Should I try to repair my own outboard motor?

“Should I try to repair my own outboard motor?” is a question boat owners many times ask themselves. Two major reasons to consider doing your own work are to save money or perceived poor quality work from your local dealer. Both of these are valid reasons. The cost of repairing outboard motors is very high. It is true that the quality of mechanics at the average dealership is not what it should be; it is so poor, in fact, that Mercury and Johnson/Evinrude are each increasing the training requirements for their certified technicians. Some people live in areas where there are no marine service centers.

Whether you are a person who is not satisfied with the work being performed on your motor, or if you are like me and simply enjoy repairing something yourself, then you may have considered repairing your own outboard. Whatever the reason, there is a growing number of people who want to do their own outboard repair and/or maintenance. With this in mind, is why I created this website, it is dedicated to the outboard motor Fix-It-Yourself person.

The mechanical skill of the boat owner is important in determining if a proposed project is within his ability. Would you be comfortable changing the oil and spark plug in your lawn mower? Would you be comfortable changing the transmission in your pick-up? Would you be able to replace the alternator in your car? Each person has different skill levels; so it will be beneficial for them to know if they have a reasonable chance for successful completion of a project before they start the project.

There is a home repair program on television that rates the difficulty of do-it-yourself projects from one to five. This is very useful to allow the average homeowner to know the difficulty of the project before he finds out that he is in over his head. I have never seen any such scale for outboard repair projects.

Through 27 years of on-the-job experience in working with my own customers, other dealerships, and corporate technicians, I have developed a scale of ability for a potential fix-it-yourself client, based upon information from the client. I also have a scale of job difficulty. The combination of these two scales can give to me and to my customer a reasonable idea of the possibility of successful job completion.

If you have outboard motor repair or maintenance work you want to do yourself, give me a call; we can discuss your abilities and the skill level required to get your job done. We can also go over some of the basic diagnostics to start finding the cause of your motor’s problem. The call is free; you have nothing to lose. Call for “theoutboarddoctor” at 620-421-2935 or go online at www.theoutboarddoctor.com for more information.