Guys what's the deal with the bad rep the Force outboards have. I have seen several at the docks that don't want to start. But, what other problems do they have? Can the problems be resolved by an upgrade to a better part/system? I ask because my neighbor has a nice Alumaweld for sale that has a 115hp Force on it. The price is right but if the outboard is junk then I know why. Any info would be great because I'm real courious about the bad rep. Thanks.

One of my best experiences with a boat involved a force outboard. I had a 15 hp force on my 14' aluminum boat and I came out one day to go to work and the motor was gone!! Some poor S.O.B. was stupid enough to steal that piece of junk! The thing was nothing but trouble from day 1. Hard starts, fouled plugs, 2 new coils in the first year, very poor preformance when it did run.
I was glad it was gone because it gave me an excuse to buy a decent motor. I just hope the guy that stole it had as much trouble with it as I did.

Daddawg was one of the lucky force owners if his were stolen. I had two boats in the early 90's that both had force engines. Problems from the day I bought them tell the day I blew them. Todays new engines are far superior and well worth the extra money.

Here's a little history: Force outboards were a spin-off from Mercury at a time when Merc was upgrading technology and needed a place to dump the old stuff-- which has been upgraded in a major way at least one more time since then.

Force OB's are no longer being made, I believe, and as such are orphans. If you buy it, and something breaks, you may no longer be able to buy parts.

I put Force right along with Chrysler and Bearcat outboards--- something to be avoided.

Keith

I know that Force outboards are not the greatest, but if you take care of them they will do great, just like almost any combustable motor. I am not saying I would take one over a merc, but if they were junky like everyone is saying you really wouldn't see them on the water anymore. Just my .02

OK, let me give the correct history on Force Outboards. They were originally designed by McCulloch in the 50's. The designs, tooling, etc were then bought by Chrysler. Bayliner bought the works from Chrysler in the early 80's to use as the power plant on their boat-motor-trailer packages and renaming the engines Force. After Brunswick bought Bayliner in the late 80's the Force line was transferred to Mercury ownership. Mercurys plan was to use Force as their price point entry level engine. No oil injection, etc. Over time they improved the line by using Mercury parts wherever possible. In the last few years of production they were solid motors. If the engine in question is late model and priced cheap, it'll be ok. If not late model, pass on the deal.

Wolverine's recap of the Force history looks correct to me. But here is where I pose these type questions:

More than you ever wanted to know about Force OBs

Wolverine is correct they still resemble the chrysler if you look for it, Mercurys attempt at a low budget motor. Actually they make great anchors.

I had an old Chrysler bass boat hull matched with Chrysler 35 h.p., circa "early 70's." (Did they really have fiberglass way back then??? - jk) Ran OK for what I was using it for which wasn't much (no trips far from home). The lower end finally went out on the 35 after some months of coaxing and babying. Local outboard guy said "don't bother" when I asked him about fixing it. Instead, he sold me a used 50 h.p. Force for real cheap. THIS 1988 50 h.p. FORCE HAD THE EXACT SAME BLOCK AS THE OLD 35 h.p. CHRYSLER. I was amazed that there had not been substantive change in the basic engine design in probably 15 years or more of manufacturing.

I have to agree 100% with the above explanation that the Force technology was old technology. But I also agree with another of the above comments that these motors will treat you right if you treat them right. Perhaps I had one of those late model units that had a better rep than the older ones. But I liked my 50 h.p. Force because it was a low cost motor that ran well. I sold it this year after owning it and runniing it for 8 years. As far as I know it is going strong today.

my history with force engines is - i bought a brand new 94 trophy 18 ft center console powered by a 94 - 70hrs force outboard. i was young and some people might say i didnt think before signed on the dotted line. but like i said i was young and fell in love with the boat. the first 3 months i had the boat. i was towed off the water 4 times and had the engine in the shop 13 times. my opinion is the mechanics working on the engine didnt no what they were doing, finally after 13 trips to the boat dealer where i purchased it. i took it to a different mechanic in olympia, and the problems were fixed and had no other problems with my boat and motor. sold my trophy this past july hated to see it go, but it was time to upgrade. my point is, with the right knowledge of the engine they can be reliable. i had my force in the straights and lapush many of times.

my history with force engines is - i bought a brand new 94 trophy 18 ft center console powered by a 94 - 70hrs force outboard. i was young and some people might say i didnt think before signed on the dotted line. but like i said i was young and fell in love with the boat. the first 3 months i had the boat. i was towed off the water 4 times and had the engine in the shop 13 times. my opinion is the mechanics working on the engine didnt no what they were doing, finally after 13 trips to the boat dealer where i purchased it. i took it to a different mechanic in olympia, and the problems were fixed and had no other problems with my boat and motor. sold my trophy this past july hated to see it go, but it was time to upgrade. my point is, with the right knowledge of the engine they can be reliable. i had my force in the straights and lapush many of times.

There is a guy here in Tacoma that works exclusively on Force Outboards. His name is Chuck and he has been dealing with these outboards for 35 years+, he always keeps my outboarding running great, and its a 1985, 85hp Force.
Chuck's Moblie Marine Service
253-272-1009

(He also used to be the owner of the Pacific Yacht Basin)

Thanks for all the opinions. But, I still haven't heard about any of the problems they have. Or solutions to those said problems. Maybe they're not as bad as the rumours would have you think?

Cyclops,

Did you click on the link I provided above?

Problems? Everything- the Chrysler switch to Force is correct. I had a Force 120 horse and it had lots of problems. The ones that I hear have the least are the 75 and 85 horse. On the 120 horse and 150 horse ( the 150 is a 120 with an unbalanced added cylinder globbed onto the crank) balance is terrible, they are crap. I bought my Trophy with it. (against all of my friends advise, but thought how bad could it be) I had trouble from day one. I continually put money into it. I was going to change it out with a Merc and nursed it along for several years. If you troll one the rings will stick into the piston ring lands, which you shouldn't do with any big older outboard two stroke. So it will drop compression in cylinders easily. Lets see, wish I would have kept the receipts for this motor to discourage you, I had the stator go out on the top and take out all of the magnets on the flywheel. So had to buy both. Had a crappy starter. Alternator only put out 7-9amps so fishing two days in a row with electric downriggers was out unless taking it home to recharge the batteries. I fish Neah Bay often and would never, ever, go past Tatoosh Island (where the straight becomes the ocean) with this motor.) Make sure you have a good trolling motor as I had a 20 horse and used it to come in on the Puget Sound more times than I care to remember. When the newer Forces said by Mercury on it they were a little better and used some newer electronics and better Merc parts. But I think they did this to finish getting rid of the rest of the remaining motors, then discontinued them. The last go round I spent $800 keeping it running so I could get rid of it. That’s when it blew a cylinder. So it was worthless to get rid of. I now have a 150 Merc and have gone out as far as 40 miles past Tatoosh into Canada halibut fishing. One of the best days of my life when the Force blew. No more throwing money into a hole.