Thank You Stevasaurus!

[Ken B 3,116]

First, how I came upon this old Mercury and vintage Homelite chain saw. Knowing that I'm into old outboards and chain saws Steve offered me this 1949 Mercury Rocket and a vintage Homelite chain saw free for the taking. I happily took him up on his offer, he even delivered them to me at the BIG SHOW. How cool is that!

So..... this past weekend I decided to dig into the old Merc. Some old Mercs come apart easy, and some don't. Luckily this one came apart real easy. First thing I like to look at is the water pump impeller. The pump cover came off nice and easy. As I expected having sat for so many yrs. the impeller was in pieces. I figured I'd order one up. This is when things got a little weird.... As I was walking over to my tool box I stepped on something. I look down and what do ya think! A friggin Mercury water pump impeller! (Now, my garage ain't a mess, but wherever the hell that thing came from is beyond me.) Its been at least a yr. since I've messed with a Merc. Anyways, I reach down to have a look at it and what do ya know, its used but I can tell its a newer impeller with about an hrs. time on it! 50 bucks saved! I cleaned things up and installed the impeller and put new grease in the lower unit..

Next I cleaned the carb real good and blew it out. I then moved onto the ignition system. After checking spark one plug looked a little weak so I pulled the flywheel. Sure enough, one bad coil. No biggie, had a good used one in stock. The other coil looked new. Cleaned the points up, check the gap and put it all back together. I put the old Merc in the tank, pulled the choke and gave it a yank. almost fired on the first pull. push the choke in (all Mercs this style start this way when things are good) gave it another yank and were off and runnin. It pumps water like a fire truck, great acceleration, idles nice and restarts easily. All that in an hr. I hope to have this old girl out on my boat real soon trollin for some fishies...

The Homelite is a nice old vintage Homelite, built when a Homelite was a mans saw, not a Home Depot cheapo. I decided to work on the Homelite on my lunch break a few days ago. Clean the tank and carb out, check for spark etc. In fifteen minutes that sucker was screamin like a scalded cat wide and purrin like a kitten at idle. Thanks again Big Guy!

Edited July 17, 2013 by Ken B

[squonk 38,936]

The Big Guy comes thru again!   Looks like your makin Ice Cream!

[VinsRJ 721]

Can't ask for better than that!

[Sparky-(Admin) 19,553]

Sounds like that deal worked out great!! Vintage boats look cool as heck with matching vintage motors.

 

Mike........

[stevebo-(Moderator) 8,040]

No surprise to me that you got them both running like new again. Sweeeeet !!!

[stevasaurus 22,230]

Ken, you are very welcome.  I knew they were going to the right guy. I have a feeling that my Dad was looking down and somehow got you to step on that impeller.  My Mom will be very pleased to know that the old Merk has new life in it.  It always was a good running engine, and we used the heck out of it when I was young. Sure would like to see a short video of it running on the water when you get there.

 

I have cut down some big trees with that chain saw, and it was always a good runner.  I think I remember putting that longer bar on it back in the 70's because the trees were like 4 or more feet in diameter.  Enjoy them both mate.

[Ken B 3,116]

I will absolutely make sure to make a video of it running on a boat Steve. Do you remember what size and make boat you and your Dad ran the Merc on back in the day?

[stevasaurus 22,230]

We had a 12 foot row boat (fiberglass)...kind of like a tri-hull design.  I don't remember who made it.  I want to say it was a Crestliner Car Topper from the 60"s.  It was light enough to be able to carry it on top of a vehicle on a good rack.  We would sometimes rent a row boat also.  That 12 footer would fly with one guy in it.  I used to get it on plane and then climb to the middle seat, grab the sides and lean from one side to the other and stir it like a toboggan.  I was probably 10 or 12 years old...what a riot.   The boat is still around...I sold it to a good friend of mine along with a 1960's 5 hsp Evinrude.

[squonk 38,936]

  :)