Bass Fishing Forum - Westernbass.com

A while ago I purchased an 88 tracker from someone on Facebook mkt place. I should have had a mechanic take a look at it beforehand but I felt like I could trust the guy (my mistake, a valuable lesson). I went in knowing there were issues but not to the actual extent. Anyways I had a mobile mechanic come by and take a look and he was pretty confident he could fix it but after a few tries he couldn’t figure out what the issue was. He believes it is something with the ignition system but he couldn’t pinpoint it. After all was said and done he still believed that it was fixable but it should probably be taken in to an actual shop where they have better tools to diagnose the problems.

The boat itself is in really good shape with new marine carpet and a 24V trolling motor. I paid 5k for it and put in about an extra grand through parts. I think I want to just sell it as I don’t have the mechanic knowledge to really fix it myself and I’m kind of torn on trying to keep paying a mechanic to fix the issue. Sorry for the long winded post but what I’m basically looking for is a price point or a place I can find a price point to sell this to someone.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

*Apologies if this should have been posted to classifieds. Wasn't sure since I am not actually listing it yet.

Who knows what its worth. Most of the tin type boats are priced extremely high on other classified type sites. I don't know what they're actually selling for but there are a certain number of buyers out there that have no clue and will over pay for a boat. So I would price it high and come down in price over time. Hopefully you will catch on of those uneducated buyers.

You left out a few details, such as the size of the OB and what electronics it may have.
You have $6,000 in a 33 year old aluminum Tracker ..... that has mechanical issues and is not running right.
Nobody cares about what the carpet looks like if the boat ain't running.

If the boat is running decent and fishable ..... you may get 4000 to 6000 (?)
In it's current state, which evidently is not running very good ...... maybe 2000 to 3000

Can you elaborate on what the issues are with the motor? Sounds electrical in nature if it’s ignition so the engine itself may be fine.

Now is a good time to sell as there is barely any stock for people to buy so you may get lucky....

I would start with your break even price and go from there but expect a lesson learned loss if there is no interest from the market.

Good luck!

I would take it to a reputable shop that has lots of experience with the brand of outboard you have. Pay them $100 to go through it and advise you on how much it will cost to make it run correctly. At that point you can either pay to fix it, so you can get the maximum price selling it or you may decide to sell it as/is. Heck, you may even decide to keep it for yourself. Right now prices on used boats and trucks has never been higher.

monte300 wrote:I would take it to a reputable shop that has lots of experience with the brand of outboard you have. Pay them $100 to go through it and advise you on how much it will cost to make it run correctly. At that point you can either pay to fix it, so you can get the maximum price selling it or you may decide to sell it as/is. Heck, you may even decide to keep it for yourself. Right now prices on used boats and trucks has never been higher.

As stated earlier, you are not going to get near what you paid for it if it aint running right. Nada average retail value is closer to $2,500 with a motor. It would be well worth it to take it to mechanic and see if you can identify the issue and either repair or at least have the mechanics note when you go to sale it - but a hull without a properly working motor that is 30 years old is not going to sale well. IMHO

Merc or evinrude

monte300 wrote:I would take it to a reputable shop that has lots of experience with the brand of outboard you have. Pay them $100 to go through it and advise you on how much it will cost to make it run correctly. At that point you can either pay to fix it, so you can get the maximum price selling it or you may decide to sell it as/is. Heck, you may even decide to keep it for yourself. Right now prices on used boats and trucks has never been higher.

That was going to be the plan but I called a bunch of different shops and none of them were willing to work on it because of how old the motor is.

MichaelB wrote:You left out a few details, such as the size of the OB and what electronics it may have.
You have $6,000 in a 33 year old aluminum Tracker ..... that has mechanical issues and is not running right.
Nobody cares about what the carpet looks like if the boat ain't running.

If the boat is running decent and fishable ..... you may get 4000 to 6000 (?)
In it's current state, which evidently is not running very good ...... maybe 2000 to 3000

Yeah 3k is kind of where I was at in my mind. It's an 18 footer with a 70HP merc. Its got a little lowrance graph thats only for the back of boat, nothing that would really help with the value.

gabuelhaj wrote:Can you elaborate on what the issues are with the motor? Sounds electrical in nature if it’s ignition so the engine itself may be fine.

Now is a good time to sell as there is barely any stock for people to buy so you may get lucky....

I would start with your break even price and go from there but expect a lesson learned loss if there is no interest from the market.

Good luck!

