TOPIC: Off boat storage and rebuild for '65 Merc 1000?

I am sure I have some full system or partial. PM me if you like.

They pop up on EBAY all the time, but once you become familiar with what you are watching for I'll bet you can get a better deal locally off craigslist where guys peddle Mercs needing a rebuild for cheap - that just happens to have power trim.
I have attached a picture of my 1961 Merc with mid'70s power trim installed.
Works great.
Thom

Here's a pic of my '62 Power Cat 14T with my '63 Merc1000 and early merc trim attached.

The PC looking mighty fine Frank. Those seats look good. Comfy too.
Doc what is the extra hose or cable I see going into the M 800?

PC1000 wrote:

Here's a pic of my '62 Power Cat 14T with my '63 Merc1000 and early merc trim attached.

What prop is on that Merc? Looks wicked! You guys have me droolin over here

That is an 18P Merc Vengeance 3 blade ss cupped prop. It, along with the PT&T, makes my boat perform at the top of it's class for the vintage of the set-up. Gets me to 46 mph on gps.

Frank

Wow that is impressive! Very sharp looking boat.

Well, thank you. It was a long time coming. You can check out a photo history of it here: www.powercatboat.com/Group/FA_14t/FA_14t01.html

Jim,
That extra line holds the lanyard safety kill switch wires.
As you might recall - I have converted this 800FGS to solid state ignition so wiring the lanyard kill switch in this case has (2) wires. One to engine ground and the other goes to the brown terminal on the port side of the switchbox. (same terminal that the Mercury kill switch is wired to when one is used.
Thom

cool. thx.
J

Bonus points for being safe Thom! lol (Lanyard kill switch) Some states REQUIRE them, I know Alabama won't let you operate a boat over there without one, even if you're just visiting. Sure is a beautiful Glassic you've got there, care to share some more pics?!

(Sorry about wandering "off topic" Nick!)

Not a problem fellas! I enjoy the boat chit chat

I have made a little progress but the motor is still on the transom for now. Start disassembling so I can get the fuel tank out. There was more gas in there than I thought! I've already got out about 8 gallons but need some more gas cans.

Are there nuts on the inside of the transom for the motor mount? It looks like at the bottom of the motor mount there is (1) bolt on each side that might bolt through the transom? I noticed when I moved the tank out that it looks like there are a couple pads on the inside of the transom. Looks like they might be there covering the nuts to those bolts. Are there any other bolts holding it on besides the top in front of the transom that are clamps more or less.

Here's where I'm at. Sorry just a couple cell pics.

Gas tank pulled out for siphoning.



Checking to see if I'll have to pull the boat forward to get the motor off.

Yes, there should be two bolts at the bottom of the motor bracket with nuts and washers inside the transom.

Frank

Perfect! Thank you.

Finally!

I ended up having to twist the tilt tube in the motor mount to un-thread the tube that was connected to the fitting on the steering cable housing. Interesting setup to say the least.

Gas tank pulled out to get to the motor mount bolts



On her way up





New home for a while

Great looking engine and a cool project, but do something for me. Take those Clymer and Seloc manuals you have, put them in your fireplace and use them for kindling. Contact East Coast Marine and order a reprinted copy of the original Merc factory manual for your engine and read it cover to cover. Clear a lot of space for your teardown and rebuild, and bag and tag everything. Take digital pictures of the powerhead at every stage and keep them somewhere safe, you will need them later! Slow and careful is the key here, as things can get ugly real quick if you forget something during the rebuild. They are not hard to do, but you have to follow the rules and take your time! Ask lots of questions, that's why were are here. Good luck.

Regards George Garland

NRummy wrote:

How hard are they to come by? I'll have to read up on what it might take to get one. It definitely would be worth having and I have plenty of time to keep an eye out.

Keep an eye on your local Craigslist- an occasional parts motor with the needed power trim intact may show up. Added plus, you can see how everything is rigged BEFORE you start swapping.

