2 or 4

This was a strange weekend. More ups and downs, though mostly ups. I touched upon my outboard saga briefly last post, but the highlights are that my Mercury9.9 hp 2-stroke was having difficulties running correctly. It was missing every so often, and wouldn't shift into reverse without dying out. This is the same outboard that has been notoriously difficult to start. And by difficult, I mean last season there were days it would take me what felt like 10-15 minutes of cord-yanking to start. So, those memories fresh in my mind along with the new issues of running prompted me to hit the outboard listings of Craigslist. First, let me be clear; I like that Mercury. When it was running, it was running fine. It has a tiller shift - turn it one way, it goes into Forward and the other was Reverse. You never had to move your hand off the tiller to change direction. This comes in really handy when trying to maneuver slowly in tight quarters, or when you need the left hand on the boat tiller and the right on the outboard. And when it did run, prior to this, it ran reliably. Sure it was a bitch to start, but it never gave any hassle once running. But it seemed as it's time had come to an end after all. It's a 1988 model, so it made it over 30 years. I know that's infancy in outboard years, but still. I will also add another note to this. My brother obtained a Mercury about the same size, maybe a little older? If so it wasn't by much. Now, on the whole, there aren't lots of pieces to these things. Carbs are simple, make sure you have spark, and that's more or less it. It's also why it's maddening when all the things don't seem to work. And my brothers was that way. It would run great on a test stand but the moment it had an actual load, it would bog out and die. Tear into it, nothing to be found, but the results never change. So as popular as Mercury motors are, it seems maybe we're cursed when it comes to that era of them.

I stumbled across a listing for a 2007, 15 HP Tohatsu 4-Stroke, sold by someone just North of Syracuse which puts it on almost a direct route along the way to the boat. Happy day, right? No issues, also has electric start, decent price for what it was. A slight miff when it seemed like even after we had agreed I would be up that Saturday (the 13th), later in the week he was still trying to show the motor to whomever would get there first. Thankfully that didn't happen and my dad and I were able to stop on our way up to the boat. No real good bucket to fit over the lower end of the unit but he did have a tote that we propped up under it while it was on his stand, filled it to the brim which just covered the cavitation plate, and after he revealed he hadn't run it in two years (missing from the ad, of course), it started on the third pull. The battery he had, he said was dead, so it was pull starting instead. Three pulls, it started. Can't argue with that. But no water shooting out from the cooling outlet. No 'pissing'. Well, ok, that's an impeller issue. I had already watched videos of the Tohatsu line-up ahead of time. It's disconnecting the shift linkage, and four 1/2" nuts and the lower unit comes off. Cake. Ok, the price was still decent and considering how smooth it ran for the moment it ran, I made the deal. We loaded it into the back of my car, and headed to the boat.

This is where the weekend got back into the downs, part. Earlier in the week, I had inquired to the marina about the WiFi password, why my boat was back on A dock and would I be getting a credit for the difference, and lastly - most importantly - would the yard guy be able to drop my mast so I could straighten out my halyards. Initially unsure if he was taking the weekend off (and ok, seriously? I mean, I'm all for days off, but... come on. Wrong industry, honestly.), she did say he would be around and would reach out to get with me about it. Ok. Phew, I thought.

When I got to the boat, I noticed that my halyards were no longer twisted in the spreaders. Ok, so that's half the issue solved, must be he did that at some point. But, they still weren't cleared of the forestay attachment, which was the more pressing issue. And he was nowhere to be found. I don't know if he cleared them from the spreaders so that he could then take the weekend off anyway, or what. What I do know, is that it annoyed me. But I decided that it wasn't going to stop the weekend from trying to be a good one. We unloaded the Tohatsu from the back of the GL, and the homemade engine stand that I had brought along. Pulling the prop off the engine, we rigged up a 5 gallon bucket underneath, and tried starting again. Still no water. Ok, ok. Let's pull the lower unit and see what we see. And therein lies the first problem. We tapped one of the rolled pins out of the connector on the shift linkage, and removed the four 1/2" nuts on the lower unit. Maybe they're 13mm based on what people say, but my 1/2" wrench fit it exactly perfectly nicely.

And nothing budged.

When I say nothing budged, I mean not one micron. We tried everything. We used blocks of wood on the plate, bashing the absolute hell out it until there was nothing left but splinters. We did the same after we soaked the threads and seam with both penetrating liquid, and even lubricant on the flange.

This was when we finally admitted defeat, and turned our attention to the Mercury. We angled the boat in the slip and hauled it off the mount, and up to the stand. I sprayed a little go juice in the carb and it started, ran a little puffy and sputtered here and there. So we pulled the carb, and disassembled it again. Now, a little PSA - Whenever you have tiny bits, PUT THEM SOMEWHERE SAFE! When we were trying to drop the lower unit on the Tohatsu, I used vice grips to pull the pin out of the linkage. I THOUGHT I had set the pin on the tarp we had under us, and then we shook that all over, and I went - oh no.. And then disassembling the carb, I dropped the tiny little bb that goes on the spring in the diaphram. And when I say dropped, I mean on the ground, in the grass. So while Dad went through more of the carb, I was laying on the grass combing through all the blades hoping for something good. Turns out, I found it. And then shortly after, realized the rolled pin for the Tohatsu was still clamped in the jaws of the vice grips. So, don't do what I did.

We found that the float looked like it might've been upside down, so we flipped that. That would totally be my bad, but to be fair, I didn't have a manual. There were a couple bolts that weren't fully tight (don't know how that happened), and the adjustment screw on the top of the carb seemed way out. I never touched it, since when the motor did run, it seemed to run fine. Just took forever to start, but then always seemed ok. Turns out, that was out of whack. We put the carb back on, and it pulled over nice and smooth and started right up. We put it back on the boat to test going into gear, and wouldn't you know it that that stupid motor ran perfect? The real test will be next weekend, when I go back up and it's sat for a week.

We buttoned up Saturday and called it a night after a spin around the bay under motor. Sunday, we decided to play with a light air sail that Dad had brought. We motored out into the lake, turned East and after some very light puffs, finally had enough wind to get moving. Didn't take too long to get to where I normally anchor, so I hauled the Rocna up through the forward hatch, clipped it onto new chain and rode that he brought up, and dropped it over the side. And I can safely say, it holds just fine. Almost lost a finger (not really) learning how hard it catches. We ate lunch on the hook, and then hauled anchor back up. I think I strained something in my right arm doing it, man that thing is a beast to haul straight up with your arms out to keep it from bashing the hull. But, it does the job for sure. We sailed all the way back, and even into the channel in the bay, then down to the South end of the bay and then tacked back up, under headsail alone. Was good wind, and good times.

At least the weekend ended on a positive note, right?