New outboard motor and it's tunning

It has been a while since my last post, but I've managed to get some new thing for our joy.

We sold our old Tohatsu 9.8HP stortshaft recently and bought a brand new Mercury F8 ELH, 8hp, long shaft with an electric starter. I must say, this Mercury has a brilliantly engineered tiller with all functions easy to reach. Since we have it from new, I wanted to have an overview about the service intervals and possibly tachometer. So I've ordered a waterproof multifunction hour meter with tachometer and replaceable battery Run Leader RL-HM028 and attached it to the motor.

Mercury F8 ELH - model year 2014

Installation of the multifunction display was pretty easy, just followed the instructions and without any drilling. For the best view I decided to put the display on the front of the cowling using an included velcro tape.

multifunction display attached to cowling using velcro

velcro attached for easy detachment from the cowling

yellow wire on the top is going from the display
and is just wrapped over the spark-plug wire
then covered by self-vulcanizing stretch tape

The additional "tuning" was the installation of the connector on the battery cable. That gray connector is UCHEN 50Amp with silver plated contacts and stainless steel springs. So I just cut the original cable and soldered the cables. For soldering you have to use a big soldering iron, because the wire is pretty thick and the connector dispatch much of the heat.

UCHEN 50Amp connector

We are going to use this outboard also on an inflatable, so on our sailboat I have to wire up a new battery cable and connector and this original cable will be used for battery in the inflatable.

The first start of the motor using only the button is a dream... My wive loves it.

More updates soon - low cost cabin heater, Omnia oven review and more ....


Update 16.10.2015  - Warning about the UCHEN connectors !!!

If you have decided to use this UCHEN connector in a salt water, please DON'T! It disintegrated just after 2 weeks in saltwater and stopped working completely. The plastic cover cracked by itself and the contacts oxidized completely.

UCHEN connector just after 2 weeks in salt water

I've now replaced this connector with water-proof MC4 connectors used for solar panels. It's a much better connection now so I hope it will last a few years.