My turn ot chime in.
First good for you deciding to restore the boat. It looks to be in good shape cosmetic wise so it'll be a beauty when the rot is fixed.
As far as the Merc goes (I'm another inline 6 junkie..help!)
The "flush" port is just that, When you look at the bottom piece of the watermump housing that fits into the lower unit, the passage way that you thread into channels water up the water tube to the block and dos bypass the impellor. The intent is to be able ot flush the motor without running it to clear the block and exhaust water jacket of corrosiv esalt water or flush silt out. You may get a minimum of water pushing back to the impellor outlet but you are lucky mnot to have damaged the impellor. If you want to run the motor get muffs.
Jim, Bobs nose cone bypass hoses thread into NEW holes that are added intersecting into the water intake passage. The existing multi hole intake is blocked off during the process of installing the new nose piece.
The 25 :1 ratio would not hurt anything but you will smoke more and have faster carbon build-up.
Hesitation can come from many things. The easiest cure is to richen the idle mixture screws a tad. There are no accelerator pumps on these carbs like you see on a car so the idle circuit has to dump fuel at sudden throttle opening to cover the bogging of this temporary leanout. The next thing is that I doubt the points have been touched, this is the last year of the two coil/two point set distributor. The point sets may be worn and out of adjustment. This is a little more complicated. The lower portion of the distributor splits in half to facilitate the adjustment but it is fairly involved and not the post to delve into the proceedure. I do see you have blue ignition wires which are non-original so someone has been doing some tuneup work. The ignition wires generally never go bad so it is cuious this was done. Maybe they did some points work too, that's either good or scary depending on their working knowlege of these two point set ignitions.
I agree, burn the manuals you have and get the MERC manual for 65 and later. It is worth the cost... period.
There is no high speed testing that can be done on the stand with muffs. There is no load on the motor and other than idle the fuel loads are totally different so you cannot adjust for your hesitation this way. Your motor is timed by measuring piston position BTDC rather than a timing light. That's just the way Merc did these dual point systems, there is no timing light marker.
To store the motor I would run it at idle on muffs, and then spray fogging oil in the three carbs, un plug the fuel connector and let it run out of gas while you continue ot spray fogging oil.
This will coat internals adn eliminate fuel from gumming up over time. What little is left in the system will evaporate. Check the gear oil, should not be creamy color (mocha) and no plain water.
Your motor is such a clean original it is my humble opinion that you should leave the cosmetics alone, anyone can repaint but only clean well cared for motors have the original paint so keep it if you can. These are old and the patina from age is OK if it's decent.
There are several things you can do the the motor while waiting for the boat to be done. All will require some disassembly to get at the parts for replacement. These motors are pretty bullet proof if you keep the impellor good and mix your fuel. I think the 90 cu in motors (like your 1000) is one of the best inline 6 motors Merc made. The basic mechanics are probably fine on your motor, it is seals and the distributor that should be refurbished. Once it's back on th eboat I'd run some decarbonizer through it to keep the rings healthy. Judjing by the condition of the inner wire harness you have a GEM on your hands.
As far as trim goes, the clamp bracket, two cylinder in place of the shock systems, became available in 67 and will go on earlier motors, Merc made them to retrofit and they sold a kit to do so, the very early FGS 6's needed an upgraded clamp bracket but I think yours is fine, there are missing holes on the earlier brackets which are not easily added in the right place. The parts from a donor motor will swap right over. You will need to REMOVE your reverse tilt lock mechanism on your motor to do this. On a boat like yours expect minimal performance increase, I'd only do it if you are constantly avoiding shallows due to not having a handy tilt up. Spend your money wisely reliability should trump performance if you are on a budget, otherwise go for it!
These are fascinating motors for sure and pretty straight forward but, it is the sublties that seperate a great running one from a not so good one. If you have good mechanical aptitude you have plugged into the right place for knowlege. Expect to have to buy a few Merc specialty tools as well as parts.
Good luck,
Randy

Very easy to put on IMO. I just sold one complete for $250 on ebay. It was in great shape. So I think you can get them for around that.

