Kiekhaefer took over a defunct outboard motor factory in January of 1939. Strictly as a means to raise some operating capital the stock of parts on
hand and rejected motor inventory was revamped and resubmitted to their
major customer Montgomery Ward. The unexpected success of this emergency
measure led to Kiekhaefer getting into the outboard motor business and
a state of the art new design for 1940 selling season.In the mean time Western Auto approached Kiekhaefer about making some outboards including a twin
cylinder model. At some point Kiekhaefer decided to market Mercury branded outboards for sale thru their own distributor/dealer network.
The several 1940 Mercurys had a K and a numeral to designate the model...
K 1, K 2 while the Wizard models were disignated by WA and a numeral 2 or greater...WA 2, WA 3 etc.
For 1941 Mercury used KB and a number while 1941 Wizards began with WB and
a numeral 2 or greater.
So your WB3 is a 1941 model one step above base model.
Kiekhaefer did make 1942 civilian market outboards up to order calling for
end of nonessential goods manufacturing. Those motors are designated as KB
probably KB3 and KB4. I suspect only Mercurys were made.
USED PARTS are available mainly from excess left overs from a restoration project or parts motors. Many parts can be sourced from more common post war Mercury KD3 or Wizard WD3 SOME parts from twins will also work. Very good first outboard project.
Mercury and Wizards of this vintage are pretty much same except decals,id tag
and model level changes...and very often all that is really needed is a
a little ignition work and fuel system cleanup, check gear case grease
inspect water pump oscillator...some converted to impeller by parts
swapping.
Louis
Jason's Wizard Mercury comparison chart on the main website says that the WB3 is comparable to the Mercury K2, KB2 and KB3.
They all had the same displacement and cylinder size, but the latter two were 3.2HP compared to the K2's 3HP.
