1995 Mercury 200 Midsection question

[DropTop5.0]

Does anyone know what these three holes are for on the side of the mid? They are preventing me from mounting a 5" vertical jackplate. I was thinking of grinding them off.

 

[atc250r]

I don't know what they're for but I can't see the harm in removing them. That's aluminum so I wouldn't grind them. I'd cut with a sawzall or a hacksaw with a fairly corse metal cutting blade then sand it smooth and paint.

 

[jumbofordman]

You sure that jackplate is correctly set up? Mine doesn't have anything projecting towards the motor side (what's hitting your engine bracket) and all of my Mercury outboards have the same three holes. Seems odd a major jackplate manufacturer would make something in the way of a bunch of their target customer's outboard motors.

 

[checky213]

To me that looks like something has been butchered together. That back plate in which your trying to mount the motor too should go the other way. Do a quick google images search. Thats what it appears to be anyway

 

[chrispallen]

something is not right with that jackplate... my son has the same one... let me see if i can find a picture

 

[chrispallen]

These are the best images that i can find of my son's build.

we had to add a plate to accommodate the smaller motor

 

[keith4216]

I get your trying to get 5 more inches of lift but are you only useing one piece of another jack plate? Shouldn't there be 2 so it looks like the one already on there?

If your only useing the one plate cut them ears off. Might have been cheaper to make 2 plates, if you bought 2 more jack plates.

Explain yourself man. your confusing the crowd with this action.

 

[chrispallen]

if you are looking for setback and height, you should check out stainless marine
http://www.stainlessmarine.com/product-category/outboard-engine-brackets/

here is my set up on the Action

 

[atc250r]

That is a plate used just to lift the motor higher without going back further. It looks a little funky but that is how its supposed to be.

 

[Great East Predictor]

Some clamps have those 3 holes on the side, you can just cut them off.

 

[DropTop5.0]

Thanks for the input guys. This is perhaps a little unorthodox so let me explain. I have my Outboard Convincor that takes a single 25" motor, but with twins 20" motors are a little better fit. Finding a pair of 20" counter rotating motors at a fair price is not an easy task so I settled on a pair of 25" 200s that I thought I could just lift them up a little more on the plate. I have them mounted in the top hole and the plate all the way up and I'm still probably two or three inches lower than I would like to be.

I've been looking for cost effective solutions to get my motors a little higher. CMC makes this 5” Vertical Extension static plate that I thought would work well with my current ML-65 CMC plate but I have run into a couple of problems.

The orientation in the pic above is how they need to be mounted to my current plate. I'm having two issues: 1. The three holes on the left are preventing the plate from working as designed and 2. The ML-65 plate will need to be drilled so I can mount the static plate to it.





I made a black dot on the plate where it needs to be drilled. It is right in the center of the four bolts. This means I will have to drill through two pieces of aluminum to make this work. I don't want this to be some ugly bastardization. I have some 20 inch mids off my 2.4 motors but I've never disassembled a motor before. Maybe I should give that a try.

 

[chrispallen]

do you 25's happen to have the spacer at the bottom? do you have 2 20 inch lowers?

 

[DropTop5.0]

No on both. I Think I have two sets of mids with the water tubes and shift shafts for 20" motors and I can probably get my shafts cut down.

 

[SippyRat]

The two holes on the port side of you bracket are for installing a transom mounted power steering pump used from '94 thru '01 I believe. I have one on my '97 200 EFI. They were discontinued a long time ago so I see no reason why you can't cut the ears off.

http://www.marineengine.com/parts/m...-up/power-steering-kit-transom-mount-17443a11

 

[DropTop5.0]

Thanks Sippy, I was really curious.

 

[JUPITER PULSARE]

Does anyone know what these three holes are for on the side of the mid? They are preventing me from mounting a 5" vertical jackplate. I was thinking of grinding them off.

They are from a failed steering system that Mercury once tried. After producing the molds for the clamp we've been stuck with them for many years. They don't effect anything..just grind them off if needed...

 

[SippyRat]

They are from a failed steering system that Mercury once tried. After producing the molds for the clamp we've been stuck with them for many years. They don't effect anything..just grind them off if needed...

Failed is right! They had a tendency to blow out seals and merc came up with an upgrade kit and issued a service bulletin. Mine has the upgrade and hasn't failed me but the system just doesn't feel right. Sea Star system is on the shelf and will be installed this winter.

 

[DropTop5.0]

Ok team Checkmate. I was finally able to get my CMC Static Jack Plate 5 inch vertical extension installed. I followed John's advice and sawed off the holes from the mid and cleaned them up with a wire wheel. I then had to drill a hole in my ML-65 plate to accept my lower mount. I raised my motors from 5.5" below the hull to 2.5" below. The boat ran pretty well. I still have some porpoise and need to use the tabs to control it. I gained some RPM and some water pressure from the lifting of the motors.

A very wise man suggested I start logging everything I do and make detailed notes of all characteristics.

Thank you for everyone's help.