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I brought home the motor from my recent Whaler purchase, and I was surprised to find all of the rubber shock mounts broken (it has six of them) It is an '83 Johnson 35. I've been working on marine engines all my life, and never see such a failure. The motor has been sitting for years, but it was covered, and they were broken when I first looked at it. One thing is that the motor had a Dol-Fin whale tail on it, and I wondered if the unnatural lift of this could have caused the failure. I won't get into the whole whale tail debate; they do work on light boats with heavy motors, but I've heard thay can cause problems. Anyone else ever seen this?

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You didn't say how long the motor had been sitting covered. Is it possible that they dry rotted and basically desenigrated?

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I tend to agree with ioptfm,

Whenever I have needed to replace the mounts on customers engines, it's normally obvious when they've hit an obstruction and done damage. When they're all wiped out it is normally associated with dry rot.

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No sign of ever hitting anything. Rubber products do deteriorate quickly here in FL. I don't know if the top front one is broken yet, but it is listed as no longer available. Even if it's not broken, I would expect it to fail soon. Any ideas on what to do for that part? I think it's normally in compression, so failure wouldn't be as catastrophic as some of the other ones.

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You can probably salvage some from an old motor that is beyond repair......Check with the dealers in your area and you may be able to get some from their junk pile.

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I had a 1972 Johnson 40 with the same problem. Marinengine.com had the mounts. Call the guy and discuss on the phone. He was good to deal with.