Going after two free boats and motors?

[hoarder]

Since I had the camera out the other day, I snapped a few pics of a couple motors that came from this place too.



1971 Mercury 40hp 20" shaft
This one is in amazing condition, it appears 100% original and spot clean inside and out.
I got 171/172 psi compression


1981 Mercury 40hp 20" shaft
Also very clean but its been touched up here and there, it gave me 167/170 compression readings.



Took this inside, this one is also super clean, a '71 9.5hp, I have the lower off waiting for a new impeller to come in, along with a lower unit reseal kit. This one had 142/144 psi compression.



All but the two green motors in the middle came from PA, there's three 6hp motors, the 20hp Chyrsler, and another 9.5hp.
The rest of the motors I put in my basement for safe keeping, these I'll likely either use or flip.
The 6hp motors are all decent, and I've already had the 20hp running in a tub of water last weekend.
What i like about the 20hp Chrysler is that its no heavier than a 10hp OMC, plus has a bigger prop.
I actually can't wait to try that one out on the water just to see how it compares with the newer motors.
(The two in he middle, a '56 Johnson, and '70 Eska were sold last week).

 

[ripdmup]

Congrats on the score!
My Wife would kill me on the spot if I drove home with that haul............................

 

[airshot]

Awesom score....congrats...however ...the big question is..did you get titles/ reciepts for all these ?? Without proper paperwork, they are all "HOT ".....

 

[Zum]

Awesom score....congrats...however ...the big question is..did you get titles/ reciepts for all these ?? Without proper paperwork, they are all "HOT ".....

Titles...really
Not sure if NJ requires outboard titles, I know where Im at doesnt.

 

[LDUBS]

I heard (probably read it on these forums) that some states require a title for the outboard. I want to say one is Texas but my memory is not that good. My state doesn't require a title for outboards. They probably would if they realized they could generate revenue (hope they don't read this -- Lol).

 

[flatheadsteve]

Titles...really
Not sure if NJ requires outboard titles, I know where Im at doesnt.

Pa WV MD and VA don't have titles for outboards I know he got them in PA so he is good to go. I'm curios what states require a title for an outboard? Do they also title atvs, farm and heavy equipment? Here in WV they won't give a title for a atv but you can tag it for road use.

 

[lightflyer1]

Texas. Title for the engine and title for the boat and trailer registration from the DMV. Dead in the water here without them.

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

Titles...really
Not sure if NJ requires outboard titles, I know where Im at doesnt.

No motor titles in Illinois.

 

[mbullen]

"What is this "Title" stuff of which you speak??"
~signed, Tennessee

 

[mirrocraft16]

I've lived in NJ and PA, no outboard titles in either state.
The only state I've run into with outboard titles myself was Missouri, I bought 3hp motor off a guy at a yardsale and before he would let it go, (super cheap, he insisted that we go down to the municipal building to 'transfer ownership because he didn't want me using that motor while it was still in his name and something about getting it off his tax bill. I only went along with it out of curiosity, and it cost me $9.25 in title and sales tax and they gave me a 30 day warning that I needed to procure a valid MO residency certificate of some sort or be fined up to $30. I would have just walked away but the motor only cost me $20 and if another $9.25 made him feel better, so be it, but it taught me not to bother buying anything in MO if they insisted on changing the title over on the spot. As far as I was concerned he could keep the title, its worthless in NJ. Since I sold the motor years ago, I still have a MO title here somewhere in my name.
NJ also doesn't title small trailers that are not commercial or those that do not exceed 3,500 lbs empty. That rules out nearly all boat trailers. But, PA requires a title and inspection for trailers, and PA has big issues with NJ trailers because so many trailers here are registered as 'homemade' and traded like baseball cards with no paperwork all the time. More recently NJ started to get a bit more serious about trailer registrations but the only change is that they want a picture and certified weight on the trailer, and that was only brought on by so many commercial owners cheating the system with their big trailers that were often tagged or sharing tags with their personal jon boat trailers and such. It made the common guy have to go spend $15 to get a weight slip if they wanted to register a new or 'homemade' trailer. They still don't care if its truly homemade, just so they have a picture of it. They don't even care if its got a brand on the side. Its only about the money aspect of it.

