1972 25 hp Evinrude Is $425 a good deal?

I have found a 1972 25 hp Evinrude short shaft for my 14ft Smokercraft big fisherman. This motor is at a marine dealer and has been checked out, carb cleaned, new oil put in and new impeller installed. It has a 30 day warranty. Is this a good deal on this motor? This will be my first outboard and just thought I would see what you guys think. Thanks.

Ol Sarge

Sounds decent to me. I paid $350 for a 1967 Johnson 20 HP.

Is there anything I need to be looking for? I feel pretty comfortable with the 30 day warranty but $425 is a lot of money to me and I just dont want to get taken. I have heard alot of good things about these older motors.

You have probably already done this, but make sure a short shaft matches your transom height.

Sounds like a great deal!

The 30 day warranty is like the icing on the cake.
Be sure to take advantage of the warranty and use the motor as much as you can over the next 30 days!

Good luck, nice find.

Offer $400 all they can say is no. Thats a decent price especially since it has the warrenty. There great motors, one of the best power to weight ratio motors omc ever built. With routine maint it will last another 40 yrs.

ultra353 said:

Offer $400 all they can say is no. Thats a decent price especially since it has the warrenty. There great motors, one of the best power to weight ratio motors omc ever built. With routine maint it will last another 40 yrs.

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beleive that!!! awesome motors!!!

Around here that would be an unbelievably good buy. I paid $850 for my 1975 25hp evinrude 2 years ago. They are in very high demand and hard to find around my parts and you never get any kind of warranty. Jump on it before it is gone!

Well, I called the guy and the motor was already sold. He has a 1974 20 hp Merc that came in on trade that he is going over right now. He said it needed a new water pump and it would be ready to go. I asked him how the 30 day warranty would work since it is currently 3 degrees and 8 inches of snow here in Wisconsin. He said that he would start the warranty in May and he stands behind what he sells. He said the 74 would be between $400 and $450 and he would give me first dibs on it. I do not see where I can go wrong. I would love to have the extra 5hp, but considering right now I am getting around on a 55lbs thrust Minn Kota, I dont think I can go wrong. I will keep you posted and post picks when I finally get a motor. Cant wait to hit the walleye on the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers this spring!

Carefullly inspect all the wiring on the old Merc. That seems to be the weak link nowadays with the older Mercs. Very expensive if not impossible to find the parts to fix the wiring. Look for cracking and melting insulation. 20hp Merc of that era is probably pretty close in power to a 25 OMC motor.

If the wiring checks out, would you buy it? How good are old merc's like this? The guy is giving a 30 day warranty. Just want to make sure I am doing the right thing as this will have to be my motor for a long while. Thanks.

Without a doubt. The old Mercs are extremely good and reliable motors. I have owned Mercs and OMC over the last 40 years and have no real preference. They all stand the test of time if taken care of.

In my area those are both great prices on an outboard. One thing I always do before buying an outboard is run a compression check on it. Since this guy works on them I'm sure he can do one for you. Just make sure you watch and get the readings. If he can't do one it may mean he already knows that it is off. You can buy one pretty cheap or I think you can even rent them. You want the psi to be no more than about 10-15% difference between the two cylinders.

I've got a 77 merc 20hp elec start and it runs great. I replaced all the internal wiring that had any problems which wasn't that many wires to replace. I've only had one time that it failed to start on me and that was my own fault for flooding it. I had gone fishing and hooked up the electric start for the first time. I made the mistake of pulling the choke out and hitting the starter button. #-o Flooded so bad it was faster to use the TM to get back to the ramp than to wait for the flooding to clear.

The shop runs a compression check on them before they sell. He stated that if the compression is not within 10% in each cylinder, he wont sell it. This guy has been in business for 23 years and I have a feeling he did not get there by selling junk. Thanks for all of the pointers and it has really boosted my confidence in buying this motor. Now if I could just get rid of the 12 inches of ice on the lake I would be good to go.........btw, it is currently -9 outside with a windchill of -30. Gotta love Wisconsin. Go Pack!!

As much as I'd like to try ice fishing, you can keep those temps and the ice for all I care. :lol: