57 issues

"Short version of the story. S

"Short version of the story. Swapped my 87 21' OMC powered bayliner for a 88 21' welcraft 5.7L merc. I knew that this boat was a basket case but I feel that the trade was fair, and I need a project. However I have a few issues that need to be addressed.

The day we swapped titles I acquired a temp registration and away we went. I knew there was a little oil in the bilge and planned on a rebuild over the winter months (full on rebuild or partial depending on what I run into when I pull it). She ran amazing for the first hour and a half, no knock's, great OP etc. My buddy lost his hat and when I backed off of the throttle it stalled and would not fire. I figure it's vapor locked and just moored in the shade for about thirty minutes (long enough for him to swim to his hat). When I turned the motor over after this period it would roll over a few times then grind and roll over again. Fired back up and headed for the trailer. I haven't been able to get it to roll over since.

When I hit the starter to flush the motor, it grind-ed a little and then it just spun freely. pulled the starter to inspect the ring gear (normal wear) and bindex wear on the end of the gear more so than on the center. I had the starter bench tested and it test's fine, but it's pulling a few more amps to fully engage. The specs say 130 and under no load (benched) pulls 150.

Also when I pulled the starter which has the offset bolt pattern, the bolt closest to the oil pan was quite loose. Maybe this attributed?


"

either the bendix is bad under

either the bendix is bad under load or you have water in a cylinder or two. How quickly did you pull off throttle?

"Was there a front bracket? T

"Was there a front bracket? The increased amps. says it needs to be refurbished; new brushes, undercut the commutator, new bearings, bendix, etc."

"I dropped off from around 320

"I dropped off from around 3200 to idle pretty quickly.

After I posted this I went and reinstalled the starter. wired it up and presto immediately it turned the motor over.

I'll be sure to have the starter rebuilt over the winter, I plan on pulling the motor to replace all of the gaskets. It was leaking oil at a pretty decent pace on the shake down run, I want to get it fired because it's leaking oil somewhere towards the front of the block, near the pulley assembly spraying the top of the engine compartment. it's hard to track with out it running.

About the vapor lock, it ran STRONG until I pulled way out of the throttle and I could smell a large amount of fuel in the exhaust at idle and WOT."

Sounds like the crankshaft/har

Sounds like the crankshaft/harmonic balancer seal is leaking (installed into the timing cover) that would leak onto the shaft and spin it up and all over the place.. Also sounds like the carb needs to be rebuilt if your smelling fuel at WOT.. Or the choke isn't opening fully.