CL Surprise

I was about to post this as a reply to the post here about a lot of seized motors but figured I'd best start a new thread as this is going to take a bit of explaining here.

Saturday I answered an ad on CL, about 50 miles from me here. The ad said "Several old antique outboards, make offer".
I sent an email, with my phone number figuring it would get a fast reply. About an hour later I got a call from a woman who said if I'm interested I better hurry up, she's moving on Monday and
'All this junk has to go'. After trying to get an explanation as to what all was there I didn't get any real description of what she had. Only that her '******* husband' died and left her a mess.
It took about an hour to get there. I almost took my 12ft trailer but figured if its a bust I'd only be dragging it around for nothing. 50 miles is enough gas in a one ton truck.
I get there and there's a Sold sign on the lawn, and the garage door is open and there's a row of Johnson and Evinrude outboards about 20 foot long against one wall.
I walked around front, and before I even got to press the doorbell, a woman hollers are you the guy for the motors? I holler back 'Maybe', and she pops her head out an upstairs windows and says "If you want you can take that boat outback too, I have the title in my car."
This is when I realize not taking my trailer was a good decision..... I walk behind the garage and there's a 16ft Starcraft SF 16, a bit rough but decent on a galvanized trailer.
She come around back and tells me if I take the boat I can have the rest for free.
I said if its got a title, I'll take it away right away. I never saw an old woman move so fast, she ran back to her car, came right back with the signed title, and a notarized receipt from her husband's estate attorney. I rolled the boat around to the driveway, and started laying motors in the boat. 22 in all ranging from 6 to 25hp.
She even brought me a box full of old quilts to use as padding, and a bundle of cardboard boxes. Then she hands me the registration for the trailer and tells me "Its still valid for 25 more days, Just toss the tag when your done, he's not going to need it anymore."
After I got done overloading the boat and trailer, she tells me not to forget the tackle boxes and fishing rods, the rods and reels were nothing special, all pretty beat up but the price was right.
It made for a slow ride home, figure if each motor weighs in the 65 to 110lb range, there was at least 1,500 lbs in the boat plus the weight of the hull and trailer behind my truck. I stopped at a gas station and topped off the tires so they didn't explode on the way home. All I kept thinking about was losing a tire or wheel bearing with all that weight.
It made it back though but it took twice as long to unload it all into my shed outback.

The boat is decent, but has a 6x6" patch plate in the middle, and I found a broken live well drain port laying in the back of the boat so my guess is the last owner eliminated the plastic thru-hull fitting when it got brittle. For the price, I can't complain.

Now, after all that, while sitting here thinking about it all, what bugs me the most is that that ad was on there for four weeks, and I guess in four weeks, no one bothered to go look or email about it? The boat was a surprise, and the ad had only a pic of two old 50's motors laying in the grass, but it really pays to send off an email and go look.
When I found it, it was two pages down listed under 'Boat Parts' and although I saw it was an old ad, it doesn't cost anything to reply and ask.
The condition of each motor is yet to be determined but all of them look pretty clean, and the 25hp, which I set aside figuring if it runs, it's going on the boat, is a 1975 Johnson short shaft tiller with what feels like strong compression. The one older 18hp, (FD11), also looks pretty clean and has a ton of compression. (There's also an Evinrude 25 too that looks good but that one is a long shaft and a few years older). The only one that looked suspect is an older 18hp that was apart with a bag of parts tied to it, probably a 59-60 model),
The whole lot seems to be a collection of pairs, one Johnson, and one Evinrude in each model or year. The oldest is an earlier 25hp Johnson, maybe 52-53 or so. The newest is an 80's model 9.9hp Johnson, and a matching, Evinrude..

How no one found this stuff before I did is beyond me. Either guys aren't looking on CL anymore or they just aren't looking for boats or motors anymore.
I didn't need another boat but for free, I'm game every time.. To be fair, the boat is what should have been listed and then give the motors away but for all I know she may have had an ad up for the boat too, maybe elsewhere, but I didn't see it.

