When you drop the lower end to change the impeller, that cable necessarily gets pulled out of its tube. On assembly, it has to go back up the tube. When the cable end gets frayed, getting it back up the tube is really hard. Your cable looks pretty darn good right now. I am just advising you to be respectful of it, that’s all. The impeller change is harder than you think but easier than you probably fear. Probably. It just takes an extra dose of patience, like all Mercs. Mark 5s are really, really good runners when they’re right. They will run circles around a comparable Johnson TN28, with half the smoke.
Long live American manufacturing!
