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Howdy,
Congrats on your boat!
You need to do some things to ensure that it stays reliable though.
You do not have a transmission by the way. You have an Alpha stern drive. There are some things you need to do before you put it on the water...... (you can go over to iBoats and download a complete service manual in the Mercruiser, OMC, Volvo...... section. Look for the "Adults Only" sticky at the top of the forum)
The drive needs to be drained, and checked for water intrusion (in the oil) Then it needs to be removed and the alignment, bellows, U-joints, and associated other "stuff" checked. (if the bellows is looking really old it should be replaced.) If it's cracked and has leaked, you will see it right away and may have to replace the gimbal bearing, yoke, and U-joints. If they fail while underway, it will cause a LOT of damage. and you'll have to get towed back in....
By the way, if you do have an alignment problem, it will cause a coupler failure which will cause you get towed in. Coupler replacement requires the engine to be removed to accomplish it. (thats why Mercury suggests checking the alignment every 100hrs or so...)
Unless the previous owner can tell you that the raw water pump was replaced in the last year or so, it must be replaced. (I wouldn't believe him and I'd replace it anyway....if it's "bad", it will cause the engine to overheat almost immediately. If you ran the engine without water going into the drive with an adapter and hose before you started it.....and it was ran more than about 20 sec, you should replace the raw water pump for that reason alone!) If you find that it is disintegrated, you MUST locate all the remnants of the pump failure (the pieces usually go downstream and get lodged in the oil cooler, PS cooler, or thermostat housing and cause overheats)
If you cannot tell when the manifolds & risers were removed last it would be a good idea to remove them and check their condition and replace the riser gaskets with new ones.
As far as battery. I like the Optima (or any sealed/gelled electrolyte battery) because it cannot leak or "out-gas" They are the most reliable and the safest.
Gages........ Boaters World is going out of business. You can probably go over there and get a SMOKING cheep deal on a set of Teleflex gages!
They're as good as any.... I like VDO marine. Ebay has a Lot of marine gages too! Just make sure you get senders for them.
Good luck!
Rick
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1987 Four Winns Liberator 211, formerly OMC 460 King Kobra powered, replaced in 2006 by a 1997 Mercruiser 454/Bravo III
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