Around me, there's far more two strokes than four strokes, most guys have given up on four strokes due to the fact they don't last as long, I've seen guys buy and run four strokes for 3 or 4 years only to find out they're down on compression or they need major repairs, or they have computer related issues due to being fuel injected.
Many if not most simply go back to an old used two stroke so they can afford to stay on the water.
Out of the 30 or so motors I have myself, only eight are four strokes, and all are 9.9hp models, (5 Honda's, one Yamaha, one Mercury, and one Yamaha powered Mariner). I rarely run the four strokes though, i generally grab my 1982 Johnson 15hp first.

Those older Mercurys look pertty clean, but that seems to be the norm over in PA where they don't have saltwater. Those 40hp twins ran really well, and will outrun and out pull the same hp OMC by a huge margin.
I had a Mercury 400 on my first 16ft V hull back in PA as a kid, it was scary fast, and faster with two people than with one because the added bow weight kept the bow down and improved the bite of the prop so much.
We didn't have GPS back then to check speed but it was fast enough to make my 18 year old self want a life vest on when flying across the half frozen lake in late April. All was fine till we got too brave a few times and started pushing our boats through the melting ice to get to back areas on the lake, we found out that ice could cut through aluminum and it cold also remove a lower unit faster than you can blink an eye.

 

[thill]

CONGRATS on the good haul!

I think S.Carolina and FL require motor titles. Stealing motors is hot business down south, so it's supposed to be a deterrent. Stealing happens up here, too, in areas like Virginia Beach, but it's not too common in the rest of the state.

Around here, people leave the keys in their boats at dock, HOPING someone will steal them so they can cash out. Never seems to happen, though.

 

[thill]

I just got back, about 4am on Sat. I left Thurs around 11pm and got there around 6:30 am Fri.
It was nothing like I pictured, the place was a total wreck, the house has obviously been empty for longer than a few months, if not, the old woman was living in a run down disaster of a house. The garage wasn't even locked, there was a pad lock on the door but it wasn't locked, but it took me 40 minutes to figure out how to open the garage doors. There was no power, so no lights, so all I had was one lantern and a flashlight till the sun came up. It rained the whole time. The garage was stuffed to the ceiling, the Cadillac had four flat tires, and was buried completely with boxes, rolls of old carpet, and huge bags of what looked like old Christmas decorations. The roof on the left side had been leaking for a long time, the boat on that side was full of water, and the instant I touched the rope hoist leads the stern of the boat dropped as the hooks securing the block and tackle above straightened out. That dumped about 300 gallons of water onto the car, the carpet, and all the bags of trash.
Right away I could see that the transom of that boat was rotted through, someone had been patching it with some sort of sealer for years and there was a rusty water trail from where the patch was leaking as it hung there, and dripped down onto the hood of the car, which was stained brown from years of it dripping there.
The second boat was decent, and the pile of crap below it made it easier to get down. I was able to lower it down, then I shoved my trailer in as far as I could and slid that boat down onto the trailer. Its got two pedestals and seats and a wood floor that someone added. The registration was in the boat too which will help. I then dug my way back hoping not to find any live critters in the piles of bags and junk, I found the 40hp first, it was hanging on the back of a 17ft glass boat sitting on two huge rolls of old carpet. Getting that out of the garage was tough, there was too much crap in the way to back in, so I managed to lift it off the boat, (The clamps weren't even tight, and I bear hugged it and slowly moved it a foot at at time back to the open door. I couldn't lift it very high and there was no way I was going to get it in the boat, so it had to go in the trunk. I cut a huge piece of old carpet and draped it over the back of the trunk and over the back bumper, took off the fiberglass hood, and then leaned the motor against the back of the car and sort of flipped it over the trunk lip ending up with it standing upside down on its flywheel. I then walked it over to one side, and laid it down, finally get it to sit back side down on the floor of the trunk.
I had to dig around a bit and found a second motor but its a Mercury not a Johnson. considering what I was told, I took it. Its a minty clean 1973 9.8hp, and very light. I cut another piece of carpet and laid that in the trunk along side of the 40hp. Next to the Merc was a super clean 9.9hp Evinrude, but only until I read the tag and realized its a 15hp. That got wrapped up super tight and put in the floor in the back seat. It was too clean to leave out in the weather.
It took another hour to find the two Johnson motors. both are short shaft tiller motors in decent shape, Both were clamped onto a single stand but both were locked together with a cable and huge old padlock. It took about an hour of fiddling with them to get them unlocked and off the stand. I managed to wrapped up and into the boat.

