1996-1998 25 hp force

hey there just joined the forums and was wondering if anyone owns or has owned a force 25hp? how are they? I may pick one up to push my 1542 tracker I think the price is right...free. I don't not know the condition of the engine yet but have done some research and found brand new oem powerheads for $250 and complete gear cases for $300 . would it be worth a rebuild and have a brand new 25hp for under 1k? thanks

OK, first fill out your info so we know where your located.
Second, get your hands on it and see what problems you do have, before you start buying parts.

I had a Mariner 25 on my 1648 which was just perfect no matter what I carried in the thing.

I think I would have liked a forward console though.

Force.. I own a 35HP Force and it has yet to give me a problem, but everywhere I go I'm told "May the Force be with you, because the motor sure isnt gonna be". Luckily you got one of the new models because anything older than 91 is extremely hard to get parts for.

ok so I got the motor home the recoil starter has some issues so I pulled if off when turning the engine over by hand I noticed the the flywheel was sticking or rubbing one or more of the coils on the timing plate so I popped the flywheel off coils are set to far out the is a special tool for setting the air gap. I need to get ahold of one and go from there. other than that the motor seems clean and should be decent if I can get her up and running

looks like I will a good motor this spring found a few parts on ebay to resolve the starter rewind issues and a used flywheel I plan on cutting a hole in to make my own air-gap setting tool. dropped the lower unit and inspected the impeller appears to be almost new very little wear. the gear lube was clean and no signs on metal. sanded the faces of the coils and regained spark on all 3 cly sprayed some fogging oil in each cly and reinstalled plugs gave a quik pull and she light off on the oil alone. its amazing what people junk. I pulled this engine from the boneyard at a local marine repair shop.