Well I finally got this motor back together. Long story short the old thermostat must have been malfunctioning, and/or the impeller was toast. This being my 1st 9.9/15 true project, it certainly taught me a great deal. The following had to be done, but once it was back together tonight, voila! Started up on 2 pulls. Everything operated correctly, less a couple of weeping new gaskets, which just required a little extra tightening on their respective covers.

Before I list off everything that had to be done – my question to you all: I have observed that when installing new gaskets, they sometimes leak. Particularly the water jacket gaskets. Any tips on how to solve this? I usually install them dry, and I’ve seen this happen on a number of different models. Should I be slathering on perfect seal on these dry gaskets? I’ve heard a few people use a small amount of silicone/marine sealant, since it will not be in contact with gas. I figured crankcase seal would be overkill, and getting to liberal could easily foul various passages.

Here’s what I had to do to get this baby back into service:

1. Replace transom bracket assembly completely
2. Replace both transom tightening screws
3. Replace tiller gear and remanufacture from scraps/scratch (that was an interesting macguyver, but works great now!)
4. Replace inner tiller gear after drilling out – old one was frozen in from salt
5. Drill out tiller connector, the little plastic one
6. Replace tiller grip
7. Remove, replace kill switch and reroute
8. Reinstall powerpack and coils; reroute and rewire external ignition parts, retainers, and clips
9. Replace manifold due to stripped out manual starter orifice
10. Carb was…OK
11. Replace breather box
12. Replace all gaskets at the powerhead, less the exhaust gasket
13. New thermostat
14. New Impeller
15. drill out and retap 1 head bolt
16. Repaint the motor cosmetically
17. Free up the cowel latch, frozen
18. Of course, clean off and re-mate the water jacket bypass, thermostat cover, cylinder head, manifold surfaces
19. Completely rebuild and repair the manual starter (a lot easier than the 9.5’s)
20. Replace all fuel lines

Surprisingly for this being a salt water motor, the internals were all OK, and almost no screws were stuck including powerhead, exhaust, water jacket, and even the gearcase was free. The transom bracket had actually corroded to the point where it was turning to dust and broke in half. All tiller hardware was a complete loss and replace, it was cemented in beyond salvage – thank god for parts motors. Even though this motor turned into a 20 hour job, it was a good investment in terms of learning about these motors. I have a bunch more to go through and the subsequent ones will certainly move along much faster now. Next time I’ll know just to pull the powerhead and switch to a different leg and pan, and toss the original pan/leg into the scrap pile.

So let’s just say I feel pretty confident around these motors now…except Donny…you got me all nervous about the newer cable throttle assemblies when they updated the tiller hardware in ’85!!!!!!!