The Sinking Of The OutBoard Marine Corporation -

[JrCRXHF]

I like my OMC's So much that i wear my Johnson hat when i am working on my 2 300x motors because Mercury "doesn't ship bad parts"

[Markus]

IMO, the EPA and our government acted like they were dealing w/the “big three” when dealing w/the O/B mfgs.
Difnt Care that their pockets weren’t as deep

I don't think deep pockets was the problem. I think the problem was that neither Mercury nor OMC had any memory of introducing new technologies. They rushed the new engines to market years earlier than what was needed. The bugs in the first generation Mercury DFI engines and the first generation Ficht engines would be embarrassing to any company. Yamaha understood what it took, waited a little longer and got HPDI right before launching the product.

The subsequent product launches from Mercury of the Verado and V8 platforms have been flawless, and so have BRP's new product launches.

At OMC, the problems were then compounded by the poor underlying product quality.

I spoke to some people who were close to David Jones, the last CEO of OMC, and they said what brought the company down was that the Ficht line was pulled from the market while they fixed the quality problems. OMC could not survive the resulting loss of cash flow.<object id="__symantecPKIClientMessenger" data-supports-flavor-configuration="true" data-extension-version="1.0.1" style="display: none;"></object>__PRESENT

[powerabout]

I don't think deep pockets was the problem. I think the problem was that neither Mercury nor OMC had any memory of introducing new technologies. They rushed the new engines to market years earlier than what was needed. The bugs in the first generation Mercury DFI engines and the first generation Ficht engines would be embarrassing to any company. Yamaha understood what it took, waited a little longer and got HPDI right before launching the product.

The subsequent product launches from Mercury of the Verado and V8 platforms have been flawless, and so have BRP's new product launches.

At OMC, the problems were then compounded by the poor underlying product quality.

I spoke to some people who were close to David Jones, the last CEO of OMC, and they said what brought the company down was that the Ficht line was pulled from the market while they fixed the quality problems. OMC could not survive the resulting loss of cash flow.<object id="__symantecPKIClientMessenger" data-supports-flavor-configuration="true" data-extension-version="1.0.1" style="display: none;"></object>__PRESENT

I always thought they should have done some low pressure in the front engines just to prop up the line if needed and they did...

[Instigator]

The Honda dealer I worked for in Fla was a Yamaha dealer before Honda.
They dropped Yammi after the HPDI debacle.
Owner had zero good to say about them in that era.

Want to see what’s happening in the O/B market?
Watch Fla.
Was at one salvage yard down there that had 100’s of dead Yammi p.heads.
The OX66’s we’re good.
HPDI’s they couldn’t give away.

[Markus]

Want to see what’s happening in the O/B market?
Watch Fla.

And what is the takeaway? Mercury and Yamaha own the saltwater market?<object id="__symantecPKIClientMessenger" data-supports-flavor-configuration="true" data-extension-version="1.0.1" style="display: none;"></object>__PRESENT

[H2OPERF]

Many things sent this company down, here are a few of my may be wrong but you never know opinions. First, off we will leave the dependable as hell sub 50hp 2cyl motors out of this that they had sold millions of all over the world, prob what kept them cash fat for all the rest of the things did. Moving on to bigger hp, they had the market by the ass in the early to mid-'70s making v4s and looper twin and triples that just like the video says were amazing designs with that are still standing today... MERC had nothing on them at that time and the proof is here today when you go to the ramp and still see early looper 2/3s and tons of v4s still running i haven't seen a tower of power on the water in years... Sorry, I think they're cool too. OMC had really good reliable cdi electronics after 1972 and it's basically the same system used today. Now the good/bad from absolutely stupid decisions... Move to 1976, Lets build a V6 200hp and take the market by storm, amazingly good idea for OMC and with the racing engines they were testing at the time, yeah OMC had badass 2 and 3Litre loopers running in the 70s on the racecourse, COULD have set them on a course for a long path of greater things .. Why didn't it happen, probably board members/bean counters worried about bonuses, who knows..but the unbelievable happened and they took the easy route and put 2 cylinders on top of the old school v4 crossflow, a good design but one of which no one in any industry would even think of using at the time for a new high horsepower design. Granted the x-flow 200v6 ran good, was reliable, and had a good low-end grunt for large boats probably more so than the first 2l v6 mercs that came out at the same time but personally I think this set the course for many things that slowly killed them... The merc 2l v6 was a good little motor but nothing to storm the market with, if OMC had built their v6 a 2.4 or 3l looper at that time everything would have been different... Then just like with the auto industry the japanese hit the scene and have it easy, they just copy it and improve on what's shown to be a problem fix it and your king. The really SAD part is Yamaha v6 was pretty much a clone except it was loop charged, a technology OMC had good experience with and already in production motors, WTF... Many will say they did well in that era and sold tons of crossflows but the fact is it set them up to fail in the future, just like a bad retirement plan,yea all is good now but later when the shizit hits the fan and competition comes a-knockin you better have the resources to keep up. Move to 1987 way too late to bring a new looper out now your already way-waaay behind the curve. They probably could have pulled the rabbit out of the proverbial hat then if their new looper had been fuel injected with modern electronics but NO, so the rest is history at this point, my friends.

