1991 50hp bearing noise?

[tommy54]

I recently bought two pontoons, sight unseen, and need to sort them out. I was told by the marina that the nicer boat had a bit of "bearing noise, but they'll run forever like that." It is a 1991 Mercury 50 horsepower, 3 cylinder. I checked compression, which was perfect, and decided to run it today. It ran like a top, but it did seem to have some noise coming from beneath the flywheel. You can't really hear it with the cowl on the motor. Is this something I should just live with, like the marina told me to do? Can this be fixed without a ton of money? The merc is nice and clean, it does need the skeg repaired though. I'm a marine mechanic, but I work mainly on inboards. I'd like to fix this, but I may just swap out the motor for the 98 Evinrude 50 that came on the other boat if I have to. Thanks

 

[fastjeff]

Was running my own, older version of this motor just yesterday, and it too has such a noise. Listen to the video below and see if that sounds like yours.

Jeff

PS: In my case, I KNOW there's no bearing problems here since I just rebuilt the motor.

http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b393/Fastjeff/?action=view&current=TriplewithExtReeds.mp4

 

[tommy54]

Jeff,
It does sound like that. I'm not a big 2 stroke guy, to me they always sound like something is falling apart. Maybe I'm just not used to 2 stroke noise. I will probably sell the other pontoon I bought that has the 98 Evinrude 50, but I don't want to sell that motor if the Merc is on its way out. Is there any way to find out if I do have a crank bearing going out?

 

[racerone]

Start it up and listen to it with a large screw driver, one end on the block and one end on your ear.------------------Clearly a case of pay me now or pay a lot later.