My latest find is a bargain 2006 10HP Mariner, albeit with some faults. To cut a long story short, it has been used with controls and the seller doesn’t have the tiller – it was the model with F-N-R on the tiller. I made some calls and was quoted £300 to £400 for a replacement tiller, which is about twice the price of the OB (which is why it’s cheap).
I already own a 80’s 90’s Mariner 7.5HP with a blown engine, the engines look incredibly similar. My question for you lovely people is, how straightforward would it be to create a hybrid from the two, if they’re even cross compatible? I would need to fit a standard tiller to the 10HP, in addition to changing the gear linkage back to manual on the side of the OB. Of course the alternative might be, I simply swap the block carb etc from the 2006 model to my 80’s 90’s turning it into a manual geared 10HP (does the running gear drive shaft etc interlink)?
When they swapped the gear design to the tiller, did they completely re-design the engine and gear mounting?
I appreciate this might be somewhat unconventional and I appreciate this probably hasn’t been the best description, I’m just curious as to whether it could be done. Ultimately the end result would be a bargain 2006 Shorts Shaft 10HP Mariner, which is basically exactly what I want.
Thanks, Richard