That was about all the weight I dared put on the back so the second motor went in the boat, behind the middle seat, again on a piece of carpet. By I looked around a bit, and found a few tools here and there and two huge vises, which I took, partly because I wanted to ad some weight to the front of the car to level it out a bit. I cut more carpet and sat both vises on the passenger floor of my car. I also found some spare props, four 6ft oars and oar locks, and then I found two Chrysler motors, one 15hp, with electric start, and a 20hp with a tear drop cover. I grabbed the two Chrysler motors. I wrapped up the 15hp and put it in the boat next to the 9.8 Mercury, and I bagged and wrapped the 20hp, then put it in the back seat all wrapped up in a blanket held in place with packing tape. I laid a Harbor Freight shipping blanket over the back seat, found a piece of cardboard and slid the motor in on the seat. I took three new bags I had bought and inflated them and tied them closed and stuffed them between the motor and the front seats so if I had to stop in a hurry it wouldn't come crashing into the back of the front seats. I then looked at it and realized it looked like a dead body all wrapped up. Its a good think I didn't get stopped on the way home.
I tried the house keys, but none matched, and at that point my interest in going through that place was about gone. I was wet, tired and wanted out of there. I fought with trying to get the garage doors closed for an hour, then locked the garage door. I tied down the boat, made sure nothing was going to fly out of the boat, and then got the car good and warm, dried out a bit in the heat with the ac running, and got about five hours of sleep in the car before I went and got fuel and headed home. The whole time I never saw a single soul around there, no neigbors, no traffic, nothing. Just an old ratty house at the end of a street. There may well have been things in the house but I got what I came for and was done. I already had loaded more than I should have in the boat and car and was leaving minus a the one junk boat so there was no cover for what was in the boat, but it also meant I didn't have to waste time tying it down or loading it either. I left it where it fell atop the car, which by the looks of it wasn't worth much either. My guess is the pics I was shown were older than just a month or two, more like ten years or more.
I got on the road at about midnight, which was good because it meant less traffic, but it was light rain off and on for the first few hours. I stopped in MD for fuel and got home around 4am. I unhooked the boat, and managed to get the 40hp and the 9.8hp out of the trunk, but the rest still needs to be dealt with but for now, I'm done for the day. It can sit there till my back and knees recover.

I snapped few pics, the first is the boat before I moved it there. I got the 40hp, the little Merc 9.8, and the 9.9 Evinrude, and the 20hp out of the car, but still have to get the two 15hp Johnsons out of the boat and the vises are still in the car. In all there's 5 motors, all appear to be in great shape, if not almost new.

View attachment 118822

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Not sure if this one has ever been run, it still had all the hang tags under the hood and the tiller is still wrapped up in a box..

He stops, he shoots, HE SCORES!!!!

Great haul! Glad it worked out.

 

[Fishingman48]

My thought as well.

gas & charged for anything over certain number of miles it can be costly$$ milage wise & truck has to be returned full w/gas or you get charged for that and they don't put cheap gas believe that.

 

[Fishingman48]

He stops, he shoots, HE SCORES!!!!

Great haul! Glad it worked out.

Hell Yeah ! BINGO! $$$$$$ sweet! a little effort paid off! sweet lookin boat& motors too!

 

[hoarder]

So far most all of them are either running, or will run with minimal effort.
I had the older Merc 400 running about a month ago, I hung it on my spare 16ft hull and took it for a run up river a ways. It pumped water, started easily, and even charged the battery. It basically needed nothing, but if I end up using it regularly it will get a fresh impeller. Chances are the one in it is original. I have my doubts as to whether or not it was ever really used before. It just too clean.

All of the 9.5hp motors ran, one needed the lower unit resealed, one had a cracked av plate, so I found another lower for it and swapped over the internals and resealed it.

All of the 6hp motors look really good too, I had the three of them running but just long enough to know they're worth keeping.
The 20hp Chrysler needed the recoil taken apart and put back together and I cleaned and set the points in that one and its a keeper, its no heavier than a 9.9hp Evinrude but makes more power. Its probably not a real 20hp by today's standards but its a strong 15hp or better on the back o my 14ft boat. For a nearly 60 year old motor, its great find. I like how smooth it is at lower speeds.

