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Did i get a good deal?

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ntrueman28

New member
Just picked up a 1986 mercury 70hp 3 cyl for 200 bucks. checked the compression and I had 100 on top 90 in middle and 100 on bottom. I didnt check for spark as the previous guy unplugged everything for some reason when he took it off. I have a video of it running supposedly from right before winter. he also cut the shifter cables. I was trying to move the shifter manually and I pushed it all the way towards the back of the motor and I spin the prop and its nuetral and spins all direction. when I pull it to the front it clicks and it sounds clockwise with the click sound and turns the engine counter clockwise, I can move it further forward but I dont really feel a click and it doesnt change direction. is reverse supposed to be behind nuetral? like the control box? it had some play behind nuetral but not sure if it will actually click into it. The guy ensured me the lower unit was good (who knows if hes telling the truth). overall I think I can get my 200 back pretty easily? Do you think that compression will run fine?
 
My Merc service manuals say that anything below 120 PSI one should expect problems. The clicking is the "overrun clutch" in the lower unit. The purpose of that is that if you are up and running and cut the throttle, the propeller doesn't drive the engine....in a worst case scenario, if you had a windshield, your teeth might wind up in it for the sudden interruption in the boats forward travel.
 
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