An easy-to-understand guide for the non-wrench-head.

More than five million outboard motors were sold in the United State in the past ten years. This guide by Power and Motor Yacht editor at large Richard Thiel offers a basic survival manual for owners of outboard powered watercraft of all shapes and sizes. Using the premise that the reader knows (and cares) little about engines of any kind-as long as they provide reliable service-Outboard Motor Essentials provides a brief and painless overview of how outboards work and outlines easily followed operating and preventive maintenance procedures that will dramatically extend their lives. This book is not about how to conduct major repairs or rebuild an engine. Instead, the emphasis is on preventing problems from occurring in the first place-just what the mostly non-mechanical owners of North America's nine million outboard motors want to know. This is a dramatic improvement over the usually cryptic owners' manuals supplied by the manufacturers.