This morning I stuck a plug in it and tied a rope to the bow and took it down to a pond here and gave it a leak test, and I didn't see anything at all.
The inside is painted gray and it looks like someone shot the whole inside with a spray can, the outside has about 10 coats of heavy paint, so much so its likely adding weight, the sides feel thick with paint.
The bottom of the boat is sprayed with bed liner. It don't leak so for now I call that a win.
The trailer did good too, its nothing special just a bare minimum bunk trailer with 12" wheels ad crappy incandescent lights with pieced together harness and two cracked lenses. The transom looks good, no rot, and its got 6 heavy rod holders on custom welded aluminum brackets on the bow that I may swap over to my other boat, but I'm not sure how much use rod holder would get on the bow like that. Its missing the very forward fourth bench seat, but that's only about 24" long or so and like in mine, not of much use. I removed mine too about 12 years ago because it got in the way. It also came with two 7ft wood oars with attached oar locks, which look well used so someone was likely rowing it at some point.

I went there with several hundred bucks in my pocket but despite the ad saying make an offer, she jumped right to FREE right away. I never said a word about price. I'm glad I didn't
All I can figure is that someone told her its all junk so she didn't value it.
I was hoping that there would be at least one promising motor there, but its likely that I have 20 plus now.
I didn't stick around long either, just in case she changed her mine too.
I also considered she 'sold' them for how much he told her he paid too.

I only wish I had found a deal like this about 20 years ago when I got my current 16ft, I'd have saved myself $600 at the time. Now to decide if this will replace my 14ft or just get put out back as a spare. My Mirrocraft isn't going anywhere, I spent too long getting that the way I want it and although its older by 14 years it a cleaner hull overall.

The title says its a 1993.

Nice! Every once in a while a deal will come along you weren't expecting. I have gone to estate sales in which the seller didn't know what they had and sold expensive items dirt cheap.

Did you stop and buy lottery tickets on your way home ?? I would have....

The shocking part though is that it was listed for over four weeks with no takers.
Right now, all I've got invested is the fuel in my truck, about $45 or so.
I saw it a few weeks ago but it was already an older ad, so I passed it over, but when it renewed and stayed up I replied, sort of expecting to be told it was gone or not get an answer at all.

The 25hp runs good, I gave a quick once over, and some fresh fuel and it fired right up. Other than a stiff steering tube its a great little motor. The others all look just as clean. Right now I've got the tackle box that came with it dumped out on the workbench.. There's not a lot of anything special in it but its still an easy $100 worth of lures, hooks and sinkers. Its one of those older Fenwick 6 tray hip roof boxes that weighs about 15lbs empty.
I pressure washed it and dried it with a leaf blower. It cleaned up like new.
The second box was a Plano Magnum double sided model with mostly spinners and jigs. I dumped that out too and gave it a serious cleaning.

The best reel in the lot is an older Daiwa Emblem X on an 8ft med. heavy Lamiglass one piece custom rod, tben there's a super clean 80's era MItchell 300 on a Bass Pro Boron rod..
The reels are mostly older, 80's vintage, mostly Daiwa and Penn. Many of the rods are old, wood handle rods.


Fenwick 7.7, 1980's vintage:




Older Plano Magnum, was full of mostly old Mepps spinners and Rooster tails with a few older minnow lures and some bobbers.



Johnson FD11, '56 model? Curiosity made me grab this one next, the shift lever is broken off, and appears painted with a brush but has good compression but no spark, but unlike most motors here its not all salt eaten. Its got the that knuckle breaking type of compression too so chances are it can be a runner with some work. I found a shift arm for it in the big tackle box.

airshot said:

Did you stop and buy lottery tickets on your way home ?? I would have....

