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80 mercury 50 horse no power. ..

CaptainWelder

New member
So I just got my boat out on Sunday and it has hardly any power. It sat for 13 years before I got it. It starts right up (at full throttle) won't idle and I can only get it up to about ten mph. I'm assuming the carbs are completely gunked up. How do I clean them? How do I get them off? There's two carbs hooked to each other. Never messed with anything like this before. How much would a mechanic cost to clean them? I looked in this forum a bit but didn't really find what I was looking for. TIA!
 
Sat for thirteen years - the carbs are just ONE of the things that needs to be taken care of to rehab this motor.

If you are going to do it yourself, get a Seloc's manual - it will walk you through the process.

You will also likely need carb kits. You may want a fuel pump kit (13 years is a long time to sit doing nothing). Also, you need to do the waterpump - impeller, gaskets and seals.

Change the lower unit oil - at least inspect the sparkplugs (personally I would change them). Clean up any/all electrical connections etc - you are "returning this motor from the dead" - without some prep work and tlc it will return to the dead in short order.

The cost for a shop to do this might be cost prohibitive - at an estimate you are looking at $350 plus parts to have the two carbs done, add in the other things I mentioned and a thousand bucks could evaporate in short order if they found a few other items.

Bringing an old motor back to life after sitting that long is maybe not something you want to do if you are looking to use it "next week" and don't want to spend a great deal of money on it.

I do hope you got it for a decent price. When I try to determine the "value" of something such as this, I factor in the cost of the rehab and then decide if the asking price is fair or not...
 
I paid 600 for it mounted on a a16' Ozark bass boat that isn't in too bad of shape. I feel I'm ok to put 500 tin the motor. I've rewired the trailer and replaced the old non working bow mount, added fresh gas an impeller and that's it so far. I took it out but it's just a dog. I'm going to start in on the fuel delivery system. Where do I get one of those manuals you spoke of?
 
This site sells them in printed or download format, or just about any boat dealer/merc dealer - think they go for about 35 bucks...
 
I paid 600 for it mounted on a a16' Ozark bass boat that isn't in too bad of shape. I feel I'm ok to put 500 tin the motor. I've rewired the trailer and replaced the old non working bow mount, added fresh gas an impeller and that's it so far. I took it out but it's just a dog. I'm going to start in on the fuel delivery system. Where do I get one of those manuals you spoke of?
 
Why did it sit for 13 years ?----------------Might want to remove the lower unit.------Then look up the exhaust tube.-------Look for blockage with solid carbon.------------Might not be the issue but would be a cheap fix.
 
The woman's husband died 13 or 14 years ago now and the boat just sat. It finally came up for sale so I got it. The lower unit is good and I've changed tge impeller for the water pump. I'm going to start at tge fuel tank get some non oxygenated gas run some seafoam pretty strong fist then work my way to the carbs.
 
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