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Getting to know your outboard motor(s)


Mr FeLiX

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Morning fellow AFOers,

Just a quick thought.

Many a first time boatie has left the ramp without knowing the ins and outs of their motor and ran into trouble out on the water. Having just purchased a boat myself, is there any tips the boaters from AFO could give to newcomers?

Eg - Where to buy workshop manuals

What a basic toolkit should contain

Maintenance

Etc.

Any tips or helpful advice would be appreciated and put to good use

Thanks

Felix

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Duct tape and zip ties :laugh:

Plug spanner

Screw drivers :

_large, medium and small flat

_medium and small phillips

Long nose pliers

Normal pliers

Multi Grips/Vice grips

WD40 or similar

Electrical tape

Rag/s

Sikaflex

Duct tape

Zip ties

Spare sheer pin

Spare plugs

Spare bulbs

Spare fuses

Cord (spare) to pull start motor

Optional

Razor blade (for wrists)

Friend with mechanical knowledge

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Hey all very interesting thread. I am fairly new here but will be posting a few posts. I will be watching this one and hopeing to learn something.

I recently purchased my first real boat, lol. It is a 4 metre ally craft shadowvision 2003 model with a 2003 model 25hp Mercury blue band motor.

Hopeing to spend many times on the water and maybe catching up with some of you guys.

Shane

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post-6910-144598553584_thumb.jpg

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Duct tape and zip ties :laugh:

Plug spanner

Screw drivers :

_large, medium and small flat

_medium and small phillips

Long nose pliers

Normal pliers

Multi Grips/Vice grips

WD40 or similar

Electrical tape

Rag/s

Sikaflex

Duct tape

Zip ties

Spare sheer pin

Spare plugs

Spare bulbs

Spare fuses

Cord (spare) to pull start motor

Optional

Razor blade (for wrists)

Friend with mechanical knowledge

what ellicat said

doesn't have to be Sikaflex ,small tube of something similar will do.

u can get it in small tooth paste size tube .

if u don't have all the spare parts it just makes extra work as u have to make bits up out of what u have at hand .

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ROFL..... Does anyone else find it as funny as me that the 2 big contributors so far are Brian and Davo?

Mate nothign beats preventative maintenance, get your motor services regularily, keep fuel fresh, clean things thoroughly and 5 years with my motor and its never spluttered once.

There was some talk though about VMR and it not being a statewide coverage service. ie If you join Jacobs Well, and get stuck at Mooloolaba then you are on your own. Mick Fillet, Dassa you able to elaborate?

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Yeh the gear that Brian (ellicat) said and as Booty said preventative maintainance is best BUT still be prepaired I get my boat serviced regularily and things still fail now and then. And one time after running the boat at home befoe going down to the ramp and then starting it on the trailer and driving it off the trailer it would not start after turning it off at the pontoon. Turns out it was a small bit of corrosion under the distribuator. The hardest part of keeping tools on a boat is rust. I keep mine in a piece of 100mm PVC pipe with water tight ends and a couple of those silca bags fron the new tv in with them. A small cloth bag with rice works aswell and if you get wrecked on a tropical island you will have some rice to go with your fish.

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No teacher like experience, Greg. :laugh:

Preventative maintenance wont stop everything. Annual servicing has not helped me at all. 2008 BRC I put in at Colmslie straight from the annual service. Motor was only running on 1 cylinder. :evil:

Similar with the Merc - the oil line decided to get blocked after 19 years of working fine.....700 metres later - POP! :evil:

Another thing to abide is never use Ethanol fuels in a 2 stroke.

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U can get cheap workshop manuals on Ebay for pretty much every outboard. They come on CD and u just look up and/or print out any pages u need. Also I carry a simple tool kit. A flat & phillips head, pliers/multigrips, wd40, electrical tape and cable ties. Usually gets me out of trouble.

As for maintenance, i generally replace impella and gearbox oil every 12 months or so. And ALWAYS flush motor after use ;)

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Duct tape and zip ties :laugh:

Plug spanner

Screw drivers :

_large, medium and small flat

_medium and small phillips

Long nose pliers

Normal pliers

Multi Grips/Vice grips

WD40 or similar

Electrical tape

Rag/s

Sikaflex

Duct tape

Zip ties

Spare sheer pin

Spare plugs

Spare bulbs

Spare fuses

Cord (spare) to pull start motor

Optional

Razor blade (for wrists)

Friend with mechanical knowledge

A new Force :P

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I've got one of those sealed bins on wheels that fits under one of the seats. I've packed almost every tool I could think of in it and also the tapes etc, what Azza said about the silica bags works great with xmas coming they seem to appear in a lot of boxes especially electrical gear so grab them they work great I keep them in tools, I also keep a bag of different batteries D cell Cell etc with one of the bags in them. Another thing i've done is get some lighting that works with batteries for emergencies allround light for anchoring runs off batteries rather than use my main one its a led so they last for ages. My missus also put in a number of towels cheap one she bought at a $2, shop they come in real handy for all sorts of things.

