How much maintenance do you do?

[Lootas1]

I post this knowing I'll never sell one of my old outboards to a club member after this but, I was reading the shop manual for Johnson/Evinrude and was amazed at the amount of maintenance they recommend. For example, after running your outboard in fresh water, you should flush it with clear water for 5-10 minutes. If you ran it in saltwater, you should flush for more than 15 minutes. I've never flushed an outboard after running in fresh water. I guess they might be talking about really silted water or something but why run tap water through at outboard that has been running in a lake so clean you can see bottom in 10 feet or more of water? When I run in salt, I hose the outboard off and then flush for at most 5 minutes. In about 40 years and more than a dozen outboards, I've never had to go inside a motor for repairs. Sure, fuel pumps, water impellers, plugs, plug wires, carb cleaning and even points, condensers and such on 60 year old "collector" motors. Never been in around rings, etc.
I've dropped outboards in lakes while running, saltwater while not running. Most of the time, I pulled the plugs, dried things out and sprayed a lot of WD40 and ran the motor trouble free for another 10 years or so and they were still running fine when I passed them along to the next owner.
I lean toward, if it works, don't mess with it. How about the rest of you? I'm guessing there are some as bad as me and some that do more maintenance than the service manual says.
What say you?
Jerry:boater1:

[Skagitguy]

Jerry, I know what you mean about flushing it after being in a lake , but i still do it. I have been told to always run after salt water and while it is running , i wipe down the whole boat after washing it and by that time the hose has done it trick. Has always work for me. By the way the Evinrude will need a spring tune up next spring. As far as maintenance goes i take it to a shop. Do have some tools on board, but don't know why. lol. Best,Chuck

P.S. That part where you said " I post this knowing I'll never sell one of my old outboards to a club member after this " Jerry, I will still give you $100.00 for your Rude.

[Seakaye12]

I would never think to "flush" a motor after running in fresh water. Never heard of such a thing. As far as salt water is concerned; I am a bit of a fanatic there. Not only will I flush it for at least 15 minutes; I will usually remove the cowl and rinse it down a bit. don't really enjoy running my motors in salt water. I sometimes get asked if I'm planning to take them to the grave with me.

Living where I do, it really never gets cold enough to prevent year-round boating...so I rarely do foggings or the like. But I typically change impellers every two years lower unit oil at least once a season.

I figure that those things are simple and quick; and come with a very high nuisance vs.benefit factor.

That's maintenance. Then there's REPAIRS. I have a lot of fun there and always take it as a challenge. That's a key reason why I like the older engines. You CAN work on them. So far I've never needed to get into the "internals"...but I've trouble-shooted and replaced ignition components and the like. I will buy simple tools as required and read the forums and ask a loot of questions before-hand...and have been successful so far.

Chuck in Santa Barbara

[Lootas1]

I'm guessing you never replaced the impeller in the '47 Scott-Atwater. I had a 1947 3.6 hp. Champion (made by Scott-Atwater) and it had an aluminum impeller. That was a bullet proof little motor. My only problem was you couldn't spin it around to get reverse. It was get the boat pointed in the direction you wanted to go, yank the starter and away you went.

[GregJ]

Jerry, I have the same engine you do and I flush after salt and sometimes after being in a lake. I fog after every season. I also get a tune up every other year. I have had this engine for 13 years and with the tune up the empeller is always checked and it has always been in good shape. The lower unit oil has always been good but I replace that anyway. The compression has always been 175 on both cylinders. The only big problem I have had is the magnet that surrounds the armiture in the starter motor has broke on two different starter motors. Tim McCain told me that that is probably due to both of them being rebuilds. They don't replace the magnet in a rebuild so eventually after so many rebuilds the glue gives away and they break. The last time was on Lake Chelan. That motor will pull start but it might require two people, one to pull the rope and another to push in the key to prime the carb with gas if the engine is cold. Look at your starter motor and if it has no manufactures lable on it, it is probably a rebuild. I put in a new starter this time and it cost more but it's worth having the piece of mined.

[Lootas1]

Greg, ah, you are talking about the 50 hp 'Rude. Took me a minute as I was working on my Johnson 9.9 because the pull start doesn't engage regularly and I got a shop manual to try to figure out how to hook the rod from the shift lever to the lockout on the pull start. Book wasn't any use to me as the only photo was so dark I couldn't see just how to hook the rod on the top and it appears to be different from the exploded view in the book.
Anyway, I do replace lower unit grease in my motors every fall but as I said, the 'Rude starts right up and runs smoothly. Why mess with that? I'm expecting it to last my lifetime and then some without any real attention. Once bought a fogging kit to use on my Merc 650 but, after reading the instructions, I did what I usually do and just hook my flush hose on it about once a month all winter and fired it up for awhile and called it good. I do carry a small tool kit in the boat but I'm dangerous when I start DIY projects and almost always end up at a shop spending more money than I would have had I just taken it in instead of messing with it.

[Wally]

I flush and fog but the old Mercs like the Mark 58A have a water impeller cover plate that can corrode into place.

So I drop the lower unit and at least remove the impeller cover plate. I then turn the drive shaft a bit every once in a while to swap positions of the impeller vanes so one vane doesn't stay squished all winter. I also change impellers about every other year since I have it all open. They're only $19 a piece so I consider that good insurance.