Gents - A lot of points well taken in terms of mechanics trying to sell stuff, but I would like to clarify up front that this guy isn't trying to sell me anything, except a straight answer from someone who has been looking at motors for 30 + years. He has actually got her running smoothly for me a couple of times without even charging me and let me hang out in his shop and repair some things using his tools and expertise. I judge character fairly well and am confident that he is not trying to "take me for the proverbial 'ride'..." (Lebowski anyone??).
Honestly I don't really feel like "jacking" with it... There have been some good ideas thrown out there to me since the original post about replacing wires one by one and replacing the harness and whatnot, but I need an in detail, illustrated step by step to do that, Barney style. Unfortunately I am not in any way electrically or mechanically inclined, and don't have the background to figure it out as I go and not get really fired up in the process. So far with this boat I have stripped it down from its original paint, re-decked it, partially rewired it, and put two solid coats of OD green on it. Found a good dude that welds aircraft to weld the nose which was crushed by a previous owner (looked like a drunken collision with a dock), weld the bowline hook back on, and weld a couple of rivets that were leaking. I also ran new tubing for the live wells and put a battery/gas can deck put down in the hold. That in itself tried my patience and took me altogether too lone, and for the time I could spend looking for parts on ebay and craigslist and replacing things one by one I am thinking I might just put a new used Yamaha on her and start fishing... Otherwise I'll probably find myself deployed to some armpit of the earth never having been out on the water nearly enough. Then again, that's just how I am looking at it today, until I start looking at the price of motors...
All respect to you guys with the know how, keep it coming if you have the time and patience