steve66
Well-Known Member
Hi, i thought i would share my experience with anyone who may be considering purchasing one of these outboards. I recently bought one of these not to use i may add but literally just for the clutch unit (which actually is very good).
Basically my background is i specialise in small up to 4 hp outboard motors mostly 4 stroke Hondas now but in the past most 2 strokes 2 hp. I heard a lot of bad press regarding these but having owned and worked on some yamaha cloned 2.5 four stroke engines which actually are pretty good i thought i would have a closer look at one.
First impressions were pretty good, good sturdy engine cowl, nice stainless fasteners sturdy recoil starter. From then on things were not so good. The starter cord had broken, with a normal outboard this literally is a 2 minute job, this is definately no a 2 minute job. You have to remove the spring and strip the recoil down top access the cord. I decided against this. I put some 30/1 !!!!!! fuel mix in, spun it up with a drill and nothing.. Right check spark...... How do i get to the plug..... Remove the cowl which is held on with 7 nuts and bolts (if you fowl a plug up at sea you will never be able to do this). Eventually removed the plug cleaned it spun it again and it started. If you have never seen one of these run , imagine a petrol strimmer and you wont be far wrong. I noticed that as it has a water pump and a centrifugal clutch you really have to give it some welly to engage the prop. The water pump cools the leg but one major design flaw is that when the prop isnt turning, the pump isnt pumping so 3/4 of the way through the rev range there is no water flow. At least you will never have to replace the impeller!!.
I decided to strip the rest of the engine to access the clutch unit. To my surprise the exhaust pipe was a piece of 15mm copper tube. I removed this and being piston port i could have a look at the piston, which was completely knackered due to a broken piece of internal casting. Judging from the size of the bore and stroke this is never a 2hp id say about 1 - 1 1/2hp maximum. So far my thoughts of salvaging the clutch unit and selling the residue parts were not looking good.
Fortunately the ckutch unit and bearing carrier were good, machined out of a solid block of aluminium . Great relief. I measured it up to a project im working on and with the holes slightly enlarged will fit perfectly.With the clutch i was hoping to utilise the driveshaft but when remove it was bent!!.
Sorry if i have gone on too long but i thought i would share this info. The engine itself was virtually brand new with less than 10 hours on it.
If anyone is considering one of these for a tender or for the kids to potter around on, please think again. These are not fit for purpose.
If anyone is interested the clutch is being used for a honda derived 2.4hp 4 stroke outboard .... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IreONNyv7Oo
Basically my background is i specialise in small up to 4 hp outboard motors mostly 4 stroke Hondas now but in the past most 2 strokes 2 hp. I heard a lot of bad press regarding these but having owned and worked on some yamaha cloned 2.5 four stroke engines which actually are pretty good i thought i would have a closer look at one.
First impressions were pretty good, good sturdy engine cowl, nice stainless fasteners sturdy recoil starter. From then on things were not so good. The starter cord had broken, with a normal outboard this literally is a 2 minute job, this is definately no a 2 minute job. You have to remove the spring and strip the recoil down top access the cord. I decided against this. I put some 30/1 !!!!!! fuel mix in, spun it up with a drill and nothing.. Right check spark...... How do i get to the plug..... Remove the cowl which is held on with 7 nuts and bolts (if you fowl a plug up at sea you will never be able to do this). Eventually removed the plug cleaned it spun it again and it started. If you have never seen one of these run , imagine a petrol strimmer and you wont be far wrong. I noticed that as it has a water pump and a centrifugal clutch you really have to give it some welly to engage the prop. The water pump cools the leg but one major design flaw is that when the prop isnt turning, the pump isnt pumping so 3/4 of the way through the rev range there is no water flow. At least you will never have to replace the impeller!!.
I decided to strip the rest of the engine to access the clutch unit. To my surprise the exhaust pipe was a piece of 15mm copper tube. I removed this and being piston port i could have a look at the piston, which was completely knackered due to a broken piece of internal casting. Judging from the size of the bore and stroke this is never a 2hp id say about 1 - 1 1/2hp maximum. So far my thoughts of salvaging the clutch unit and selling the residue parts were not looking good.
Fortunately the ckutch unit and bearing carrier were good, machined out of a solid block of aluminium . Great relief. I measured it up to a project im working on and with the holes slightly enlarged will fit perfectly.With the clutch i was hoping to utilise the driveshaft but when remove it was bent!!.
Sorry if i have gone on too long but i thought i would share this info. The engine itself was virtually brand new with less than 10 hours on it.
If anyone is considering one of these for a tender or for the kids to potter around on, please think again. These are not fit for purpose.
If anyone is interested the clutch is being used for a honda derived 2.4hp 4 stroke outboard .... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IreONNyv7Oo
