March 28, 2011
My parent’s condo came with a mangy collection of dive gear in the attic and a small outboard motor in a storage locker. I used the dive gear few times in the late 90s and it slowly disintegrated with minimal use. (think Steve Zissou era equipment…)Rubber parts, gaskets & seals don’t last forever. The motor however, was always in the back of my mind.
It wasn’t until this year that our membership in the Aquatic Park Sailing Club was confirmed that I had need of a 4hp motor to power a (as yet unspecified) dinghy.
So into the locker we went. The engine is a Belgium made 1987 4hp 2cylinder 2-stroke Evinrude with a euro spec piggyback fuel tank.
I threw out the flares (orange box) – I didn’t think they would pass Coast Guard inspection, let alone do much more than fizzle if I ever needed them.
Total cost including shipping back to Canada, including GST and Customs was $251. We had to go through some schnanagins with DHL but a friendly customs broker signed off on the paperwork.
Now I’ll have to fire it up to see if the crank seals and the fuel pump is still limber enough to run the motor. It did find one piece broken so I ordered a Lever, cam lever from Boats.net – a whopping $5.37
I am crazy lucky as this motor is in immaculate condition. The old neighbours (they are old, but still neighbours ) say it wasn’t used more than a few times by the previous owners and looking at the condition and plugs, it is pristine. Apparently they had trouble running it and got fed up, maybe the broken cam lever or perhaps dirty carb or they didn’t understand the primer pump and thought it was a choke… who knows.
Now all I need is a dinghy.