[macojoe]

Yes it is normal to have a pump front and rear, when boat sits on morring, its not tilted back, so the water will sit in front also.
Water in there now, comes from the rain, might leak by the door, front hatch, or if the boat is tilted a bit forward my drain there from the rear??

Gas tank covers always soft and easy fix!

switch pannels are every were and easy to replace.All and all sounds like a good deal!!

Did you try lifting the motor when tilted up?? With motor up lift up and down to see if there is any movement in the transom, should be NONE, and cracking sound or movement means new transom needed!

Just becareful with the motor!
Do conpression test!!,
start see if it idles,
do water test, see how she runs, does it go full throttle 5000 to 5500 rpms
See if its pumping water out the piss hole.
Feel the heads to see if hot when you return
un do the lower unit screw see if oil comes out Not water!

And last, that year Yamaha was made with a steel shifting rod, look down buy the cavation plate and you will see a space, you can see the rod there, They rot there and break!!!
You might beable to see it rotted then again you might not? But to replace you have to remove the power head to get at it.
The replacement will be Stainless, and at most mariners it will cost $500 to $1000 to replace.

I had to do mine, BS changed his own in the yard, but its a lot of work!!
Thank fully I bought the motor from a Yamaha guy and I even asked about it before buying, we both looked and thought it was fine, first time out it broke, the guy replaced for me at cost for the parts. So was like $200 for me.

This was a Yamahs problem till 1994 when they went with the Saltwater series and made them all SS.

Good Luck!!