Well, I was able to spend about an hour with Pastor Jeff today looking at his motor. The motor has a lot going for it, but it has some issues as well. Ideally, Pastor Jeff would like to get this up and running and is happy enough to pay someone to do it for him. He’s got some car resto experience, but none with boat motors. So, if anyone wants to talk to him about this he can be reached at revjeffrudolph@me.com.
OK, with that said, on to the good news. We got spark in both plugs. The coils have been replaced at some point in the past, so they don’t have the usual original "cracked" ones. Here are pictures of the two coils:
The hood is weathered, but did not appear to be cracked anywhere. Also, the medallion on the back of the hood is in tact:
The propeller, knobs, original pull handle and transom screws are all there:
Also, for a Florida motor, there did not appear to be any obvious signs of salt water corrosion, or at least nothing more than I am used to seeing on old motors up in Michigan.
Now for the issues. I went and bought a compression tester at Harbor Freight before meeting up with Pastor Jeff (I needed a new one anyway). I was only able to test the upper cylinder because I could not figure out how to get the hose screwed into the bottom one with the lower shroud in the way. Anyhow, the upper cylinder only tested out at 30psi. Now, this is a HF special, and I think that typically they read quite low. So, it may not be as big a concern as it first appears. Also, the compression "sounded" OK to my ears (thunk thunk and not clunk clunk). Still, something to investigate further.
At some point in the past someone attached a handmade "planer" to the lower unit. Also, the lower unit is an obvious replacement from a Johnson as can be seen by its green color:
Probably the biggest problem is that neither the throttle handle (grip is there and in tact, btw) nor the gear shifter move. So, it seems to me that something not cool is going on in the gear box. So this, combined with the aforementioned aftermarket planer mean that a new lower unit might be the best way to go. Also, I wasn’t able to get the drain or vent screw off (it might have to get sprayed with some penetrating oil for a couple of days) so I couldn’t tell by looking at the gear lube (assuming there is some) whether or not the lower unit leaked.
And now a few more pictures to round out the meeting:
The only thing that I found missing from the motor is the rod that connects the slow speed needle to the slow speed knob.
All in all, a fun and pleasant hour with a fun and pleasant person. And special thanks to Mrs. Kevinrude for allowing me to "play boat motors" for a little while during our vacation.