You never know for sure whether a power head is trashed or not, until you take it all apart. Yeah, most times it is, but…..Recently I received an FD from member Fleetwin. The flywheel didn’t even ROCK, never mind turn. It was pretty obvious that the motor had seen salt. Even the steering was frozen. I wanted it mostly for the lower unit; but I’m not one to waste a single part, either. Based on previous experience, it was against my better judgement to even take the power head apart. To my surprise, when I did, I found that I could reuse every single bearing, worked really carefully and freed the rings and now have a power head that will be a great runner. Okay, the crank had some discoloration but no pits.
What I am trying to say is, if you like that Fastwin, don’t count it out just yet. If it were mine, I would first start by getting it running in a barrel on 24:1 mix, then fog it out, to preserve what’s left.. Then pull the power head and look at the carbon seal. If it’s broken, there you go. If the o-ring inside it is rock hard, maybe that’s all the problem is. At that point, you can decide whether to go further.
Regarding the my salty FD, this was the first time I tried using a small, battery-powered impact gun (Milwaukee) and a Snap-On, straight blade screw driver bit. I was AMAZED at how the very corroded, 1/4″ screws mostly just backed right out. In all the power head mounting screws and exhaust cover screws, I only broke ONE.
Long live American manufacturing!
