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need advice on a 78 Mercury 200 20 HP

psunexus

New member
I recently came across this motor sitting in a trailer that was being torn down and I'm trying to find out if it's worth restoring and if parts are still available for it.
I've previously restored a 79 Mercury 110 after it was sitting in a basement for 20 years, so I'm hoping to have similar luck with this one.

I've done a compression test and it came back at 110 PSI, so it looks like compression is decent on the outboard. I've also drained the lower gear oil, and it's just really dark, with no water or flakes in it, so I think that's in alright shape too. At this point I'm pretty sure that if I do some standard maintence like a carb rebuild and a water pump/impeller replacement, I can get this running again.

However the reason for my post is because I noticed some damage to the clamp and swivel bracket that I missed till I got it home. Please see the photos below for reference, to me it looks like lever that locks the outboard into the correct trim setting and the metal piece that holds the motor in the raised position are broken, Are this easy parts to find and replace? Also am I missing anything else?

I don't see to have the ability to upload the images for some reason so they can be viewed at the link below
https://photos.app.goo.gl/S8qWC5RAP8Hi0gk63
 
Just a quick update, last night I tried to start the engine so I swapped out the spark plug, hooked up my fuel tank and dropped it into my water barrell. The good news is that the engine fired up on it's 2nd pull, bad news is I had to shut it down immediately because the outboard is stuck in Fwd, and the throttle on the till won't move, I'm only getting about 1/4 turn on the tiller. When the engine fired up it emptied my barrell of water in like 10 seconds, lol, it scared the crap out of me.. Currently my working theory is that the throttle is stuck open which is prevent the forward gear from dropping back into neutral. Does anyone have any advise on how to troubleshoot this? I'm really not sure where to start to look to troubleshoot, so any advice is appreciated.

Oh, as for my first post, I've order a replacement reverse clamp from ebay and also the lift lever that is supposed to hold the outboard in it's up position, I hope to have this stuff next week.
 
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