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I looked at a Mercury 60hp like mine on a rack, at the dealer, and the engine pivoted easily on the main axes shaft. When I disconnected my steering link and move my engine it was considerably harder to turn than the new engine. I could turn the new engine with one finger and my engine needs a whole hand and some weight applied.
I purchased the Steersman nut for the cable, an I am happy with it, but with the steering link disconnected the cable has nothing to do with the main shaft.
What should my next move be?
Bad Service Experience Rant:
I made an appointment to have my steering checked and engine serviced. Well the dealer absolutely refused to check my steering after he said he would. He said I would have to make an appointment to have it checked separately but he was booked out a few months, and said he would need the boat for 2-3 weeks. He said warranty would probably cover it. I tried to make another appointment but his comment was "any authorized Mercury service center could do the work." He absolutely did not want the work. Boyd's Marine, Dothan, AL. They are the only Mercury service center for 60 miles. They had quoted me $500 plus for the appointment on the phone but only charged me $225 so I know they did not do everything we talked about. They would not change my water-pump either saying the pressure was good. Then they put down 883 hours for the engine instead of 88.3 hours the engine has. I asked them to correct that and he said the ticket was closed and he could not change it, but he did scratch it out and write the correct hours on the sheet.
Grease all grease fittings. There are several on the motor. Use marine grade grease and grease gun and go at it. Do it until stuff starts coming out than wipe off excess with a rag. Also turn the motor right and left while you pushing grease will help.
There is no need to use a Mercury Dealer to do generic work on your engine. Any decet shop can change your water pump impeller.
Having said that, if the pressure is within specs there is no reason to install an impeller kit. Boyd's Marine sounds like an ethical operation that wanted to treat you right by not doing unnecessary work. They may also have figured you would rather grease your own zerks than have them do it at $100 plus per hour labor cost. This is a very busy time for shops and they try to use it to serve as many customer needs as possible. I would not write them off.
chawk25 wrote:
Grease all grease fittings. There are several on the motor. Use marine grade grease and grease gun and go at it. Do it until stuff starts coming out than wipe off excess with a rag. Also turn the motor right and left while you pushing grease will help.
I tried this this morning. I pumped threw a whole tube of marine grease, ten pumps, then swiveled the engine about twenty times, ten more pumps, etc.. At first it was hard to pump but eventually it got easy. It was easy with the engine turned all the way to one side but when it is close to straight It won't go in. Now the engine swivels easier and will fall to one side when titled up. I think would not have been a warranty issue, but instead a lack of maintenance issue. I think it was grease that had gotten stiff, and there is still some stiff grease in there. There was only one(1) grease fitting on the main swivel I looked really hard for more but there are no more. I believe if it had a couple more grease fittings it would help. Some heat may have helped too but I did not have a torch on hand. I can now turn the steering wheel with one finger and it doesn't hang when starting the turn. Would it be ok to drill and install more grease fittings?
The other day I had greased the main swivel but I stopped once it started coming out of the top. Apparently that was not enough grease to make an improvement.
butchdavis wrote:
There is no need to use a Mercury Dealer to do generic work on your engine. Any decet shop can change your water pump impeller.
Having said that, if the pressure is within specs there is no reason to install an impeller kit. Boyd's Marine sounds like an ethical operation that wanted to treat you right by not doing unnecessary work. They may also have figured you would rather grease your own zerks than have them do it at $100 plus per hour labor cost. This is a very busy time for shops and they try to use it to serve as many customer needs as possible. I would not write them off.
I think they were so backed up with easy money they didn't want to do any extras. I had an appointment for them to check the steering (and service) and they would not even look at the steering. They would not even turn the steering wheel to give me an opinion on the steering. I was perfectly willing to pay the $119 per hour for them to look at it. The "service advisor" told me that disconnecting the steering link still caused drag on the engine so they would have to remove the engine from the boat and remove the steering cable to check the steering. Either he was dumb/uneducated/lacked experience or he thought I was dumb. I lack experience in outboards but I am not dumb. I could easily see that once the link was disconnected it had no effect on the rest of the engine. I finally stopped trying to get threw to him. I can change my own water pump, I have done it a few times before, but I wanted them to do it. The engine and boat are a 2013 model and had never been serviced.
2013 Boston Whaler Montauk 150 with a 60hp Mercury 4s bigfoot.
Lacking experience with outboards is certainly a liability when dealing with a service advisor who also apparently lacks experience. We all went through the "lack of experience" phase.
I've found that elevating an issue to the manager or owner level is usually effective but if that fails it's on to another shop. I have been there.
