Way2slow

My first thought is you are probably trying to turn it the wrong direction. My second thought would have been why not use an impact driver to loosen it instead of just brute force on the head. An impact driver applied will loosen over tightened screws a whole lot better than just brute force. They also work much better than just a screwdriver but if trying a screwdriver and the blade is so sharp, it's cutting the screw, why not just grind in flatter so it doesn't cut into it. Since there has never been a mention of what motor you are dealing with, makes it kind of hard to give any constructive assistance. Sound like one of those deals if I fix it, it cost $20. If I fix it after you tried, it cost $200.

These guys used to be one of the best in the business, I would give them a shot. Team C&O Marine - New & Pre-Owned Boats, Autos and Trucks, Financing, Parts and Service in White Bluff, TN, near Charlotte and White Oak Flat (candomarine.com)

If you are knowledgeable on the use of a good DVM, you can use it connected across the battery and crank the motor and see how much voltage drop it has. My process is to check it at the at the lead terminals on the battery, and then move out to the conductors in the cable. If the cables are good and have clean connection's, you will get the same reading you got on the lead battery post. IF not, you need to clean, repair or replace some cables.

Something you need to understand. The ignition voltage is generated by magnets in the flywheel and coils in there next to them. Most all, older and a lot of newer two stroke motors require at least about 250+ rpm to generate enough spark to fire the motor. While a bad battery might be spinning the motor over, and struggling to do that, it's not spinning it fast enough to generate a good hot spark. Then you get hit with the double whammy. Not only is it not spinning it fast enough, if it has a power pack or ECM that depends on battery voltage to work, the battery voltage is dropping too low for them to operate. Ever wonder why your depth finder turns off when you crank the motor? Then you get hit with the triple whammy. Running a motor with a weak/bad battery makes the stator and Rec/Reg overheat from the constant load the battery is pulling with it trying to charge it, and can burn either or both out. Every wonder why your tach quit working and then later find the motor won't start. The rectifier is where the tach signal comes from so when it quits, so does the tach. Or jut the Reg can go and tach still work but won't charge. OH, what trouble being to cheap to replace a $100 bad battery can cause. Of course, there is always the bad/dirty cables that can cause problems also.

"Battery"

I do hope he is not still trying to use the motor with a bent prop shaft. The vibration will destroy the lower unit, and quite possibly cause the shaft to break, depositing the prop on the bottom of the lake and just think of the RPM's that motor is going to hit if it breaks and the motor goes to a no load condition while under power. Might make one big grenade even if the rev limiter does hold it back some. I personally would not want one .001" out, that's still a lot of wobble when you figure the weight of that prop and it's turning close to 3,000rpm at WOT.

I haven't done this motor but I'm guessing it's similar to most other models. Since he's not replacing any gears, bearings or other parts, he should be able to replace the prop shaft without any of the special jigs and alignment fixtures. He will probably have to remover the water pump and the vertical drive shaft. To remove the prop shaft, there are two retainers inside the exhaust port holding the bearing housing in. Then you use a tool that hooks behind the bearing housing to pull it out. It can be done with a slide hammer, but it has to be done carefully, a little at the time from different positions around it. If he has never been into one, I would recommend seeing if a dealer can't get a factory manual. Screw anything up and it can get super expensive very fast. Crowley marine has parts breakdowns for most outboard motors and most common parts.

One of the U.S.'s top aluminum manufacturing plants has made massive cutbacks to its workforce, putting a halt to all operations for at least nine months, the company said on Wednesday.

Battery longevity is rated in cycle counts (a discharge and recharge is one cycle). AGM's typically have a higher cycle count than flooded cell batteries, usually about 15% to 20%. How deeply the battery is discharged also have a huge affect on cycle count. A battery that is only discharge to 70% will last much longer (almost twice as long) than a battery that is discharged to 30% How a battery is maintained also has a huge affect on the life of a battery, and the type battery charger used. A good logic controlled charger can almost pay for itself with just the first set of batteries. Then you have the battery construction itself, and the type alloy used to make the plates and how much lead they actually have in them. There is a whole host of variables that have to do with the life span of a battery. That's why you buy a good, well known brand name, a good, name brand logic controlled charger that's made in the USA and learn how to properly maintain them. Now, as far as run time for each trip, a good, flooded cell battery that has service caps on it has more reserve minute's and will give more run time than the equivalent size AGM.

I just installed mine a couple of months ago and have only used it a couple of times. I'm just running one group 27 AGM I take out of my pontoon boat as needed. I used it twice trolling at 1-mph for several hours crappie fishing and had very minor battery drain. If I had to depend on it running for several hours, even at modest speeds on an electric only lake, I would have stuck with the 60-pound thrust 24 volt digital motor I had on it. I didn't need that much motor and battery for my type of fishing, is the reason I went with just one battery. Even running a 12v TM with two batteries in parallel, you are still loosing a lot because a 24V TM is 25% more efficient than a 12V, plus the digital motor will give a huge increase in run time at low to moderate speed settings.

Everything is Way2slow. About 32mph on the jon. Even my 20' Javelin I sold that would run 82 with a full load and two people. I'm like Tim Allen, "More Power", ain't no such thing as too much power or too fast. I've never had a stock motor in my personal vehicle (in the wife's, but not mine) and not many of my boats.