I traded the older 5hp Johnson in the pic above for some new parts for the other motors, (a case of carb kits, a few dozen impellers, a couple props, and some 9.5hp and 9.9hp lower unit seal kits.

The 6hp motors really are of little use to me, so they're on the back burner, I like the little 9.5hp motors and the Chrysler motors the best, and I may keep the one older Merc 400, but the rest are going to get sold.

The problem is nothing sells here these days. I had a pair of 15hp Johnson/Evinrude motors listed all summer and got zero replies off CL or FB. Not even a lowball offer. I let them expire and I guess they'll sit till next year. Maybe things will improve by then. I'm not giving them away, both of them run but I have no tanks to give away with them, and certainly not for $500 a motor.

 

[airshot]

Spray a little oil to n the cylinders and let them sit...they are not costing you anything to sit there. Down the road, things will change and they might be worth their weight in gold !! Sort of a retirement nestegg...lol.....

 

[hoarder]

I oiled down all the cylinders on each of these as soon as I got them home, Those that I had running got sprayed down with CRC 323 externally and I spun each one over by hand while shooting some motor oil in each plug hole so they're safe to let sit. The nicest motors got their carbs drained and were put in the basement on a rack, in bags to keep them free of dust.
I put about two dozen or so down stairs for safe keeping, mainly those that looked new.
The rest are still in my trailer and garage.
I gave up on CL and FB, I listed a 2017 Mercury 9.9hp four stroke that I'd venture to guess was never used for $1,800, and the only offer I got was $300. I'll use it for a coat rack before I'll sell it for less than its worth.
I listed minty clean 15hp Johnson short shaft, tiller motor that started on the first pull, 'as found'. I'm sure its due for a water pump impeller, but it does pump water, and the plugs and all else are likely original from 1980 or so.
I put it up for $500 cash. I got no offers, no replies, nothing on CL and FB from March to about the first week in Aug.

I listed 2013 Suzuki 30hp long shaft tiller four stroke motor for $400, it ran, but likely needed its carbs gone through. It would stall on occasion if you bailed on the throttle fast. It had strong compression and a new impeller. I got no replies on FB or CL. I finally took it to my cousins house in PA, about 2 hours away where he got $1,500 for it in less than a day. The guy who bought drove from about 15 minutes from where I live to buy it in PA two hours away. He even said he was watching one in NJ but he liked the look of 'this one' better. Same pics, same ad, different area. I've had the same thing happen with other items, list it here and it gets no response, list it 200 miles away, and it sells to someone local who drove 200 miles to get it.
For now, they're going to sit, for the most part they're more trouble then they're worth, but the whole lot of them did give me a few keepers that I'll never sell.
There's been a few other huge lots of motors listed that I just didn't bother with, I know one lot of them got crushed. Its not worth the drive, the labor, or the space to deal with if they have no value, and I can't use 400 motors.
It seems even the newer stuff is only worth scrap right now as i'd rather scrap it than give it away at a loss.

 

[freeisforme]

Texas. Title for the engine and title for the boat and trailer registration from the DMV. Dead in the water here without them.

What happens in those states that have titles when someone moves from a state without titles with a bunch of boats?
I'm in NJ and if you buy a boat in PA, they need a current or last legal registration for the boat which in PA gets registered through Fish and Game not through the DMV as in NJ. NJ requires a title for the boat, (over 12ft), but only a registration for the trailer. Trailers have no titles unless they weigh over 2500 lbs empty, which none of our trailers ever do.
If your a PA resident, and you buy a NJ trailer, its a big problem if that trailer is not currently registered with the original Certificate of Origin and VIN. The problem in NJ is that when you buy a new trailer, you sign and fill out the CO, then that gets exchanged for a registration card. If the trailer sits for a few years, they want the back registration to renew it, most wont pay it because its often more than the trailer is worth after a bunch of years. so they register it as 'homemade' which although they have made that harder, it still only requires you to take a two pictures and get a weight slip to prove it doesn't weigh over 2500 lbs. When that happens, PA, and DE, won't accept that registration as a valid and refuse to register or title that trailer without the original CO or registration using that number.

Rarely will a boat in NJ have any paperwork with a trailer, most who own boats know to just keep your 'homemade' registered tag and swap it over to the next boat trailer to avoid all the BS. Younger folks who don't realize this cant handle the method of going to get a new home made registration so it becomes a problem that can't be fixed. Since most boat trailers are only $500 used, giving up a tag and registration isn't worth it to most sellers, plus they now require that the boat and trailer have a notarized bill of sale with a description of it along with the price it sold for because they use that to charge sales tax to the buyer when they register it. I've had the same boat trailers on papers for 45 years now.

We don't title outboard motors, but have bought a few with titles over the years from MO. Its been my understanding that only 7 states title motors, MO, SC, TX, UT, OH, OK, & MS.

I bought a few motors in MO over the years, most at yard sales and such and every time the seller insisted we go to the country office and transfer the title into my name on the spot so they wouldn't be 'charged for it' the following year. They didn't worry about the boat, just the motor. A buddy there wanted to buy a truck here in NJ and take it to MO, it ran and drive fine, but they would not let him register the truck and bring his tags long and drive it home. He had to tow it home and get it inspected before he could get tags for it.

If I'm buying a vehicle out of state I go to my local DMV give them the title from the other state, and proof of insurance and i get a tag and a 14 day inspection pass if its required. The I go pickup the vehicle with tags in hand. It seems like MO has some strange DMV or tax laws?

 

[hoarder]

I took a few pics of my garage this morning, the past year's worth of buying, has got my garage pretty well full of motors. I took a rough count and got somewhere between 600 and 615 each time total.
A few are parts motors that came with running twins that needed something, a few I've already combined to make one just in the name of space. I've had about half of them started, if only on a shot of fuel in the carb to see if they'd fire up. There's a few big twins that are cannibalized, and a few late 80's 40 and 50hp motors that have bad tilt cylinders and an equal number with bad power heads making them prime combination projects. A few older motors, with points had no spark but have strong compression, the few I tinkered with only needed the points cleaned to make spark, one needed a coil. One of the 33hp motors, a short shaft tiller motor, surprised me big time when I stuck it in a barrel and it started on the third pull. I hung it on a buddies jon boat and we ran it all weekend without issue. (I did check the impeller and it looked new so we used it for two days). Its too big and heavy for my 14ft boat so its not a keeper but if I had a clean vintage boat that could run it its definitely a keeper. It like many of those older big twins with both a starter and recoil option with a tiller control as well. There's three or four 33hp motors in all.
These pics are only a fraction of the whole picture. (My garage is 40x200ft, and its full.
I've managed to get all but a few onto stands and wheels so they can be moved. There's about a dozen that I'll keep, mostly the 35hp OMC motors, and the 9.9/15hp Chrysler/force motors, and anything West Bend.
The rest I have no interest in.
I've parted a few out, and sold only two all year. I got $1,100 for one 9.9hp Johnson which went to ME, and $750 for a 70hp Mercury that went to a guy who ships motors to South America. There's been zero local interest, not so much as a reply to eBay, CL or FB all year. I gave up two weeks ago and let all the ads expire after not getting a single hit all spring and summer.
I've been moving them upstairs to free up space all summer, most of these in the pics are upstairs now on converted engine stands. The original goal was to organize them but making room took prsident and they got sort of packed in any which way for now so they all fit. (I still have a 24ft trailer full too that's got three 22ft long rows of motors on stands lined up side by side).

 

[1pc@atime]

Looks similar to my garage, what boat guy doesn't have 30 or 40 spare motors lying around?

I've always bought up cheap motors to flip in the spring but this year there's just too many motors and no buyers all year.
I've got my keepers and they'll outlast me. I could blow one or two up every season and not run out before my time is up.
I did the same thing with those U boat carts, I bolted 2x12 planks backed with 3/4" plywood to four of them in my garage, they hold everything up to about 20hp or so. The larger motors here are on individual stands on casters. It was expensive to build them all but it makes working around them a lot easier. its also nice to just roll one outside when I want to run it too.
(I my yard wasn't 75x50ft I'd likely have a boat for each of them too, there's sure been enough for sale cheap this year).
Now that the season is pretty much over the prices of motors will go back up, no one looks during the warm months, they're not on their computers and no looking for projects.
However, those capable of building or doing projects seems to be dwindling by the year, the younger crowd doesn't seem to want to know or learn how to do anything but play video games. Oddly enough I find more younger woman who are interested in boating and motors than I do guys for some reason.