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1960 Mercury 300E

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2017 6:20 pm
by Rapier
The project 300 continues sowly. The last post was in Deceember 2016 and the changeover of the forum hosting put paid to some of the history.

A some stage a used coil arrived courtesy of ebay.com. I was able to get it sparking properly, but unfortunately broke a chip off the disty cap by putting too much pressure on the tang that prevents the bolts from shifting position. A decent used one, to replace the black troublesome version arrived later, from a kind fellow enthusiast in the US.

The most recent task has been to drop the lower unit - I discoved the tilt tube wasn't seized, which means hope for a keeping the mid-section as a spare. As envisaged the l/u hadn't been removed before, so was a bit like wrestling an aligator to remove it. One day I'll cut some wood wedges to help separate it. What looked like fishing wire on the propellor shaft was in fact dessicated weed.

The water pump cover proved hard work - these screw in on top of the wear plate above the impeller and the top has 4 lugs that match the special tool used to remove it. Generally speaking, heat and penetrating oil are enough to shift such things, but not this one. The tool sat proud because the shaft seal had ballooned with rust, by knocking the tool down to gain purchase on the cover I inadvertently distorted the underlying wear plate. After 10 days of the 50/50 recipe it still was welded in situ, the cover threads melded into l/u housing threads. I finally made the decision to drill it and break it up - they're NLA and about $45 in the US so was a bit painful to do. The impeller below had long set, spun on the shaft and has perished.

Re: 1960 Mercury 300E

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 6:13 pm
by Rapier
Mananged to get the impeller in last week. They're not easy to do. The pump cartridge sits quite deep into the gearbox housing and the key is a tight fit; after awhile I slid 4 thin cable ties over it, until it was nicely squashed, slid the impeller down the shaft with a ring spanner, knocked the edge od the spanner with a mallet and then cut and removed the ties. Sticky 101 lube kept the key in place and I'd filed the edge of the brass keyway to give it some initial purchase too. The wearplate and seal / pump cover then screws down on top (with lots of grease in the threads, not on the impeller.. :) ).

Re: 1960 Mercury 300E

Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 4:23 pm
by Rapier
After a summer of living outside (winterised) I finally got moving with the mid-section replacement. Once I knew how to lever it using the front 2 of 8 bolts, it finally gave up it's hold (it had hung strapped to it's stand, from the rafters, while I beat the exhaust side with the flat of my hand - per the manual...). I was able to swap it over in minutes, by winching the powerhead back onto the mid positioned underneath on the stand. The gasket had come in from the US, months before, but the new postie had folded the envelope in his excitement to deliver through the mailbox - cue a claim and another gasket ordered. When I started this hobby 15 years ago that wouldn't have been possible...

While reinstalling the distributor I realised the throttle shaft was not moving and had to dismantle that sufficiently enough to get some access around the parts that were binding, followed by some grease. Now need an extra pair of hands to hold the upper cowl while I bolt the choke solenoid and bonding wire back on - it's a pain trying to do this looking up with the cowl on... After that I will use it, with all it's patina, probably order in new fuel lines towards the start of the season. Surprisingly it doesn't seem to have done a lot of work, perhaps been left under the bench after the swivel tube seized up. Maybe it was left there when the black Mercs were readily available from the mid-60s on...

These are great motors to own (39.6cu.in), stacks of used parts availablity & once setup they idle nicely and I think are more pleasing than the more powerful 44 cu.in 400. This is a 1960 only motor, '61 was rebadged 350 and all in about 176K were produced in total...We shall see how this one performs over time.

Re: 1960 Mercury 300E

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 5:27 pm
by Rapier
Got the lid on today with my willing helper and did a general polish and cleanup. Trying to work out what to do re the paint on the wrap.