shortjohnsilver
Active member
It wasn’t your outboard engineer that offered to buy your Honda off you was it? He would have secured a good deal if it was!Rather defeatist solution but I needed an outboard this week so bought a Mercury 3.5 to replace the Honda which I’ve now sold for £150. I did receive a second quotation to fix the Honda of £270. I very much appreciate all the advice provided here and I got as far as taking the Cowl off only to be faced with the prospect of having to undo countless bolts in order to dig further into the engine itself - I know my limitations so decided not to wreck the engine but leave it to someone else.
PS - I am quite handy with bigger (inboard) type engines!
Only I had a similar situation a few years ago where I put my old Malta in for a service with an outfit that I don’t usually use. Anyway, didn’t hear from them and as I was about to go off cruising called in to see what was happening. Not a lot! I was then informed that the engine was knackered - a number of issues including a lack of compression. Offered to take it off me for a reasonable second sale price really and happy to sell me a replacement new 4 stroke Yamaha - which was very nice to be honest. But funds were a bit tight so I declined and took my Malta away. Borrowed one of a mate and after the summer took mine into my usual outboard guy. Told him the tale and left it expecting confirmation of the prognosis. Next day got a call to say my outboard all done and come and get it.
The outboard was fine. Carburettor gummed up as I’d used E10 and really should use super unleaded E5. They basically cleaned and gave it a good service and ran a compression test at my request. Absolutely nothing wrong with it! Still good today four years later.
I always felt that the other lot - also a dealer for Yamaha - wanted to push me to purchase a new four stroke outboard and get mine for a song. Never been back.