Outboard questions?
 

I am looking at a boat with a 1985 115hp Johnson(sp) eggbeater on it. I dont know sh!t about outboards and was wondering what their typical life span was? All the guy could tell me was that, he never had any problems with it, and it had had a new lower unit at one time, also has a nose cone w/ low water pickup. I also heard at one time that you could no longer get parts for Johnson and Evinrude because of bankrupcy or something:confused: How complicated are ob's to work on compared to I/Os? The seller also has no idea of the hrs. on the motor. Do theese motors last or should I move on:confused:

Fix what you have! Sounds like with the answers the seller gave you, too much time would be spent working on both of your boats.

Out boards are a piece of cake to work on. You'll still have plenty of time to work on other things. Go to http://forums.screamandfly.com/forum...?s=&forumid=24 and pose the same question, as they are the equivelant of OSO for outboard guys....... Good Luck. ps. those things can run for about 1000 hrs w/o trouble. I'd do a compression check and a thorough water test to make sure.;) Here's another starter search, looks like parts and support are still out there !!!!!!!! http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...outboard+parts

outboards are easy to get to and easy to work on. You don't have to crawl in a bilge either. trust me I have 3 on the back of mine.

Had a '85 90 hp rudy that was never a problem, the 115 is a looper of the same moter. Also have a late 70's 15 hp that just ate a reed valve, again it's a rudy. We have a mid 90s 115 in the jet boat, OMC only problems were the oil injection pump and voltage regulator went about a month ago. I have heard that some of the OMC motors (Evinrude/Johnson) suffered from electronic module failures. Our family always owned OMC outboards and only had 1 failure of that type in a 1986 225.

Since Bombardia (sp) took over the company getting parts is not a problem.

I guess these guys don't know you :D

Fix what you have!:p