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My main concern was making it home without the trailer losing a tire or bearing. I didn't know what shape it was in and sort of just took the chance figuring if I did have trouble, hopefully I'd be close enough to home to just drag it home no matter what. But the thing did great, no bearing heat, and the tires held just fine. I looks like both tires have tubes in them, so that's a big plus. I towed it home without the lights, I was afraid to plug it in and blow a fuse or something, so I left them unplugged but when I tested it here with a jumper pack they all work fine, minus the cracked lenses and 30 or so splices and wire nuts all over it. For now I put it on the lawn for sale, maybe I'll get lucky and it sells, if not it may just stay as a spare boat. The last boat though took four years to sell here so chances are its not going anywhere. I thought about keeping this for a bit and selling my 14ft but my 14ft is newer and cleaner, and already set up the way I like it.

I've noticed a ton of 'FREE' boats and tackle lately on CL and FB here, its not a good sign for the hobby. Either the current generator has zero interest or they're too broke to bother. The CL FREE section almost always has a few free loaded tackle boxes, boats, and motors. Sure a lot of free items are junk but if you fish or boat even a non running motor has value. A buddy of mine who recently retired and lost his wife decided to downsize his house and move into a retirement home at 63. He had two small boats, an a modest amount of tackle, a camper, a car, and his truck.
The truck was older, a 1990's model Ford with very low miles. Instead of offering it to a friend, he lists it on CL for $400 and dumps it in two hours. He sold both boats for pocket change and threw away the fishing tackle and motors after he didn't get a replay after two days.
He sold a house thar was paid for to go rent a two room cell at an over 55 center for $3,650/mo. He wrecked his car two months after moving and now can't afford to buy one because his rent takes almost all of his SS and retirement annuity. He dips into his cash savings monthly just to pay the rent which is now going to increase. We all tried tel him its cheaper to own then rent but he didn't want mow grass or have repair expenses. Instead now he pays triple in rent and cab fare. His days now consist of sitting and watching TV because its all he can afford to do.
Every time I think about all he gave away or just dumped it makes me sick to think about. I understand simplifying your life but giving away everything you worked your whole life for for free makes no sense to me. But seeing so many others doing the same after there's no takers for months tells me something is dead wrong lately. I get it when something won't sell but when there are no takers even for free, it just don't compute.
A good example is my neighbor, two young couple that inherited the house from his father. The guy died suddenly in his 50's. He had a new snow blower, 2 new Stihl chainsaws, an Ariens tiller, and a she full of garden tools. Day one it all hit the trash pile. What's worse, they put it out there on Saturday, the day after trash day, I got home the following Tuesday and it was all still there. Not even the junk guys saw it. The one saw was never even run. They threw them out because they were OLD. Two days later the Honda mower was out front too because the rear bag didn't fit. They were trying to use a Craftsman bag on a Honda mower. They had tossed the Honda bag with the chainsaws. Its all in my garage now and they can watch me mow my lawn every week with their 'junk' two year old mower. He asked me how I got the bag to fit, Worse yet, he's a mechanic at the local Dodge dealer who cant figure out how to put the right bag on a push mower. He was complaing that they're having trouble paying the 'mortgage' they took out to buy all new stuff and to renovate the house which was just renovated 8 years prior by his dad. They're now in hole for $135k for a house they got for free working two jobs with four kids in their 20's.
So when i see a bunch of free boats or motors I get it, there are idiots out there among us.

Three of four years ago theose motors wouldn't have lasted an hour even for $300 each or more. Now now if its not made by Apple or Samsung they don't want it and if its not less than a few months old its obsolete and trash.

This is really getting more and more common it seems.
I trash picked a pair of 9.5 Johnny Rudes yesterday morning, one ran as found, the other has water in the lower unit and someone cut the rope and let the thing retract.
Who ever owned the Johnson replaced every last bit of hardware with high grade stainless socket screws. Even the motor clamps are stainless with billet machined stainless handles.
The tilt pin, tilt tube and even the prop cone/nut are made from stainless. All that and they threw it away with the weekly trash pickup. I pulled up just in time to fine the trash truck guy struggling to get them out of the bin because they're not allowed to dump metal or large objects. I gladly solved his problem. I swear people have all gone brain dead lately. What kind of idiot throws away two good outboard motors?