I see them on ebay all the time, just keep an eye out. But remember hoses will run you another 200 bucks if they are bad:(

I have 2 more extras that I am putting on other boats. Best thing you can do for your old boat IMO. Very very nice to have.
Conrad

Thanks for the replies, especially you 63g3! That was a great read.

How long do you think it can be stored if I do the procedure you mentioned? Or is it better to hook up the controls and a gas tank and idle it on the motor stand? I haven't had any time to mess with it. It's been freezing cold here in Ohio and my garage gets down to around 40-50. Not freezing but not fun to work in. I need to get a heater!

As for the points and the plugs, I do know that my grandfather has worked on the motor himself and I know he has done work with the points before. I'm not sure if he changed the wires or not. He bought the motor back in '84 I believe.

How hard is it to setup the motor on the stand to be run? Is there a way to run it idling without having to run throttle cables and what not? I know there would most likely have to be the main electric hook up for ignition.

I run my '63 1000 on a stand with just the ignition hooked up and my finger on the throttle control. You don't want to rev it up on muffs, but as long as you have good water flow and volume, it's easy to do.

Frank

Thanks Frank, that makes sense. Do you have a short ignition lead you made for the stand or do you just run it near a boat with an ignition plug handy?

What do I need to do for gas tank for running on the stand? The tank I pulled out of the boat is a monster. Probably 20 gallons or so. Just pick up a 3 gallon tank somewhere? Are there tanks specifically made for running motors? I know I've seen them in smaller boats. It looks like the tank in the boat has a sending unit in it? I can't imagine it being for the fuel gauge since it moves around like it's analog.

The boat had a MESS of wires near the fuel tank and main wire harness for the motor. That's something I'm really excited about tidying up.

When running a Merc on the stand with water muffs of course, but without control cables or the external harness attached, you should remove the propeller and shift the Merc into Forward gear before starting by 'hot wire'.
The the shift linkage is VERY LIKELY to jump into Forward gear without warning if the beast is started in Neutral without control cables attached.
Thom

I never had that problem Thom, but as always, I will keep that in mind. No one ever told me that, that I can remember anyways!

Before I put my boat together I had the controls mounted right on my motor stand. I use a standard 6 gallon tank for fuel. Any kind of tank that can take the fuel fitting will work.

I'd be excited about organizing those wires too. Just so you feel better, trust me, I've seen worse. I picked up an old Manatee ski boat with a 115 hp Johnson on it many years ago (early 90's maybe). You didn't want to touch the aluminum windshield frame if the key was on - you'd get a 12v shock. I wish I had some pics of that boat. We had one heck of a time with it after I rebuilt it, including a complete re-wiring.

Frank

Thom is spot on. The shift mechanism is spring loaded in the lower unit and will snap into forward with the least bit of effort.
Why would you want to start the motor on the stand? There is little you can accomplish other than it runs and pumps water, which you already know. Just seems like an invitation for something bad to happen. In my humble opinion, as far as storage, I think you are better off fogging it and leaving it than starting occasionally unless you fog and run the gas out everytime, I'm not sure what this accomplishes.
I started a Merc 1250 that was correctly fogged, gas run out and stored on a stand that just sat since 1984 in a nice dry garage.
Emphasis on dry. Keep the motor from condensation forming.
My 2 cents.
BTW I love the looks of the 65/66 Mercs all the chrome of the older ones with the more modern mecahnics of the later ones. 65 was the first year of the quieter cowlings and the last year with the points. You could upgrade to Thunderbolt ignition as the 66 had it as an option on the SS models. In 66 the Thunderbolts were still triggered by points but the switch box did the work so the points never burn out. If you got a later distributor you could eliminate the points too. It's not too bad as the internal cowl frame style makes it a pretty easy upgrade.
Randy