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For answers to general questions, Call us at: 952-496-1951 |
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F.A.Q’s
This
portion of the site is a
“work-in-progress” I will
continue
to add to it as questions arise.
Q: How do I tell the year of
my motor?
A: In many cases it is not
germane to
finding parts. The model and serial are more important, due to mid run
changes
in the motors. You can call us, or contact us With your serial number,
and model number and we will look-up the year for you. Most motors have
a
serial number plate located somewhere on the swivel assembly or clamps.
If you
have no idea what type of motor you have, you can email a picture to us
and we
will try to help ID the motor(please be patient, we get a lot of
requests).
If you have a
Johnson/Evinrude engine
built after 1979, You can decode the model number with the acronym; INTRODUCES with “I”
being #1 and the “s” being #0 each
letter denotes a number 1 to 9 and 0.
If you look at your model number, It will read something like;
J110TLCOS. The “J”
denotes a
Johnson. “110 denotes 110 horsepower.
The “TL” Denotes a motor with tilt/trim, and a long
shaft length. The
“CO” will be the year. If we look at our acronym,
“C” will equal # 8 and “0”
will denote a #5. The year is a 1985. The suffix “S” is a
mfg designator. This system works on
99.999% of J/E
engines. Sometimes you will find an “A” this equals a 9.
Q: Why do you need to match
my parts,
this seems unorthodox?
A: A great deal of the
motors we sell
parts for are long since obsolete, not just the models, but the whole
companies! While we have a staggering array of literature at our
disposal, the
drawings in old parts books are not very helpful in locating the proper
parts,
and we are dealing with used parts in many cases so part numbers do
little
good. Remember we have over 12,000
engines for parts, with an average of approx 450 parts each (a low
estimate)
That is over 5 million parts! And that does not even include the 10,000
square
feet of pulled parts that fill our front warehouse floor to ceiling! We have a lot of old motor parts, but
we just need a little help sometimes to get us in the right direction!
Q: Are marine parts really
different, or
is it just a scam to charge more?
A: In most cases the answer
is a
resounding “YES”, they are quite different!
In fact, using automotive substitutes can be very dangerous.
In the case of electrical components, Marine units shield sparks and
arcs from
igniting the often present gas fumes in the bilge of the boat.
Remember, gas
fumes are heavier than air, and will sink into the bilge of the boat
and stay
there unless forced out by movement, or the blower.
Marine parts are often made
stronger
than auto parts as well. How often do you run your car or truck at 5000
rpm up
a steep hill for hours at a time? This is exactly what you are
requesting your
marine engine to do at all times! In many cases, there are good
aftermarket
parts available to counter the OEMs sometimes obnoxious pricing.
Q: Why do you not accept
returns on
electrical and hydraulic parts? If I could buy them and return the ones
that
don’t fix my motor, that would be easier.
A: Easier for who? Parts
substitution should
never replace good troubleshooting. In many cases a bad electrical part
down
the circuit will cause a failure in a part. Replacing that part might
temporarily fix the symptom, but will fail again, and you will then
want our
supplier to warranty the item. We sell parts not lend tools. We can
help you
troubleshoot your motor as well as possible without expensive special
tools,
but at some point you will need to weigh the risk of choosing the wrong
part,
or just paying a tech to troubleshoot it properly. With labor costs
running
high, the better money is sometimes on the educated guess. Each case is
different.
Q: Is my motor a valuable
antique?
A: The short answer is
“probably not”
Most outboards were made in pretty big numbers, so most are not rare.
Oddity is
more valuable in old outboards than age in many cases. For example,
there
exists a very rare psychedelic trimmed late 60’s 55hp Johnson
that would fetch
quite a nice sum from an interested buyer.(the regular version being
near
worthless!) But, a 1931 Elto
carries only sentimental value. 3hp johnson/Evinrudes from the late
50’s
through most of the 60’s still command a pretty good price, (as
it is hard to
find such a durable,good running motor in modern outboards this size)
even
though they are far from rare.
So it varies you are best
to do a little
research on the antique club sites, and ebay, and you can contact us and we will
try to help.
Q: Do you guys buy old
outboards, and how
much is mine worth?
A: We do buy outboards for
parts and
salvage. Our prices are very much like you would find selling baseball
cards,
rare pieces will bring a pretty good sum, common pieces are worth their
weight
in aluminum. If you call, we will try to give you a wide ballpark
figure of what
we will pay, but need to see the motors before we will commit to a
price. If
you are selling a running late model(1987 and up) motor, we will,
typically, give about ½ the market
value, less the cost to ready the motor for sale. We
do not consign motors. Motors traded in, or sold for
store credit will bring you more value than if sold for cash.
Q: Do you sell windshields
and other boat
parts?
A: Yes and no.
We have misc boat
parts, and surplus accessories for sale in our front showroom. They are
arrayed
“garage sale style” you must come down and look through the
parts. Due to the
fluid nature of these things we do not sell them for mail order.
Q: Can I drop off an old
boat, even for
free?
A: You cannot just drop
anything off
here. I most cases, the cost to dispose of boats has increased to the
point
that we must charge to take old boats now. We will have to see the
boat, and
subtract the value of the engine and trailer from our cost to dispose
of the
boat, including about 3 hours to remove gas tanks, lines, foam, and
vinyl/plastic. Dumps have become
quite picky, and expensive.
FEEL FREE TO
ADD ANY QUESTIONS, JUST
CLICK THE EMAIL LINK ABOVE. IF WE GET A LOT OF THE SAME QUESTION, WE
WILL ADD
IT HERE.