Home Forum Ask A Member 1955 Mark 55

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  • #8657
    wyo307
    Participant

      I just picked up this motor last night. I know very little about them outside of what I have read about them on here. This is actually the first one that I have ever seen in person but the price was right so I went and got it. It looks to be in reasonable shape and complete, it has good compression and shifts in and out of gear just fine. It came with the quicksilver control box and the fuel line connector but no fuel tank or the external wiring harness. I haven’t done anything to it since I just got it I haven’t even taken the cowling off of it to see how she looks inside yet. From my understanding that year there is a possibility of a sand cast block or a die cast block, is there one that is better than the other? It also came with a variable pitch prop which I find kind of interesting, does anyone have any experience with one of these or know who made it? Any general information about this motor anyone would like to provide would be great ie fuel mixture ratio, point and plug gaps, type of lower unit oil etc, like I said I know very little about it. Also if someone has a parts diagram for it they wouldn’t mind sharing that would be very helpful. Thank you all for your help once again and I look forward to hearing this old girl fire up for the first time!







      #67357
      brian-grigsby
      Participant

        Nice! Looks to have a Lesnor VarAPitch prop with it!

        #67359
        dave-bernard
        Participant

          US Member

          Call me 1 914 310 7086. Dave.

          #67381
          Pondrocket
          Participant

            Lifetime Member

            Excellent find. Where are you located Wy037? Very interesting prop. For you questions on the Motor,

            1. 50-1
            2. Kiekhaefer Mag .008
            3. for 1/2" Reach L type .030 & for 3/8" Reach J type .025
            4. John Deere Corn Head Grease

            Send me your serial number and I’ll get you a parts list, let me know what diagrams your looking for of course your best bet is to get your own service manuel. On the wiring harness start hitting AOMCI swap meets, you can make one , or by new from Ferguson Poole marine, John McIntosh, or others. Let me know if you need anything else.

            Travis

            Travis
            AOMCI VP Communications
            AOMCI Webmaster
            webmaster@aomci.org

            #67387
            jeff-register
            Participant

              US Member - 2 Years

              Flush the gearcase & let drain 4 24 hours & add the advised. Let it sit another to see if water intrusion. Member they are fully jeweled &
              must be serviced as in any Hi Po mtr. Pay attention to detale in the book, no deaviations, Yea hard to follow but FUN to get correct. Contact Dave 4 advice,
              Jeff

              #67392
              Anonymous

                Nice motor. Some good information can be found here http://www.joeoutboard.com/manuals/mercury-manuals.html
                Kirk

                #67402
                wyo307
                Participant

                  Thank you guys! I already had found the joeoutboard site after I had posted here. Great advice on the gear case. I took the cowling off for the first time last night and did my initial inspection of the motor. It is a die cast block for starters. The serial number on the top of the block matches the serial number on the tag which is 860465 and the block still has the factory lead seal in it. It also has the swing type starter instead of the bendix and the starter works well (just used jumper cables to see if it worked and I did unplug the rectifier which I suspect is no good anyway because its missing a chunk out of it). Everything else seems to be there and looks to be original just dirty. The carbs have some visible varnish from the old gas sitting in the throats so I would imagine all of the fuel system will need gone through to get all of that out of there. No spark but didn’t really expect there to be. Now the bad part is there looks to be a small crack in the side of the block so I may need another 40 cube block to put in this motor. It still has compression and turns over freely so I would think that most of the internal parts are still fine just need the block itself. Any advice/information that you all would like to provide about this motor or how I should move forward would be great.




                  #67423
                  dave-bernard
                  Participant

                    US Member

                    I see tou have the rare swing starter. IF you need help I have worked on them. you also have a charging system alos. IF you plan on running It or even starting it with out a battery disconnect one of the yellow wires on the rectifier. Or you WILL BURN OUT THE RECTIFIER.

                    #67509
                    jeff-register
                    Participant

                      US Member - 2 Years

                      Yes sir Dave is correct, A guy produces ele enrgy, GOTTA go somewhere, And it will! Balance you know. :mrgreen:

                      #67534
                      wyo307
                      Participant

                        Just did a compression check the other night and this is what I came up with:

                        #1 118psi
                        #2 120psi
                        #3 118psi
                        #4 118psi

                        now these numbers were calculated using the correction factor for the elevation and temperature that I am at (7300ft and 38 degrees) so my actual readings were lower than that. Do you guys think that this block is no good or could it be ok? I still might trade this one off to another member here but we will see.

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