1964 Mercury 500

[fast_boater]

Just browsing some motors and found a 1964 Mercury 500 50HP, said it is completely tuned and ready to go, with controls, and spare bronze and aluminum props.

is this getting too old? we have a tight budget but would like to find a motor to fit our 14' vull that we would like to water-ski behind. i know this is old but if it has low hours???

It would be used for crusing small lakes and pull water-skiers up to 130lbs.

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[jfm]

It's very old but that straight 4 50hp model actually only went out of production perhaps late 80s and spares at least for the later ones are still available. Still, there are bound to be some parts that are difficult to replace.

It was a decent engine, zillions were made, should last nearly for ever. You say low hours but the seller will be guessing that - hardly anyone has hour meters and this one will maybe have had several owners

You can get more help from www.oldmercs.com which as the name suggests is right on the mark

Otherwise do the usual checks. Feel the prop shaft bearings, look see if the gear oil is non-milky, feel the tilt tube slop, wobble the flywheel and feel any slop, compression test if poss, run it from cold, etc

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[fast_boater]

sorry i didnt mean that the guy said it had low hours i'm going to call him tonite but what i meant if the guy said it had fairly low hours would it be worth looking at?

straight 4? 4 spark plugs! its a beast! how would it compare to our old 50HP chrysler?

what should compression be generally? what do i feel for in the prop shaft? what is that even? the shaft where the prop goes on? and tilt tube slop that is where the motor tilts? look for sloppeyness/loseness?

but as i said if it was in good shape for that year how long do you think it would last? would it be any good for towing skiers? i know this is old but its all i'm finding rite now. thanks guys.

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[rich]

50hp on a 14ft boat? you will need to do a beach start with about 4 coils of slack rope, and thats for an experienced skier. good luck.

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[fast_boater]

yeah we did tons of skiing last year with this boat with a beat chrysler 50HP, started from the middle of the lake, towed us no problem.

the boat only reccomends a 50HP on it but if i find a 60 i would put it on....


also, can somebody please answer some of my questions for my second post? i'm a newbie to this and i would like to call this guy tonite.....

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[jfm]

Not sure I agree with Rich, 50hp on a 14foot boat will be fine for waterskiing. Would be a bit slow for a deep water monoski start, but other than that should be fine for recreational use

Compression, sorry I can't remeber the figures 13opsi maybe? Academic unless you are taking a tester.

Yes 4 cyl as you say. Distributor ignition on that model

Prop shaft is the short shaft onto which prop is mounted. Feel for slop sideways and in the thrust direction

Tilt tube slop - yes this is the pin athwartships, just above the transom clamp screws, around which the whole unit pivots when it tilts up. Feel for slop, it is often there, esp on boats that have done thousands of miles on road trailer over bumps. When the motor is tilted down the side cheeks of the transom bracket limit slop, so feel it when motor is tilted up

If it is good shape its life is indefinite, these ones were built very strong. So you could easily get several years without trouble. It is a substantially better motor than the Chrysler 50, of which I guess there are very few runners still in existence

As I say oldmercs.com is authority on this stuff

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[jfm]

one more thing......

If you are travelling far to see it, check first that it is elec start. Many from that era were pull start. It can be pull started reasonably easily by a bloke, not a child or petite gal, I remember using a pull starter but it was 20 years ago. Elec would be much nicer obviously. Converting a pullstart to elec is expensive if using original merc parts, so don't go that route

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[Dave_Snelson]

The motor may be fine, but getting spares will be tough. I used to have one of these!

For any spares try Bill Higham Marine in Manchester. Its the right size motor for your boat and should pul well. In their day they were brilliant.

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