Seafarer said:

Johnson FD11, '56 model? Curiosity made me grab this one next, the shift lever is broken off, and appears painted with a brush but has good compression but no spark, but unlike most motors here its not all salt eaten. Its got the that knuckle breaking type of compression too so chances are it can be a runner with some work. I found a shift arm for it in the big tackle box.

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When I was a kid my uncle had a 1957 7.5hp and the coils seem to be constantly going on it. In fact that seemed to be the only problem we ever had with that motor. Motor would run great, then suddenly drop to half throttle. We'd take it home and replace one of the coils and be back in business.

oilsmoke said:

I've noticed a ton of 'FREE' boats and tackle lately on CL and FB here, its not a good sign for the hobby. Either the current generator has zero interest or they're too broke to bother. The CL FREE section almost always has a few free loaded tackle boxes, boats, and motors. Sure a lot of free items are junk but if you fish or boat even a non running motor has value. A buddy of mine who recently retired and lost his wife decided to downsize his house and move into a retirement home at 63. He had two small boats, an a modest amount of tackle, a camper, a car, and his truck.
The truck was older, a 1990's model Ford with very low miles. Instead of offering it to a friend, he lists it on CL for $400 and dumps it in two hours. He sold both boats for pocket change and threw away the fishing tackle and motors after he didn't get a replay after two days.
He sold a house thar was paid for to go rent a two room cell at an over 55 center for $3,650/mo. He wrecked his car two months after moving and now can't afford to buy one because his rent takes almost all of his SS and retirement annuity. He dips into his cash savings monthly just to pay the rent which is now going to increase. We all tried tel him its cheaper to own then rent but he didn't want mow grass or have repair expenses. Instead now he pays triple in rent and cab fare. His days now consist of sitting and watching TV because its all he can afford to do.
Every time I think about all he gave away or just dumped it makes me sick to think about. I understand simplifying your life but giving away everything you worked your whole life for for free makes no sense to me. But seeing so many others doing the same after there's no takers for months tells me something is dead wrong lately. I get it when something won't sell but when there are no takers even for free, it just don't compute.
A good example is my neighbor, two young couple that inherited the house from his father. The guy died suddenly in his 50's. He had a new snow blower, 2 new Stihl chainsaws, an Ariens tiller, and a she full of garden tools. Day one it all hit the trash pile. What's worse, they put it out there on Saturday, the day after trash day, I got home the following Tuesday and it was all still there. Not even the junk guys saw it. The one saw was never even run. They threw them out because they were OLD. Two days later the Honda mower was out front too because the rear bag didn't fit. They were trying to use a Craftsman bag on a Honda mower. They had tossed the Honda bag with the chainsaws. Its all in my garage now and they can watch me mow my lawn every week with their 'junk' two year old mower. He asked me how I got the bag to fit, Worse yet, he's a mechanic at the local Dodge dealer who cant figure out how to put the right bag on a push mower. He was complaing that they're having trouble paying the 'mortgage' they took out to buy all new stuff and to renovate the house which was just renovated 8 years prior by his dad. They're now in hole for $135k for a house they got for free working two jobs with four kids in their 20's.
So when i see a bunch of free boats or motors I get it, there are idiots out there among us.

Three of four years ago theose motors wouldn't have lasted an hour even for $300 each or more. Now now if its not made by Apple or Samsung they don't want it and if its not less than a few months old its obsolete and trash.

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Your buddy may have been showing signs of mental distress. Depression maybe? I say that because of profound life changes that he may not have been well-prepared for. Retirement at a relatively young age might seem enticing to many, but unless one has a plan for what to do in place of a vigorous work life, there will be increased stress. Add to that the loss of a spouse and it can be overwhelming. People do strange things and make bad decisions they later regret when they find themselves in these circumstances.