[H2OPERF]

Garys right u can't give away an hpdi down here and 2t v4 blocks have serious corr issues but comes down to having the resources to move on and fix it.. Yamaha is huge it can absorb many failures and move on, look at boeing right now crazy media coverage daily over the 737max software issues the stock has hardly moved, they are into everything and media hype pushed by airbus by theway isnt gonna do squat to them..

[nitro_rat]

does yam own any us boat companies?

skeeter

[rhardwick]

I worked at a Evinrude dealer in 1974, we sold a ton of the new 9.9/15 hp engines. Soon after was a service bulletin about replacement heads, carbs for these engines. I remember spending a lot of warranty time repairing these engines. The early 50 HP loopers were big sellers too, can't count how many of those I replaced powerheads under warranty, piston skirts would break. This was solved and the 2 cylinder looper was a great engine. I raced in SST-45 for a few years and could not believe these engines would stay together at 7500 RPM, use Mercury 150 2L V6 rod to crank bearings and they will run for ever. I own several OMC fishing engines from the 50's to 70's and they run great.

[C.C.Hiliner]

3 words...Johnson Seahorse 200.....which ATE Black Max

[C.C.Hiliner]

I run a 1998 Volvo SX Drive, and its worked flawlessely since I bought it new. The Cone Clutch did the trick!

Did you know? right before OMC died, they were working on an "Evinrude" sterndrive?

I only saw a picture of the prototype once, but is the (upper) drive was "egg shaped" nad the carb cover said "Evinrude 5.7"

It was orphaned when BRP bought the company, so God only knows if BRP kept it or scrapped it.

[C.C.Hiliner]

Thats funny, I feel the same about Yamaha...Never will buy one, I'd paddle first.

[FUJIMO]

...3,000 Employee's in 1955... https://youtu.be/JqCau1yIbjU

[H2OPERF]

Cool video, Funny how all those post war era narrators sound the same...

[Ron V]

Evinrude was a superior motor prior to the Johnson and Evinrude designs becoming one in the same. The '20s - 40s Johnsons were crude and difficult to start compared to the Evinrudes of that era, particularly in the '30s and '40s.

The '50s twins are unrivaled in reliability and longevity for the everyday fisherman if you follow the owner's manual. No, you can't turn them 7000 rpm and skimp on the oil ratio like a Merc.

A good friend has a '78 Johnson 70 that he bought new. Has the original impeller in it and over 600 hours. It sits for 9-10 months of the year, is never fogged, just Stabil in whatever is left of the gas at the end of the year. No problems other than one powerpack and all three plug holes being heli-coiled.

My uncle was a certified OMC tech from about '70 - '03. I don't remember him ever talking about the lower unit problems some of you are talking about. The electric shifts had problems, but never heard about gear failures. The OMC lower units were goof-proof compared to the Mercs because Joe Weekender could shift them pretty darn slow before they would grind the dogs. With the Mercs you couldn't half-ass the shift without grinding the hell out of them and they are still that way. I do recall him talking about what a bunch of rod-knockers the 40-60 hp twins and the three bangers were. He had a '68 55 hp of his own that blew the side of the crankcase right off.

The 1995 Evinrude 90 that came on my Rapid Craft had some minor problems that were quickly remedied. It lunched the #3 at about 300 hours, but it was three years old when I bought it so I can't say what kind of history it had. That said, my 2005 Merc XR6 has been a better, more trouble-free motor. The quality control problems after the move to Georgia were well known. At one point my uncle mentioned that it was so bad that OMC was trucking the motors down to a test site in Florida and running them on boats to make sure they were actually going to be OK before crating them up. That was the only time I had heard that so I'm not sure of the details or how long it lasted, or how reliable that story was. I do know that the local dealer talked about a lot of problems at the time with new motors that wouldn't even start and were actually missing parts. The designs were sound but the quality control had suffered. His exact words were "You can't make mechanics out of moonshiners."

The VRO blame got blown out of proportion. The newer versions were simple and were just fine. Far better idea than having a plastic worm gear on the crankshaft like the boys in Fond du Lac came up with. John Tiger did an article on this in B & WB about 15 years ago that explained it. My uncle disconnected the VRO for numerous customers, but he never had a big opinion on doing that one way or another. He was however a big proponent of mixing an extra 100:1 in the gas to help the motor live longer, particularly under hard use.

As for the comments about the piles of blown up 4-strokes that are out there...inherently I was never a big believer in 4-strokes being able to take hours of continuous high rpm use in an outboard application. I'm as much of a 2-stroke purist as anyone. But, my disdain for EFI 4-strokes in high rpm applications dissolved after I started riding my Honda CB500X around the country, almost never under 6000 rpm once I'm out of the Chicago area. Sometimes closer to 7000 rpm for hours. Granted that is a 48 hp twin. Bigger motors with bigger parts spinning around may be different. One comment I'd make on the 4-strokes, is look at who most of the early and mainstream buyers have been. There are a lot of college educated suburban yuppies out there that literally don't know enough to check the oil level in their lawnmower every now and then. So when it comes to owning and maintaining a high rpm 4-stroke outboard, or letting it sit for most of the year with minimal care, I rest my case...