We replaced all the electronics on the motor and put in a new impeller. It had a bad coil so we replaced all 3 of them. He was diagnosing a misfire and that was when it lost spark completely. He installed a stator, a trigger, a rectifier, and a switch box and still no spark even with the ignition isolated. The mechanic seemed pretty confident it was the ignition system and that the engine was fine but then again he wasn't able to fix it so who knows?

jiggin4bass wrote:Merc or evinrude

70 HP Merc

ZacktheWop wrote:

gabuelhaj wrote:Can you elaborate on what the issues are with the motor? Sounds electrical in nature if it’s ignition so the engine itself may be fine.

Now is a good time to sell as there is barely any stock for people to buy so you may get lucky....

I would start with your break even price and go from there but expect a lesson learned loss if there is no interest from the market.

Good luck!

We replaced all the electronics on the motor and put in a new impeller. It had a bad coil so we replaced all 3 of them. He was diagnosing a misfire and that was when it lost spark completely. He installed a stator, a trigger, a rectifier, and a switch box and still no spark even with the ignition isolated. The mechanic seemed pretty confident it was the ignition system and that the engine was fine but then again he wasn't able to fix it so who knows?

When he said the engine was fine, did he take compression on every single cylinder and was he able to see down into the cylinder with a flashlight to determine condition?

Go to Bass Boat Central and post what the motor issue is on the Mercury Forum. Lot of knowledgeable people there to help you out.

You can contact Damon Witt - he's a mechanic in Roseville and does excellent work. PM me for his info cause the moderators dont like when i post his contact info

monte300 wrote:

ZacktheWop wrote:

gabuelhaj wrote:Can you elaborate on what the issues are with the motor? Sounds electrical in nature if it’s ignition so the engine itself may be fine.

Now is a good time to sell as there is barely any stock for people to buy so you may get lucky....

I would start with your break even price and go from there but expect a lesson learned loss if there is no interest from the market.

Good luck!

We replaced all the electronics on the motor and put in a new impeller. It had a bad coil so we replaced all 3 of them. He was diagnosing a misfire and that was when it lost spark completely. He installed a stator, a trigger, a rectifier, and a switch box and still no spark even with the ignition isolated. The mechanic seemed pretty confident it was the ignition system and that the engine was fine but then again he wasn't able to fix it so who knows?

When he said the engine was fine, did he take compression on every single cylinder and was he able to see down into the cylinder with a flashlight to determine condition?

I know he did a compression check and everything was fine and he said the cylinders looked good but I dont know to what extent he looked.

JL wrote:Go to Bass Boat Central and post what the motor issue is on the Mercury Forum. Lot of knowledgeable people there to help you out.

Thanks, thats a great recommendation. Only problem is I am a complete idiot when it comes to anything motor and probably wouldnt have an idea of what they are talking about Still might give that a shot.

ash wrote:You can contact Damon Witt - he's a mechanic in Roseville and does excellent work. PM me for his info cause the moderators dont like when i post his contact info

Thanks Ill keep that in mind if I decide to try to fix it. Theres a guy named Jasson Oliver in Ceres that is apparently a Merc master and came pretty highly recommended from this forum. i might check him out too.

Appreciate that alot.

Depending on where you live Boatmasters in Livermore are excellent with Mercury’s and they are honest and fair

Jason Oliver is a excellent mechanic highly recommend and his prices are extremely fair.

ZacktheWop wrote:A while ago I purchased an 88 tracker from someone on Facebook mkt place. I should have had a mechanic take a look at it beforehand but I felt like I could trust the guy (my mistake, a valuable lesson). I went in knowing there were issues but not to the actual extent. Anyways I had a mobile mechanic come by and take a look and he was pretty confident he could fix it but after a few tries he couldn’t figure out what the issue was. He believes it is something with the ignition system but he couldn’t pinpoint it. After all was said and done he still believed that it was fixable but it should probably be taken in to an actual shop where they have better tools to diagnose the problems.

The boat itself is in really good shape with new marine carpet and a 24V trolling motor. I paid 5k for it and put in about an extra grand through parts. I think I want to just sell it as I don’t have the mechanic knowledge to really fix it myself and I’m kind of torn on trying to keep paying a mechanic to fix the issue. Sorry for the long winded post but what I’m basically looking for is a price point or a place I can find a price point to sell this to someone.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

*Apologies if this should have been posted to classifieds. Wasn't sure since I am not actually listing it yet.

If the motor is as old as the boat, most likely it will have a carburetor. If it's just air/fuel mixture or spark/timing, it should be a relatively easy fix and shouldn't cost that much to have it tuned. If I were in your shoes, I would find a reputable mechanic, have it fixed and fish out of it then sell it down the line. There's no sense in taking a loss if it will cost you around another 500 to get it running...that's if there's nothing mechanically wrong with it.