Thread: new mercury 9.9 four stroke

I had one. They're great little outboards. The only problem I ever had was getting lazy about checking that there was gas in the tank. It would take several trips to use enough gas to make it worth all the trouble of filling up the tank.

I'll be interested to hear how it works out for you. What size/kind of boat is it on?

the boat is a j16 Carolina skiff which is a fiberglass flat bottom skiff measuring 15'8" I believe. It has a front platform on it that all together makes the boat probably 550lbs. without the motor. I have been using a 9.9 because some of my favorite lakes around here require this by law. this motor has the forward/neutral/and reverse all on the same tiller handle, this is very convenient. also to be noted s that my short shaft 9.9 merc, is a little longer than my old short Yamaha so I had to shim the transom at the top, because I had previously shaved the transom down some for proper cavitation plate position with the yami. this merc vents exhaust thru the prop and also thru a small hole in the back of the motor, and the water pump squirts water out of probably 5 places, the largest being in the location of most all motors. you can run this motor without the kill switch lanyard if you forget it, and the stop button on the end of the tiller handle is very handy. It also has an oil pressure light that comes on if you aren't getting enough oil. I would guess it weighs about 85lbs. It also has other features that I haven't learned yet like a throttle only button. Oh and the choke which you use during a cold start. I think the throttle only button allows you to start the engine with the throttle in the forward position at higher rpms without being engaged to the prop. in case you are having trouble starting it. just a very feature rich little motor. there are two screw clamps for transom mounting and also two holes at the bottom of the transom bracket to drill and install the two stainless 5/16 bolts through the transom. screw clamps are toward the top of the transom and the bolts are down below that. pretty outboard too, everyone comments on that.

Nice! How fast does it push you?

i have a 15hp 4 stroke merc and it is sweet. have a three gallon tank and get 9/10 trips before i have to refill. run it on my 14 ft jon boat and it is quick. good luck with yours. just keep it away from ethanol.

funbun, being in the break in period I have only opened up the throttle half way and even that gave a good respomse. they don't recommend running these things wide open straight out of the box. to be fair this is too much boat for this size motor, but I need to run a 9.9 where I fish most, plus I feel most comfortable with the 9.9 size. another feature I thought I noticed was that in forward gear the motor will tilt up if it bumps something, but if you put it in reverse it must lock in the down position to keep it from tilting up upon backing the boat up, I noticed this the other day. my old yami had to be manually locked when backing up. so it seems to me that the merc. does this locking for me when in reverse, the old yami would come jumping up out of the water if I forgot to lock it manually.

Originally Posted by redear

funbun, being in the break in period I have only opened up the throttle half way and even that gave a good respomse. they don't recommend running these things wide open straight out of the box. to be fair this is too much boat for this size motor, but I need to run a 9.9 where I fish most, plus I feel most comfortable with the 9.9 size. another feature I thought I noticed was that in forward gear the motor will tilt up if it bumps something, but if you put it in reverse it must lock in the down position to keep it from tilting up upon backing the boat up, I noticed this the other day. my old yami had to be manually locked when backing up. so it seems to me that the merc. does this locking for me when in reverse, the old yami would come jumping up out of the water if I forgot to lock it manually.

It's funny how some do that and others don't. My 1967 Evinrude 9.5hp Sportwin locks in reverse but is free to flip in forward but my 1982 Evinrude 9.9 hp and 1992 Johnson 15 hp must be manually locked down when shifting into reverse.

You may want to go ahead and order a cheap tach too. Once you are further along in the break in and get to occasionally run at WOT it would be nice to observe your max rpms. If the motor came with a standard size prop you are likely over-pitched for such a large boat. A tach will help you prop it accordingly. If you chose to buy one, I recommend the Hardline one like in the link. It is very good quality and it tracks hours too.

https://www.amazon.com/Hardline-Prod...ine+tachometer