[THEFERMANATOR]

Pretty sure YAMAHA only gives you the ID tag. If you post pics and start looking at part numbers for things, you might be able to figure out pretty close to what year it is. The other problem many run into is it's a 20 year old outboard. Many engines of that age have had problems by now, and had parts swapped out. Many of these parts are expensive, so quite a few will swap in different parts that work, but may not be 100% correct, so you can get some real basket cases of parts with some of them. So unless you know the history on the engine since new, be prepared to use the year and such as a guide more so than anything else. It SHOULD fit, but it's no guarantee.