removing a oil filter on a merc 4stroke

Does anyone know the best way to remove an oil filter from a merc 15hp as it is so tight to get anything in there to loosen it up?Is there a special kind of tool to do this that a marina sells?I am wondering if they sell a type of filter remover like for the cars,i have a plastic filter remover made by fram that u put a 9/16 wrench on and a filter will come off easy.Do they sell anything close to that anywere or what should i use?Thanks for any info.

I do not know what kind of room you have around the filter but you might be able to use a strap wrench or chain wrench to loosen it. If not, you might be able to drive a screwdriver through the filter from the side to get leverage turn it.

That is what i was thinking kmixson a strap wrench or probally a srewdriver.Of course i'm going to get it off one way or the other,but when i put a new one back on how tight does it have to be.Can i do it by hand tightening it or would that be to loose u think and leak oil.I would like to be able to just get them off by hand but if i can't at least i only have to do it once every 100hrs or 1yr.Ok if u have any ifo on this other question i just asked it would be great.Thanks guys

I've not seen the plastic oil filter wrenches that fit on the outside but I got a metal one that does the same job from a auto store. I used this to remove the oil filter off my Nissan and I just hand tighten the new one on with no problems afterword.

There may be some variance on the procedure but a lot of manufacturers specify turning the filter 3/4 of a turn after the gasket makes contact. You can usually do that by hand. It should be snug but not too tight. It will take more force to get it off next time you change the filter than the amount of force you put it on with due to the gasket drying. Make sure to put a film of oil on the gasket before installing it to make sure it does not bind as you install it. The only time I will use a wrench to install a filter is on the large oil filters on large trucks and hydraulic filters on hydraulic equipment but I still do not crank them on as hard as I can.

po1 were did u get the metal one from as i saw them at autozone last night and that was my next move this morning.So i can hand tighten them u say.I had a bad episode on my ford explorer were i hand tighten one and the oil went all over so i never tried that again.So maybe it is different on suvs and cars compared to boat motors.I got the plastic oil filter remover at walmart and it is the best thing u can use for your car or truck as the metel one i got just slipped all over the oil filter,but the plastic ones are thicker and deeper and are awesome for cars or trucks.

I'm going to a yamaha store to see if i can find a compatible filter as i think yamaha's filters are one of the best made,as far as water/fuel seperator and their oil filters are just as good.I went on a site that showed the difference between marine filters and all of them used paper in their filters but yamaha uses some type of different materials that traps more garbage from going in the engine.I will probally see if i can find a merc filter first and check the price out today and see the price difference between the yamaha/merc filter.well i will let u know how it goes here in a while,i'm going to clean her up and go get some ethanol free gas from my marina.Thanks for the tips fellows.

I've always hand tightened all my filters & no problem.Even on my diesel truck & hydraulic filters.I believe the key to no problems is making sure its clean & put oil on the rubber gasket.

anchors away.
I all ready had my new filter and had the same trouble as you did in getting the old filter off with a strap wrench(not a lot of room to work in these 4strokes). I took my new filter down to auto zone here in town a found the correct size for my filter and she came of with no trouble. Like mention above I always hand tighten and never have had any problems with my filter. You can always pop the hood and double check yourself after running it on the lake if you're in doubt. Never hurts to double check anything.

anchors away said:

Does anyone know the best way to remove an oil filter.

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Thanks po1 that is were i went to autozone and found the metal one that fit right on the money.Thanks for the post.

perchin said:

anchors away said:

Does anyone know the best way to remove an oil filter.

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Counter Clockwise

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I thought it was clockwise counter.