I am in possession of a 21' bass boat that belongs to a friend of mine who lives in another state. So I store his boat and get to use it. The only thing better than owning a boat is free access to someone else's boat, right?
I know this engine has not had a tune-up in at least a couple seasons; he bought it used a couple years ago. It ran great last year, but the few times we took it out this year we had problems. I've been too busy to get it looked at, but still want to as we have at least another month here of great boating weather, and fishing is still good in the winter, too.
So, it's a Mercury Black Max 175 outboard. We have lots of trouble getting it started, and then when we finally do, it won't run past idle. I wanted to do a basic tune-up myself before trying anything more drastic.
My first thought was to find the factory service manual for the engine. I'm not exactly an engine mechanic, but I am a tradesman with a lot of tools, and once I know what a problem is, I'm pretty good at swapping parts.
So, I went to the engine this morning to get the serial number to know what service manual I need. I found the sticker (!) that has the serial number right where the Internet told me to look for it. So far, so good. Except the sticker appears damaged in that I can't read all the digits. It is also peeling up at the corners, almost as if I could peel it off if I wanted to. It even appears as if it is a second sticker applied over another one.
My first thought is: "Why is the serial number on a sticker and not stamped into the bracket?"
My next thought is: "I don't care; I just want to get a service manual and get to work."
Here's what I can make out on the serial number sticker: ___I99_06, with the underscores being what I can't read.
I know this engine has not had a tune-up in at least a couple seasons; he bought it used a couple years ago. It ran great last year, but the few times we took it out this year we had problems. I've been too busy to get it looked at, but still want to as we have at least another month here of great boating weather, and fishing is still good in the winter, too.
So, it's a Mercury Black Max 175 outboard. We have lots of trouble getting it started, and then when we finally do, it won't run past idle. I wanted to do a basic tune-up myself before trying anything more drastic.
My first thought was to find the factory service manual for the engine. I'm not exactly an engine mechanic, but I am a tradesman with a lot of tools, and once I know what a problem is, I'm pretty good at swapping parts.
So, I went to the engine this morning to get the serial number to know what service manual I need. I found the sticker (!) that has the serial number right where the Internet told me to look for it. So far, so good. Except the sticker appears damaged in that I can't read all the digits. It is also peeling up at the corners, almost as if I could peel it off if I wanted to. It even appears as if it is a second sticker applied over another one.
My first thought is: "Why is the serial number on a sticker and not stamped into the bracket?"
My next thought is: "I don't care; I just want to get a service manual and get to work."
Here's what I can make out on the serial number sticker: ___I99_06, with the underscores being what I can't read.
