Mercury Boat Outboard Cowlings and Housings

Mercury Outboard Cowlings and Housings

For serious outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy spending time on the water, a reliable motor is a critical piece of equipment for their small boats. Maintaining your Mercury Outboard motor will not only ensure that your watercraft is reliable transportation, but it can also improve the performance of your marine engine. Replacing worn or cracked cowlings and housings on a boat motor can protect the engine from damage and help preserve and extend its life.

A Mercury Outboard motor has an upper cowling and a lower cowling. To inspect, maintain, or repair the motor, you will need to remove the upper cowling, which protects the engine from debris and also offers sound dampening to offset the revving. To remove the upper cowling:

• Step 1: Locate the small lever on the back of the cowling.
• Step 2: Push down on the lever.
• Step 3: Pull the cowling forward from the rear of the motor.
• Step 4: Unhook the cowling from its final attachment point at the front end of the unit.

Removing the lower cowling is a bit more involved as it is held on with screws and bolts. Start off by finding the screws that hold the lower cowling in place and remove them. Then, locate the point at which the cowling is bolted on. Remove the bolt and then gently pull the cowling toward aft of the outboard.

Many serious small boat enthusiasts choose to place covers over their top cowlings as an additional layer of protection. Many of these covers are designed so they can be used when the engine is engaged to offer continual protection. Some benefits of using a cover over your Outboard cowling include:

• Preventing the cowling's paint and decals from fading due to the UV rays of the sun
• Protecting the cowling from scratches or dings when you are boating in areas near shores with thick vegetation
• Keeping your engine looking clean

Because different models of outboard motors manufactured by Mercury have different configurations and shapes, there is no universal cowling that will work across all Mercury products. To ensure that your new cowling will fit your watercraft, verify the model number of your unit and make sure the new cowling is a matching part manufactured for that model.