Mercury Blue Band

[Philthediver]

Hi to all.

I'm new to the site so I hope I'm in the right place to ask the questions I have.

I have a Mercury 80 Blue band. I'm pretty sure it's been Frankenstiend over the years. Last year I hit problems. I need to replace the pistons & I know it's a huge job but I can't afford to buy a new engine. Can anyone give me advice as to the cheapest place to scorce new replacements. I'm in the Cheshire / Manchester area.

I also need to replace the drive shaft &, to avoid ripping the gear box apart, I'm considering an offer I've had. Can anyone tell me if the box from a 70hp blue band is the same / will fit & work on my 80hp. The guy want's £100 for it, which sounds quite reasonable to me, but can anyone tell me if this sounds about right or not.

Many thanks

Phil

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[jfm]

Eek. I know this motor well - great motor. Problem with trying to save money by doing them up is the incredibly high spare parts cost - you might find it cheaper to get another motor. Even the gasket set will be a painful price.

AFAIK you have to get merc parts, there are no clone parts generally available (unless others know better)

The 70hp was a 3cyl and totally different design series from the 80hp4 cyl. AFAIK the 70hp lower unit will not fit the 80. If miraculously it did, the ratios would be wrong although you could respectable bodge your way out of that proplem with a different pitch prop. But I'm 99% certain it just wont fit. The lower units on the bigger inline 6's will fit (though different ratios)

There are loads of US forums with detail info, google will find easily, and try www.oldmercs.com

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[Nautorius]

Bad luck,

I would contact Bill Higham Marine in Worsley Manchester, they are on the web. They always have old Mercs that they brake for spares. They are Family run and have an absolute Aladins Cave of parts.

Good luck, I think you will need it.

Paul

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[Born_Free]

This might be a long shot, but I've had some success over the years with pistons and bits for some quite odd marine engines fom the automotive suppliers 'Ferraris', I've always used the usual car parts people to order through as they don't deal direct as far as I know. Can't help you on the shaft though, as I don't know these engines, but with pricey bits you could always try an enginering company to price up a one off, I've saved customers money this way myself in the past.
Best of luck

<hr width=100% size=1>Born Free!
Now I'm expensive

 

[Philthediver]

Paul,
Thanks very much for your help, but that's where I bought the engine from. I wish I hadn't bothered. It only lasted a year before I hit big problems. Unfortunately I wasn't very good with outboards when I bought it. Over the last 3 years my knowledge has improved dramatically, it had to! Thanks for the advice though, it's very much appreciated - & that goes to all.
Phil

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[Kevin]

Hi

I had an 80hp blue band excellent engine.

They made only two main gearboxes around that time a 'small' and a 'large' the 70hp is the smaller the 80hp being 4 cylinder is the larger. the 70hp has 23 forward teeth and a ratio of 1.64:1 the larger one has 30 forward teeth and a ratio of 2.3:1. Worth noting that corresponding Mariner gearboxes are exactly the same and will fit mercury. The early 1960'/70's 650 merc gearbox fits as does 70hp gearboxes up to about 1986 time so your not limted to engines of the same age neccesarily as the one you have.

These gearboxes are known for rusting and to find one may be a bit difficult a high percentage of these engines get scraped for the reason of a faulty gearbox, there are loads of people trawling ads to find them, the powerheads are solid so quite a few of these about generally either whole or in bits.

contact walker outboards in reading he knows his mercury blue bands very well and maybe able to help.

For a whole gearbox new your looking at £1500 and to repair one is going to be as much probably! Seamark and Nunn in Felixstowe often have these blue band engines both whole and in bits and have had legs at £200, great company excellent service ( I dont work for them!
but praise where its due!)

hope you have luck in sorting this out it will be worth it if economics of it make sense

kevin

 

[Dave_Snelson]

Your best off looking for scrap ones, i.e an 80HP with blown gearbox may have a good powerhead and be useful to you that way - and vice versa.

Try <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk>http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk</A>

You will probably be able to build up a portfolio of spares for this at a reasonable price. Then its just the gaskets (erk!). Sorry to hear of your Bill Higham experience - seems unusual to me??

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<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.madocyachtclub.co.uk>http://www.madocyachtclub.co.uk</A>

 

[seaboy]

It maybe cheaper to get you're bits & pieces from the States where they seem to cater for these engines far better than we seem to, especially with the exchange rate as it is.

Try this website I've used;

http://www.iboats.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi

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