Elgin outboard

[cheetahgod]

Someone in my area is selling a 5.5hp Elgin. He says it turns over. He wants $100. Is that a good price? Also how difficult Is it to get parts?

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[frankr]

Can he demonstrate that it at least runs? Elgins were fairly good motors, and Sears sold tons of them. But parts are not very easy to come by, depending on what you need. Members here can help you with parts if you post a free want ad on the classified ads forum.

Price is a sticky question, that most of us shy away from. Too much depends on condition, location, and how bad you want it and how bad the seller wants to get rid of it. $100 is sort of borderline, in my opinion. But I’m not wanting to buy one and besides, I’m cheap.

[stxray]

I recently picked up a 5.0 Hp Elgin. He was asking $200 but took my offer of $100.
Looking back at it now, I think I overpaid. Here’s some things I should have considered…
1. Instruction/Parts Manuals – You’ll need a set of these. Figure on $30-40.
2. Fuel – If gas was left in the tank to evaporate, the carb will need to be cleaned (best case) or rebuilt (worse case). Rebuild kits are available but will cost you around $30-40. Also plan on cleaning/replacing the fuel line and in-tank screen.
2. Spark – If has no spark, it would most likely be points (I learned that the hard way). Points will cost you around $15 each. New condensers, should you need them, will set you back another $15/ea. If it does turn out to be the coils, they’ll cost you more than the motor.
3. Cooling – If it’s not running, there’s no way to know if the impeller is any good. You can figure around $40-45 for a new impeller.
4. Compression – If it has no/bad compression in one or both cylinders, you better love that engine and/or the restoration process as this is major.

All this assumes there’s no parts missing. Yes, you can do a restoration on the cheap but, in the end, its the love of that particular beast.

[frankr]

One good thing about those Elgins, many of them have the old orange shellac coated coils. If you are lucky and that’s what it has, they are nearly bullet proof.

[stxray]

Yep, that’s the type of coils I found when I was chasing a no-spark problem. A member here told me no-spark issues are usually bad points so I inspected, cleaned and filed them but still no spark. So, I went looking elsewhere. It wasn’t until I removed them and put an ohm meter across the points that I discovered they were bad in spite of my filing. I replaced the points and that fixed that problem.

[auldscott]

I have a 1954 7.5 hp that I bought for $40 and put just over $100 more into. No way it’s worth what I have in it. I bought it to keep it from being scrapped, but it’s grown on me. It’s a good runner and the Elgins of the time were well designed, if somewhat "challenged" style-wise. So to echo the earlier sentiments, if you want it, buy it. Except for the funky green lower leg, it looks pretty good.

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