TOPIC: First Merc... any pointers?

Hey everyone... been a few years since I posted on here, but I guess I couldn't stay away completely. go figure, right? =)

A buddy of mine needed a new home for his 1970 Sabre-Craft Wildcat 14' boat. It has a Mercury 500 on the back of it and, judging from the serial number (2951367 - looked it up here: store.oldmercs.com/category_s/868.htm ), it's also a 1970... perhaps original to the boat?!



So, since I now own my first Mercury... is there anything to look out for? any tips/tricks/advice from you pros that you'd like to pass along? I am fairly handy with a wrench and this isn't the first old outboard i've fooled with. I just wondered if there were any Mercury specific things I needed to be on the lookout for.

-Chris

after posting i jumped back over to the oldmercs website and noticed the following:

"1970-73 Merc 500's were produced in Merc 500M (Manual Starting, Short Shaft,) Merc 500ML (Manual Starting, Long Shaft,) Merc 500E (Electric Starting, Short Shaft, with Alternator) and Merc 500EL (Electric Starting, Long Shaft, with Alternator)"

Considering that I have electric start on this thing, am I to take this to mean that there's an alternator on it that'll charge the battery?!

Sorry to ask the noob questions, but i haven't really pulled the cover off to look around much and I won't have time to do anything with it until this weekend. Patience isn't really my thing either =)

Great motor.
things to check
wiring plugs fuel pump diaphragm water pump clean the mag cap and plugs. clean the carbs all should get you in good shape. Or try to start it and go from there.

dave bernard wrote:

Great motor.
things to check
wiring plugs fuel pump diaphragm water pump clean the mag cap and plugs. clean the carbs all should get you in good shape. Or try to start it and go from there.

thanks for the tips!

Lucky for me, my buddy had the motor gone through top to bottom professionally before parking the boat. I'm hoping to be able to just do a bit of cleaning and replace the lower unit oil and be off, but we'll see. I did try to fire it up and found a few corroded spots in the wiring that i'll need to tend to before being able to use the electric start reliably.

I was able to crank it up with the pull start just to verify it runs but man, that's a pain! definitely want to fix the wiring ASAP so that I don't have to do that again!

-Chris