What's the issues? Older OMC's are pretty easy to work on.
Well, the necessary background information goes like this: I bought the 1980 Lund with the 1979 75hp Evinrude from my in-laws last year. Not really any issues with it besides the starter needing to be replaced and a bilge pump that went out mid-summer. Nothing too bad. Stored it inside all winter after replacing fluid in lower unit. Replaced the air intake gasket this spring as it was starting to fall apart. Replaced bearings, seals, and races on the trailer this spring. There is no power tilt or trim with the motor. To trailer it, you must tilt the motor up by manually lifting up on the lower unit, then fold down two “legs” onto the transom bracket. These legs each sit on a tab on either side of the transom bracket. The in-laws have a place on the lake, and they never really fished anywhere else, so they never depended on those tabs & legs much – didn’t need to.
Have had the boat out about a half-dozen times this year so far, no issues up until this weekend. Pulled the boat out of the garage Saturday morning, got all loaded up and me and kiddo #1 set out for Hazen bay, a short 15 mile drive for me. I stopped at one of the two gas stations in Hazen to fill up with premium unleaded. I usually stop at the other gas station, but this one was just a little bit closer and I really needed to get going. Filled gas & mixed proper oil ratio into then, then headed out. When we got to the ramp, I walked back to put the plug into the boat just before backing down and offloading. I noticed that the motor wasn’t tilted up anymore, and that one of the two legs that holds the motor tilted up was broken off, and that the tab for the leg on the other side of the transom bracket was broken off. What the crap….I wasn’t driving like a bat out of hell, and didn’t come across any other bumps that were out of the ordinary in my drive…must have just been “that time” for the ol’ girl to give it up after 40 years of service. I looked it over pretty good, and everything else seemed fine with the motor, so I offloaded the boat and loaded up the kiddo.
We took off and everything ran fine for about ½ mile into the trip. At nearly WOT, the motor started to surge as if one of my gas tanks were near empty. I had filled both of the tanks that morning, so I knew that wasn’t the issue. The primer bulb was still hard, so I figured maybe she just needed to idle and warm up a bit more, being the cold-blooded beast she is. Let it warm up, and we took off a couple of minutes later. No problems. Got to the spot I wanted to fish ~ 3miles away and fished for maybe 3-4 hours. It got time to drop the boy back off at the dock with mama, so I fired up the motor. Let it idle for a bit, then went to kick ‘er down. Same thing, went maybe ½ mile then it starts surging again. Put it into neutral, and it died. Started it back up, and put it in gear. It ran for a couple hundred yards, then bogged way down and almost died. I put it in neutral, it ran a few more seconds, then died again. I lifted the warm-up lever by the throttle controls and started it up. It revved up just like it should, and I let it run for a little bit. Backed down on the warm-up lever, and sometimes it would die, sometimes it wouldn’t. It finally got to the point where it wouldn’t start. It would crank, but not start. I checked and re-checked the spark plug wires and everything seemed fine there. Checked the fuel filter and that seemed fine, nothing plugged up in it. Sat there scratching my head for a bit trying not to teach my son some new words. Turned the key over, it started, and I was able to run about half-throttle all the way back to the dock.
Got home, parked it in the driveway, and noticed some gas/oil leaking out from somewhere under the powerhead, but above the lower unit/shaft. This is new, not sure what might have happened here, but something changed when the motor slammed down after the “tilt legs” broke. Have done some looking, and I think it’ll be next to impossible to find a new transom bracket. Have gone back and forth in my head in the past about running a transom saver, and have done lots of reading about the subject. What I found was all inconclusive, and I had the tilt legs, so that’s all I ran with. There is now a transom saver coming to my door in the next day or two. I know, I know….I should have been running a transom saver from the get-go in order to prevent this mishap. Hard learning experience so far, but it's one I won’t soon forget. I’ll be replacing the spark plugs this week just in case this solves part of the issue. I replaced them last year, but not yet this year. I know this isn't probably the full solution, but it sure can't hurt anything for a couple bucks and a few minutes of my time.
