Re: Omc vs mercury parts

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outbdnut2

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#62861

Back in the 1950s/1960s, at our family lake cabin, Johnsons and Evinrudes outnumbered Mercurys by about 10 to 1. I remember the reason most people did not buy Mercurys was the noise level – they were faster than Johnsons , but much noisier. There were a couple people on the lake that bought 60 HP Merc "dockbusters" with no gearshift – these people switched to Johnson or Evinrude a couple years later and vowed they would never buy another Mercury, as the reversing powerhead turned them off, even though Mercury added a shift a couple years later.

Waterskiing was the big up and coming thing back then, and, although Mercurys were usually faster, Johnson/Evinrude had more low end torque for pulling up skiers – maybe in part because most or maybe all of the Mercs came standard with a 2-blade prop, and people weren’t much into buying another prop back then. Dad bought a new 20 HP Merc in 1958, and it struggled to pull him in skis, while our neighbor, with an 18 Johnson on a similar boat puled him up easily, and pulled two of us teenagers out of the water routinely. The 4 cyl 40 Merc was good on the low end, but a most of people on our lake were buying 18-30 HP back in the 1950s, as boats were smaller. FYI: Dad’s 20 Merc was a big lemon and was in the shop every couple weeks for warranty repair. We ran it a lot – maybe 4 tanks a week. Spark plugs fouled often and the dealer told us to use Mercury Quicksilver oil (yes they had it in the 1950s) and white marine gas (unleaded – hard to find then). This did keep the spark plugs clean, but it was cheaper to buy new spark plugs and keep replacing them. Dad bought a used 30 Johnson the next year and swore he’d never buy another Mercury.

So yes – it’s a numbers thing – demand for old Merc parts is not as big because there aren’t as many around. It’s too bad because they make for nice collector motors on old boats.
Dave