36" shaft. I recently installed a new TM on my Lowe 1436 jon. I only wanted a 12V TM because I don't use it a lot and didn't want the weight of two batteries in the rear, especially since I sometimes run a 25hp Merc on it. Motor Guide only offers the X3 in 45lb and 55lb in the 12V. Motor I preferred getting the 55lb digital, but the 45lb non digital was the only motor available at the time in the 36" shaft. Even though I really preferred the 55 digitals, I bought the 45 non digital just to get the 36" shaft. With over 50 year's experience, if there's one thing I've learned, too long of a shaft totally sucks. Don't think cutting the shaft is a quick, easy solution. It is on some but not all. I've cut my fair share of them, the older ones usually were easy. Some of the newer one, not so easy and you can kiss any warranty it might have good by.

I don't use a kayak, but my son converted his to a foot control about 10 years ago and says he wouldn't want it any other way. He uses his to fish the shallow bays in south Texas.

If the pump is pumping water in and it's not staying, the drain valve is open. If it's not pumping water in, sounds like you need to fix the pump

Anyone that's going to tow anything for any distance or at highway speed would be well advised to install a transmission temperature gauge. Vehicles designed to tow generally come with one for a reason. Once the temperature gets above 200 degrees F, (about 190 is the max you really want it to go) you are cutting the life of that transmission in half, and it greatly shortens it even more for each five degrees above that. It doesn't take much extra load on a transmission to cause the temp rise. Used car dealers used to take the hitch out from under vehicles if they had one, so people wouldn't know they had been used for towing.

It's basically just a Mercury Tilt/Trim pump. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=how+to+add+fluid+to+mercury+trim+pump&&view=detail&mid=D06C876CE0B5A1278F71D06C876CE0B5A1278F71&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dhow%20to%20add%20fluid%20to%20mercury%20trim%20pump%26%26FORM%3DVDVVXX

Make sure the trailer has 14" wheels so they will fit over the brakes and then just upgrade the trailer to disc brakes. It's not that expensive to add surge brakes. The main thing is having 14" wheels and the right size tongue to mount the master cylinder assembly to start with. Just don't try to save a dollar and buy drum brakes, total waste of time and money, and require a lot of routine maintenance, keeping them adjusted and working. I've been pushed through one intersection by 3,100-pound boat rig behind a Toyota 4WD pickup trying to make a panic stop, and it's not something I would care to go through again

Two things about this setup that concerns me. If you are getting a vibration, you have a serious problem and I would not be running it until the problem is fixed, like maybe the hub adapter is not properly installed in the prop or the porp shaft got bent in shipping. Even if it cavitates, there should be absolutely no vibration. The other concern is the prop pitch. A 23" pitch prop on a 115 is a whole lot of prop, unless that's a 60+ mph boat. With you and a light load, you would want the motor to be turning right at manufacture's max recommended rpm. If it's not, it's going to be a dog coming out of the hole with two people, tank of gas, gear and full livewell. Looking at your picture, the motor might actually already be a little too high. It looks like the anti-cavitation plate is up from the bottom of the transom a couple of inches already. So precede with caution and monitor the water pressure gauge if you try raising it more.

It's not my boat so I shouldn't care, so I deleted what I posted. I will say, if you've thought about upgrading to a larger TM, all you need to do is upgrade the wiring on what you have and you will think you have a new TM twice the size. That's how much performance loss you have with what you have. Also, Minnkota recommends a 60 amp breaker,

A short usually vaporizes the fuse. A melted fuse is from more current than it's rated for. However, the only fuses I've dealt with large enough to handle that kind of a load are sand filled ceramic housings and you can't see the element to know if it melted or vaporized.

It probably melted simply because it was most likely too small. That motor can draw 50 amps on max and should be on a 60 amp circuit breaker, not a fuse. I can't say I've ever seen a 60 amp inline fuse, it would need 6ga wire going to it.

If you know how to use a voltmeter, you could have saved yourself a few hundred dollars. Using a voltmeter, just follow the cable back toward the battery, every place there is a connection, check both sides of the connection. If both sides have the voltage drop, follow it on back to the next connection, again check both sides. Keep following it back to the battery. A prime culprit for this are crimped on connectors and dirty connections. Also, remember it takes two wires to make a circuit. I don't know how many times I've seen people think it has good voltage, but forget it also has to have good connections on the negative leads also, so make sure you troubleshoot the negative cable. If the voltage going to a circuit is dropping, most likely the power source is the problem, not the circuit, unless there is a major short and that usually causes tripped breakers, blow fuses or smoke.

Never change a spark plug in a hot aluminum head and "ALWAYS" put anti-seize on the threads

The DFI Evinrudes are subject to plug fouling if idled or run at very low RPM much from the sot created at idle. If not indexed, the ground tip creates a shield and lets it build up on the plug and causing it to carbon foul. By the way, it's not exactly free. You either have to have different thickness seal rings or extra spark plugs you can switch around until you get enough plugs indexed properly.

I index spark plugs in just about everything. Any motor that has a spark plug will run better if they are indexed.