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  • 1 month later...

there is a mob that will tow you from anywhere, i have forgotten the name of them , we looked into this with another club, as it seemeb to be the better option and cheaper too. as we tend to travel from the gold coast to gladstone. bein a member in brisbane coast guard will not entitle you to a tow up at moolloolabaaaaaaaa. but felix, do as per the dealer told you mate.that way if any come backs, the dealer is to blame, and not some guy from a fishin website told ya to to this n that. experience will come. but if your new to boating, do as the dealer tells you ask him all the questions ya want, and dont leave if ya dont fully understand what he told you, just ask again. every 1 has to start somewhere.

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Duct tape and zip ties :laugh:

Plug spanner

Screw drivers :

_large, medium and small flat

_medium and small phillips

Long nose pliers

Normal pliers

Multi Grips/Vice grips

WD40 or similar

Electrical tape

Rag/s

Sikaflex

Duct tape

Zip ties

Spare sheer pin

Spare plugs

Spare bulbs

Spare fuses

Cord (spare) to pull start motor

Optional

Razor blade (for wrists)

Friend with mechanical knowledge

im surprised thats all you carry with the forces record

but ill add a spare prop as ive pinged the odd blade of playin in the shallows

iff you have a spare engine as back up use it regually

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Duct tape and zip ties :laugh:

Plug spanner

Screw drivers :

_large, medium and small flat

_medium and small phillips

Long nose pliers

Normal pliers

Multi Grips/Vice grips

WD40 or similar

Electrical tape

Rag/s

Sikaflex

Duct tape

Zip ties

Spare sheer pin

Spare plugs

Spare bulbs

Spare fuses

Cord (spare) to pull start motor

Optional

Razor blade (for wrists)

Friend with mechanical knowledge

When in The Force its always very handy to carry another outboard.

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I found this site a few years back when I had a boat :pinch: and found it useful. Its Overseas based but info is pretty much compatable since our outboards are imports. I havent checked out the forum they have (new since I used the site last). Just click on your manufacturer and read some of the topics.
/>http://www.outboardrepairs.com/

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  • 1 year later...
  • 3 months later...
  • 4 years later...
On 12/2/2010 at 7:57 AM, bootyinblue said:

Mate nothign beats preventative maintenance, get your motor services regularily, keep fuel fresh, clean things thoroughly 

I agree but you will be kicking yourself when you need those tools to get yourself going should you breakdown from something that was just plain bad luck. I once got some fuel that was contaminated with water from the servo and my 6mth old suzuki just stopped apparently the don't like water.

But with a few tools I was able to determine that I needed a tow. I usually pack a shifter in a couple of sizes, a pair of pliers, vice grips, a spare prop nut and split pin, fuses, screw drivers, tie wire, and glow sticks

I have never broke down from poor maintenance practices, so packing a basic tool kit should get any one out of trouble provided that their motor is maintained. and anything that is broken is fixed before the next trip.

And ALWAYS tell someone where you are going so if things go pear shaped someone knows where to start looking

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  • 10 months later...
  • 4 months later...

can anyone tell me how I can accurately calculate the range of my tinny with a 30 mercury, some of the stuff you read online can be confusing; i found that the spec says it uses 13ltrs of fuel an hour, I have heard of this formula The Square Root of (Total Shaft Horsepower /  Weight ) x Constant = Speed  any tips would be great i have not had the boat long and am going to inskip point next month and dont want to get myself in trouble running out of juice! 

thanks 

 

Vince

 

 

 

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On 14/04/2018 at 2:31 PM, Jimmyjack said:

If you get a 6 inch stormwater pipe you can make a good sealed toolox but putting a cap on one end and a screw top on the other. Throw in a rag soaked in lanolin or add some of the little bags discussed earlier in the post and you'll be good to go. 

Pro tip

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1 hour ago, vince said:

can anyone tell me how I can accurately calculate the range of my tinny with a 30 mercury, some of the stuff you read online can be confusing; i found that the spec says it uses 13ltrs of fuel an hour, I have heard of this formula The Square Root of (Total Shaft Horsepower /  Weight ) x Constant = Speed  any tips would be great i have not had the boat long and am going to inskip point next month and dont want to get myself in trouble running out of juice! 

thanks 

 

Vince

 

 

 

Hey Vince. Welcome to AFO.

Its a good question but my answer is a bit lame sorry. Hopefully someone with better info will answer you soon. 

A bit more info would help too. 

Size of boat and how heavy?

4 stroke or 2 stroke?

Age of engine. 

The best I can do is say go for a good run with a full tank (with a spare tank just in case). Work out how far you have gone on your GPS or just on a map. Then top up the tank to work out how much you used. That is what I do as my fuel gauge is rubbish. 

Hope that helps. I ALWAYS have a small spare tank that is big enough to get me home from pretty much anywhere. They don't take up much room and it makes me feel better.

 

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  • 1 month later...

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