couple of times plug back out and repeat several times to get new fluid in the system to help in seal lubrication with fresh oil. if red use ATF. If clear use Merc. PTT fluid....WW has it.....per service manual directions on what fluid to use.

Remove the control from the bulkhead and grease the workings inside it including the shift and throttle cable ends....do the same to the other ends of the cables inside the engine.

Check all the little black snap connections on the linkages ensure that they aren't cracked or broken.
HTH.

 

[Chris1956]

Reed valves do not normally wear out. Unless the PTT fluid is dirty or has water in it, it does not need changing. I would leave both alone.

Greasing the motor swivel and tilt mechanism is essential. Make sure you find all the zercs. I also rub some grease on any exposed metal (bolt heads) I see. Spray powerhead with corrosion guard. Check spark plug wires for cracks and arcing to ground. Check all wire ends for corrosion.

The controls don't usually need grease for a long time.

 

[Texasmark]

Reed valves do not normally wear out. Unless the PTT fluid is dirty or has water in it, it does not need changing. I would leave both alone.

Greasing the motor swivel and tilt mechanism is essential. Make sure you find all the zercs. I also rub some grease on any exposed metal (bolt heads) I see. Spray powerhead with corrosion guard. Check spark plug wires for cracks and arcing to ground. Check all wire ends for corrosion.

The controls don't usually need grease for a long time.

"The controls don't usually need grease for a long time." Well Chris isn't 19 years long enough? Grin! I said that because I just bought a 2002 engine and they needed it.

 

[dragulaky]

Thank you guys for the useful info! Definitely some things that I didn't think of!

 

[Chris1956]

Gee, Mark, I greased the controls in my '98 once. I greased the controls in my '77 once as well. For me it is grease 'em as you need to, it is not a routine thing.