Customer Reviews

Mariner Outboards, 3, 4, & 6 Cylinders, 1977-1989 (Seloc Marine Tune-Up and Repair Manuals)

5 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Follow-up note: I orginally rated this a 1, but in retrospect, I'd give it at least a 3 maybe a 4. Writing a repair manual for several models at once is a challenge and the pictures in the manual are pretty good. It's not as good as some auto-repair manuals I've had, but outboard motor repair is expensive and I've been able to save some money with this book.
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If you're used to the detailed organized auto repair manuals put out by Haynes for various automobiles, you may find this book frustrating at first. On the other hand, these guys may not have the same resources that Haynes does. Haynes can hire a technical illustrator, where these guys have to rely on muddy looking photos. The market for outboard motor books just won't support that much publishing investment, so you have to adjust your expectations a little.

The authors seem to love their subject, but you may find the writing a hard to untangle on occassion. It gets a little better after you try a few things. The authors are also up against the problem of several different models crammed into one book. This is probably a neccesity since the market may not be big enough to make a manual for one class of motors. In using this book, set aside a few days before any repair job to study the book to figure out what part of the book applies to your motor.

Carberators are particularly problematic in outboard motors, because of idleness over the winter, the complex control system and a design that links it closely to ignition system setings, as well as the problems getting proper performance at low RPM and the need to run it in water for some adjustments. This is where I wish the Seloc manual had a little more to offer. When you finally figure out which carberator is yours, the pictures and instructions are useful to a point, but the reinstall instructions are weak and without warning for the pitfalls of realligning the parts. The primay advice of the authors after a rebuild is "when in doubt" set the idle screws too rich rather than to lean. Better trouble-shooting info is needed.

Simpler instructions like the water pump rebuild and lubricating the lower end, or rebuilding the fuel pump were great and you can do fine with simple jobs like this using this manual. In that sense, this book is worth buying just to get to know more about your engine and to save some money. They also do a great job of warning the novice about disturbing factory settings and various ways you might overrun or damage the engine. It's the details of powerhead operation and design, tuning, adjusting, and how to adjust it that I found to be wanting.

very helpful, just what i needed and recomend any one with a motor that is in this book to get it. The price of the book would only pay for 1 hour of a mechanic that may only be an apprentice on advice, you can do it buy the book and save.