A co-worker I worked with years ago inherited a house with his sister when the last parent passed on. They were to sell the house and belongings and split the earnings. So they cleaned up the house and put it up for sale.
There was a large freezer in the basement that they left down there in hopes the new owner wanted it. However, the buyer would only take the house if they got the freezer moved out and disposed of. So, my friend and his sister went to the house to move it. They opened it up to be sure there was nothing in it. It had been unplugged for years. They found just over $250,000 cash in the freezer. The parents were from the old country and didn't trust the government so kept all their cash in the freezer. Can you believe it! He told me his mother and father were religious and that they were looking out for them from above.

Ray Clark said:

Your buddy may have been showing signs of mental distress. Depression maybe? I say that because of profound life changes that he may not have been well-prepared for. Retirement at a relatively young age might seem enticing to many, but unless one has a plan for what to do in place of a vigorous work life, there will be increased stress. Add to that the loss of a spouse and it can be overwhelming. People do strange things and make bad decisions they later regret when they find themselves in these circumstances.

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Apparently Medicare requires doctors to give a mental heath test during annual physicals. Among other things my doctor asked if there were anythings I used to love doing that I don't do anymore. I said no except those heavy lifting type things I am not longer physically able to do. I asked why. He says it is just an indicator of depression.

Ray Clark said:

Your buddy may have been showing signs of mental distress. Depression maybe? I say that because of profound life changes that he may not have been well-prepared for. Retirement at a relatively young age might seem enticing to many, but unless one has a plan for what to do in place of a vigorous work life, there will be increased stress. Add to that the loss of a spouse and it can be overwhelming. People do strange things and make bad decisions they later regret when they find themselves in these circumstances.

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I don't think he was depressed until he found himself broke from the situation he was suddenly in.
These people make knee jerk decisions based on some article they read or the advice of their kids, wife, or friends with ulterior motives.
The younger crowd though seems convinced that if its not new its 'obsolete and useless'. When I was that age I had already figured out that much of the older equipment was built so much better and lasted longer than what was being made even then. Now they seem to only see what they're told they should see.
Some people are convinced that 2 strokes are some horrible environmental disaster that's polluting the water and killing everything. In reality any pollution they do make is a drop in a bucket compared to the other sources of pollution.

I see panic type ads all the time on CL and FB with people giving away their old mower, or boat motor, or what ever they have because they suddenly believe its junk. They'll spend thousands of dollars on a new motor rather than putting a few bucks into the one they already own.

For a lot of us its great because it means free motors, free boats, and free mowers.
(I picked up two free mowers this morning).

Something I'm not seeing is older four strokes for sale and there's not many on the water either but I do still see a good many older two strokes, although they tend to be limited to those who fish or have smaller boats. For years, the OMC triples and V4s were king here. Now they seem mostly forgotten.

I had a guy two doors down from me give me his old Evinrude 140 after his wife insisted he get rid of the 'smokey old motor'.
He told me it was mine if I would remove it and get rid of the 20 or so gallons of two stroke mix in his tank. He was having a new Yamaha installed in two weeks.
When I asked him if he felt there was anything wrong with it he said yeah, it smokes really bad all the time. Then he said it didn't do that before. He said its gotten worse over time.
I took the motor off his boat and pumped the tank. I then saw why it smoked. The fuel that I pumped out of it was so dark with oil it felt thick to the touch. I asked how much oil he was adding and he didn't know, he just said he dumped some in every time he got gas.
He must of figured 50:1 meant 50/50. On top of that the VRO was still hooked up and working ad he was obviously still putting oil in the tank as well. There were 7 empty gallon jugs of BRP brand oil in the boat and four full jugs. Plus a dozen or so one quart bottles of Pennzoil two stroke oil as well. He'll save money just by not carrying 200lbs of oil in the boat now if nothing else. Forr me free or simply paid for tops $20k or so for a new motor which I'm sure he just put on his credit card.

