When you buy a brand new outboard, the last thing that most people would do is to take it home and dismantle it. But that is exactly what I have done. The motor is a 15hp Parsun 4 stroke outboard, and I wanted it only for its parts.

I had earlier bought a couple of the Yamaha 9.9 outboards that are the recommended motors for these catamarans. These Yamahas have an extra long leg, but what is really special is the extra low ratio gearbox spinning a prop of up to 12″ diameter. They are designed just to drive a large boat slowly rather than a small boat fast. But this pair of outboards had blown motors, and cost me $350. I figured at the time that the legs and gearboxes were worth more than that.

What’s more is that a new Yamaha 9.9 uses a smaller displacement engine than the old motors that I bought. It is generally reported that the older motors had more grunt, but Yamaha have moved to the smaller displacement motors to save weight. The old motors are definitely heavy. But the new Parsun 15 is identical to the old Yammie 9.9. And I really mean identical.

So I dismantled one of those Yamahas and reconditioned the lower unit with parts from the Parsun, and then added the Parsun powerhead to the top. My own Frankenstein. It’s been running in a drum, and I plan to run it in on a small boat before it goes onto the catamaran.

[alpine-phototile-for-picasa-and-google-plus src=”user_album” uid=”106672678129024570025″ ualb=”6207290543895659249″ imgl=”link” style=”gallery” row=”6″ size=”400″ num=”60″ highlight=”1″ align=”center” nocredit=”1″]