Who built who?

[aloop]

I have a '00 25hp Merc outboard, after having it serviced the mech , mentioned it was built in Japan. Who built this engine, does Merc have a line in Japan, could it be Yamaha or Honda? From what I know Honda is the largest engine manufacture in the World!

[gottaflylee]

I have a '00 25hp Merc outboard, after having it serviced the mech , mentioned it was built in Japan. Who built this engine, does Merc have a line in Japan, could it be Yamaha or Honda? From what I know Honda is the largest engine manufacture in the World!

Nope, it is a Merc. The 25 has been around since the late 70s, they have changed it very little...

[Avenger]

Merc has been using Yamaha powerheads, but I'm pretty sure that was only in the high HP models.

They actually had the stones to sue Yamaha for market dumping based on the price they were paying for powerheads, then when Yamaha tried to raise the price Merc sued them for breach of contract. You can't make this stuff up!

[gottaflylee]

Merc has been using Yamaha powerheads, but I'm pretty sure that was only in the high HP models.

They actually had the stones to sue Yamaha for market dumping based on the price they were paying for powerheads, then when Yamaha tried to raise the price Merc sued them for breach of contract. You can't make this stuff up!

Actually If I recall, that was the 225 4 stroke only.

[Avenger]

That's probably correct Lee. I don't remember the exact details. But in my limited experience with them, Yamahas and Mercs are pretty much copies of each other anyway. At least the older ones were.

I help my friend with servicing his outboards. We replaced the steering tube on his 175 Merc and it was an absolute horror, entire engine had to come apart. Absolutely zero thought about service, only engineered around production. Then he sold that and bought a boat with twin Yammies. Guess what, one of them needed a steering tube and Yamaha copied all of Mercury's mistakes. Fortunately he kept the A-frame that he built for pulling the powerhead off the Merc.

[Foul Hook'd]

Ran into the same thing a couple years ago with a newer 50hp. Merc, done some checking and there were some smaller motors that used Yamaha power heads on Merc running gear25-50+ hp small engines. Only a couple years before Merc went back to their own power heads.

On the bigger YamaMercs source of info said Mercury used the Yamaha stuff right before the Verado hit the market. I bet they had kept using the Yamaha powerhead

Foul Hook'd