The Old Fishing Boat Motor…

When we had our family lake cabin in the late 80’s and early 90’s, we had a Glastron speedboat and a small aluminum fishing boat powered by a Mercury outboard.  When we sold the cabin, we kept the boats and the motor.  The two boats moved on to new homes, but the old Mercury boat motor took up residence in the basement of my parents house.  The motor is as follows:

Year: 1971

Make: Kiekhaefer Mercury

Model: MERC 75

HP: 7.5

Twin Cylinder

11 cubic inch displacement

Over the past year or so, Dad has been working on getting that motor running again.  He had to replace almost all the electrical wiring, the fuel lines, the fuel pump, the water pump, and the gas tank lines.  Once it was all back together, he was able to bench test it by filling up a garbage can with water and running the motor inside of it.  It started great and ran even better.  However, this was far from a real world test, so we hooked it onto the back of the S.S. Dinghy and set off!

 

The S.S. Dinghy is only rated for a 5 HP motor, and the lake we were testing it on has a 6 HP limit, but we figured it was just a small test ride, so we would take our chances!  The motor started and ran great!  It is amazing how much difference there is between a 3 HP motor and a 7.5 HP motor!  That Mercury can really make that duck boat move!  The added weight of the motor makes it a little harder to get on and off the trailer, but if we ever had some big water we needed to get across to duck hunt, this would be the motor I would want!

 

 

Since my old Johnson motor still needs some attention, Dad and I were thinking we would get mine running right over the winter and then maybe sell both the Johnson and the Mercury and put the proceeds toward the purchase of a new 4-stroke motor!  The thought of having a reliable, fuel efficient, low maintenance boat motor is very appealing to both of us!  That is the plan as of now, but who knows, anything can change!