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To sell or not to sell

vtwin4life

vtwin4life

New member
So I finally got to try out the 1986 Sportfire I picked up. I found 3 issues:

1) The 115 Merc seems to be loading up a low speeds and idle. Running under power, it's fine and seems to have plenty of power. Given the fact this motor has 3 carbs, I'm assuming it's probably running rich causing the loading. Maybe the carbs need to be cleaned? This should be a simple fix.

2) The power trim doesn't hold. I guess this could be as simple as adding fluid, or maybe I have some gasket issues. Obviously the trim motor is good because it does trim the motor. I'm not really sure how much it will cost me to have someone take a look at this. Any ideas?

3) The steering is hard at times. One of the steering rams is frozen. Given this, the previous owner simply disconnected it. That's fine I guess, but you can't turn as sharp in that direction.

Given these 2-3 problems (#1 seems simple), I'm debating on keeping the boat or selling it and spending a little more money to get something safer for my wife to drive. The interior is not the greatest but it's completely solid. I'm just trying to get the most boat-bang-for-the-buck. Any comments/ideas/suggestions are very welcome.
 
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I won't pretend to be a mechanic, but #2 and #3 seem like they might be an easy fix as well. I'd start with adding hydr fluid, and see if that helps. Assuming it does, keep it in a spot where you can monitor for leaks. As for the 'ram' sounds like you have dual-cable steering- maybe it's actually in the cable? That'd be the best scenario for you and make it an easy fix.
 
Big Red said:
Any used boat you buy is going to have issues. You need to fix the steering first.
Click to expand...

Absolutely - agreed. I'm just trying to judge the amount of problems given an interesting situation... I live in CT, however, I keep the boat in the Adirondacks in NY which is 6 hours away. It makes getting work done a little tougher. I guess I'm trying to gauge the depth of the issues I have found vs. the time I have to get them fixed.
 
Steering cables are are reletively easy to fix, Carbs take a couple of hours and the trim if it's just low on fluid not long at all if it needs rebuilt any hyd shop can fix it probably couple of hundred bucks. Total 2-500 bucks for parts and a couple of weekends worth of work or less. And as said above any used boat is going to have a couple problems. If you like it keep it.
 
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