Re: [omc-boats] expense

On Fri, 11 Aug 2006, Hank Harcha wrote:
> Have the members of the list found that getting parts is diificult and
> overly expensive? I know it will require some work to maintain but it is
> a great boat for the open water and has some memories. Thanks for you
> imput. Hank

There's tons of parts out there, both NOS ("new, old stock") OMC parts and
new parts made by GLM (Great Lakes Marine). However, they can be hard to
find. I've generally found there are two options to get parts. One is
"quick, easy, and expensive" and the other is "slow, labor-intensive, and
cheap." If you really need parts quickly, there's a few places online that
stock most common parts, but the prices are very high. Used or refurbished
parts (especially ball gears) can list for more than they were new, and
some of the GLM parts are very pricy too (although not unreasonable, as
boat parts go).

If you're willing to be patient and spend time looking, however, you can
often get parts for very cheap, sometimes even for 10% or better of list
price. Figure out the original part numbers and common names and regularly
search ebay (using a variety of descriptions "omc electric shift", "omc
stringer", "omc vintage", etc...) and you'll often find folks selling omc
parts who have no idea what they have or what it could be worth.

The price you pay for getting cheap parts though, is that sometimes you'll
have to wait weeks or months to find them. It took me an entire winter
(boat broke in October; had it fixed in April) to find all the parts I
needed to get running again after ball gear failure (both ball gears, the
intermediate shaft, water pump and housing, water pump shaft, and several
seals and bearings). You just have to be willing to lose use of your boat
from time to time while you're looking for parts (and you know its past, so
you should know how much to expect).

For example, your transom seal is available here for $92:
  http://sterndrive.info.hosting.domaindirect.com/id4.html
I'm guessing that's GLM list price - I think I've seen OEM ones for half
that. I'm not sure how difficult that is to replace - I'm guessing it
requires the removal of the outdrive, so it probably will take several
hours of labor.

I got a tilt motor from a local electrical shop for $100 new - getting one
rebuild would probably be cheaper. Replacing the hammer-blow coupling
(destroyed it during disassembly) ran another $15. It took me about two
hours to do the replacement - it would've been a 30 minute job but the
motor bolts are hard to reach.

Working on the boat tends to be fairly easy, as everything is designed in a
fairly simple way. I haven't needed any specialized tools yet and I've had
the outdrive disassembled and the upper unit mostly apart. The one
downside is that it seems like the OMC engineers didn't put a lot of
thought into designing for servicability, so sometimes it is very
awkward and difficult to reach parts, especially when they are still
installed in the boat.

Is the mechanic who discouraged you the one who would be working on the
boat? If he's not willing to work on it and you don't think you'll
want to do it yourself, then you'll have a difficult time.

Before buying it, I'd recommend changing the oil in the outdrive (upper and
lower unit) and inspecting it for water and or signs of overheating or
metal fragments. Also have the outdrive pressure tested. Inspect the
condition of the ball gears - that's a wear item that can be expensive to
replace. Make sure the engine is idling at the proper RPM (about 600-700)
- too high an idle can damage the shifting mechanism. When you purchase
the boat, replace the water pump right away if it isn't been done in a
while - be prepared to replace the housing as well, as it'll be cracked if
it was ever frozen (parts for this total less than $100).

Good luck and enjoy your boat. I've enjoyed mine!

Ethan

 --
<A HREF="http://www.engr.wisc.edu/~brodskye/"> Ethan Brodsky </A>
UW FutureCar Team Paradigm: Two-Year FutureCar Challenge Winner
UW-Madison Clean Snowmobile Team: Winner of the 2004 SAE CSC
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Received on Saturday, 12 August 2006