worst outboard

[yamahadog]

what do yall reckon is the worst outboard ever built, in your own opinion

[Gerben]

There recently was a topic with the exact same question.
Might come up with the search function.

Gerben

[delawarerick]

Force and early Yamahas they ran good but they used steel and not stainless and in salt became a nightmere. Rick

[DK]

maybe a tie between the clinton or the waterwitch

[sho305]

My '83 85 force does look to have a dated design, but the darn thing runs like a top for two summers now. Though it appears to have a new block in it. It does make a intermitant whistling sound at high speeds, like a carb whistling or bearing something.:confused: Can't find it and it has done it from the git.

I would nominate an old 4hp Wards single air cooled OB I have. It rattles your rowboat so much you get a but massage; but only for a minute at wot and it dies. Starts right up again and runs longer at part throttle. I think it is that tired, but it still runs too. It blows mud around ok:)

[delawarerick]

Sho 305 I was not knocking your force. They run and run and run but here in salt water they disolve. Same with the early yamahas and if you need to take them apart impossible. But they do run. I couldnt even get the bolts out for the zincs on a 96 120 force. Everything I tried to take apart crumbled or broke off. Yamahas shift shafts rot here on the older models pre90 and when you try to remove the power head bolts so you can replace they bust. Last one I attempted broke 6. Rick

[Capt.Insane-o]

And all the off shoots.

[sho305]

I don't know about you D Rick, but I seen tons of Force bashing here...and OMC:D All in fun and I don't care cause it does run ok, but no mods for it and it is not made anymore too. It does puke stinky exhaust from the leg when no-wake, and has some old time design features...though I like to tilt it up and hear the triple rumble out the trim tab at the dock;) It is the first one I have had, and ok for this screw around temp boat I'll sell when I can get a replacement going. I started up on 3 yr old gas the first time, I was amazed. It does have a strange/stupid allen set screw LU plug that seized in of course, and I had to drill it carefully and tap a new one in it. I bet you seen a few of those. Also had a #$%! of a time getting the splines back in the block without knocking off the rubber shaft seal due to no taper and a sharp bracket up there. Some poor engineering points there.

If I could sneak a fast one in here...speaking of salt water I gladly don't have here, this thing has no anode and the LU only was real pitted before I painted it..I see what you mean. I have to get one or cut up an old Merc one I have and mount it. Where do they mount on these? Or where should I mount it; I find no holes for a bolt on. I don't leave it in the water, but want to get it on there before my paint bubbles off. I plan on making a small tail/wing for the cav plate out of aluminum so I can paint it white...should I just bolt one on the top with that? Thanks.

The offside is I've gotten a ton of laughs out of this boat:confused: Can't complain about that.:p And the non-boat people think it is a great sharp little boat...

[delawarerick]

On the newer models the zinc is a plate off the bottom of the swivel bracket but I have put trim tab zincs on the cavitation plate the kind that are circles sliced in middle with a bolt threw the center. just pancake it on the plate at least the corosion will hit the zinc. I guess this makes me a shade tree but salt is salt. Rick

[Hot Shot Merc]

I have owned three Johnson's and all of them together wouldnt make one good anchor.:mad: there crap !!!!

[pyro]

Got a '79 Johnson 15 hp, with countless hours, probably over 1000 hours of use and abuse, still runs great.

[sho305]

The fishing set here loves Johnnyrudes. In fact it is hard to find older Mercs here. There are more of them on newer bassers when you move up to that price range.

My father inlaw has a 35 rude he bought new in the mid 70s he had run nearly every summer and only put plugs and coils on now. I'll have to ask if he ever put an impellor in it.

[MattGreen]

I haven't worked on any of the really old, obscure brands, but from the "big 2", I think the 9.5 J/E (aka "toiletbowl") is the worst.
I think they let the rookie engineer design that one.

Matt

[DK]

If you want to look at the big 2 then you have to look at old and new motors. The first v4 OMC's in the late 1950's were junk a few hours of watersking and they would eat up the lower unit and they got terrible gas mileage. My father had an 18 gallon tank just to waterski for a little while. The local Johnson dealer used to take them off of boats and sell them for scrap. Then there was the whole electric shift thing. They must have been doing some good drugs. But if that wasn't enough they had the electro-hydraulic shift:rolleyes: yeah more good drugs. Looking at some newer OMC stuff I can say one thing fict yeah must have been good drugs on that day to. Then one year on the 70 hp 3 cyl they decided to screw up a perfectly good motor for some reason they decided that the throtle should be advanced before the timeing. You guesed it all they do is stall Da gee I wonder why? But enough on OMC take a look at mercury or I mean brunswick or should I say mariner. These guys have a much slower degradation of the entire product line. Carl left them with a wonderfull motor and a wonderfull product line but I gues that was to good. So off came all of the brass and stainless steel and on goes the plastic and it seems that every new mercury just doesn't run as good as the old one. Look at the 402 what a piece of crap or how about the wonderfull 65 hp 3 cyl:rolleyes: with the crimp togeather fuel lines with no hose barbs??. Get rid of the inline 6 for the inline 4 but don't run it over 5250 or it will explode the upper bearing. And what is the 2+4 idea thing all about. Mercury says they make it run on 2 carbs so it will idle better, yeah ok. Then there is Mercruiser I could go on and on about them like there beautifull 470 I remember getting brand new long blocks that were already bad.
Everybody makes there share of crap. I wonder how with all of the testing and all of the professionals this stuff ever gets out of the lab.

But the absolute worst outboard didn't come from either of the big 3. I think it is still a tie clinton, eska, waterwhitch,neptune, oliver, sears and wards sold some crap too I just can't decide.

[Superdave]

WIZARD;)

[Waterdigger]

1962 Scott-attwater 22hp tiller
a true piece of JUNK!!!!