I've been dealing with the estate of a relative who passed away several years ago. When he passed away suddenly his wife couldn't wait to get rid of everything he owned, she didn't care who took it, she just wanted it gone ASAP. She gave away everything that reminded her of him. If I hadn't been there it all would have likely gone to the first scrap guy who back his truck up to the door.

I've always watched CL and FB, as a source for things they're okay, but forget finding real buyers there lately.

I just answered an ad for and picked up four minty clean vintage metal fuel tanks for $10 off CL, the ad said they were listed 41 days ago. One is and OMC pressure tank, one an old green Mercury tank, one Quick Silver tank, marked "Mariner 9,9hp" on the side, and one early Honda 4 gallon tank still with the original box. $10 for all of them.
The seller said I was the only email. curious as to why he's only selling the fuel tanks, I asked if he had the motors to go with them. He tells me he does but couldn't get them down from the garage attic. "If you want, you can take a look."
To make it short here, I ended up with an Evinrude 35hp, A 10hp Honda '100', a Mercury 4hp, and a Johnson 9.5hp. After manhandling them down a folding attic ladder, he tells me if I have a $20 bill, he'll give me my $10 back and we'll call it even.
That sounded like a deal to me so I spent the next 20 minutes trying to load them up. The 35 was the worst, by the time I got that down the ladder I was already in pain but that one came down first, then the smaller motors. The 9.5 and 4hp were easy compared to that 35hp. The Honda was as heavy as the 35hp though. He said he's selling the house and moving somewhere cheaper to live, he was hoping he didn't have to just push them out the upstairs window to get them down. I told him if he wanted I'll come back in a few days if there's anything else he wants to sell up there. the attic was packed solid and i saw lots of boxes marked 'trains' and 'Boat' .

Now that they're home, I've so far test ran the 9.5, which started right up, and I ran the Honda, which also started right up, the 4hp starts and stalls but that's a fuel supply issue, and the 35hp is too be determined but its pretty clean looking for a near 70 year old motor. A quick compression check gave me 131/135 psi so it will run. I'm sure the points and water pump are long overdue. For now its hanging on the back of my boat.

It does seam strange that so many people seem to be just giving away all their motors and fishing tackle this year, it seems I can't avoid stumbling on stuff this year.

I sold the trailer it came on on Wed. I sold the 16ft today, after taking it out on a local pond with a trolling motor I remembered why I liked my Mirrocraft so much. The Starcraft does not have teh walk through seat option or side console like my Mirrocraft, or my SF14, also being an older model, its narrower than my 14ft.
I listed it Friday night, it left this morning heading to somewhere in PA. I had someone look at the FC11 18hp on Sat. morning but they passed on it, they were freaked out by the pressure tank fuel system. I had it listed with the tank for $500 obo, as is, untested but it had good compression and the tank held pressure. It had no spark. The lower unit had clean oil in it with no signs of water.
After 19 emails saying Is this still available I finally got one with a phone number and a name, saying he was really interested since it matched a motor he already had and he was looking to run twins. He was in Indiana. That was on Sat. afternoon, he got here around 11 am on Sunday and bought the motor, a navy anchor that came with the boat. He wanted the big Fenwick tackle box but I'm keeping that.

About 20 minutes after the boat left, another one arrived, via the trash truck. The guys who pick up my trash said they found something for me, they pulled a 12ft MFG glass jon boat out of someone's trash earlier on their route so they saved it and left it here. The boat is pretty much junk unless your into doing fiberglass work, but it came with a Force 15hp that looks brand new.
It pays to leave a cold 6 pack for the trash guys on occasion I guess.

That's a good find, those Force motors that everyone loves to hate are really nothing but old Chrysler motors. If the ignition is good, they do just fine. they're not as strong as the same year OMC motors but theyre very old school in their design therefor easy to work on. A clean one like that is likely a keeper for a small boat in my book.

Those glass MFG hulls were everywhere back in the day, they were cheap and sold though Sears, Wards and a few others. I had a 14ft as a kid with an old air cooled Eska motor. When the Eska died we found an 18hp for it That made it fun.