Fuel, Air, Spark, Compression.
Our boat sat last summer as we acquired a set of jetskis that occupied our time mostly last year. This year, we'd tried to get the boat going and found it's having a difficult time starting.
We've had it for about 6 years now, and it's never given us a lick of problems. Though the gentleman we purchased it from told us that he always had to put a 'spurt' of quickstart into the carb on the first start of the day. We carried that tradition on. But this year, even that isn't getting it running on it's own.
What we've encountered and what we've done so far:
1. Starter didn't engage - new starter installed
2. Weak turning over - new battery and cleaned all connections
3. Broken terminal (while cleaning everything) on slave solenoid - replaced
4. New plugs - gapped to .035
5. Flame arrester (think that's what device on top of carb is called) was cleaned out with carb cleaner and let to dry
6. Fresh fuel (only about a gallon of gas with stabilizer was left in tank for the year).
Turns strong now, but won't start w/o pouring gas into carb. If we continue to pour a bit of gas into carb it'll run strong, but as soon as we stop the engine kills out. If we put a tablespoon of gas into the carb, it'll start but kill off quickly (after gas is used up). There are no backfires but we don't see, or hear as someone else mentioned on a forum, any fuel going into the carb. We know there is gas all the way to the fuel filter in the carb and that filter is clean - not even a speck in it when we pulled it.
We're looking at doing a rebuild on the carb. It's a Rochester 4bbl. My brother in law says rebuilding them isn't that difficult and kits aren't that expensive. But I'd like to make sure we want to do that. The carb is CLEAN. I mean I've cleaned four carbs off other toys this year and this one looks better than any of the others do after I've cleaned them! Of course, I can't say if the jets are stuck or anything, but is there a way to test for that? Is there anything else I should look at before taking the carb off and rebuilding it? I'm not opposed to it, it's probably been 7 years since it was done (the original owner had total rebuild a year before we bought it).
Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Our boat sat last summer as we acquired a set of jetskis that occupied our time mostly last year. This year, we'd tried to get the boat going and found it's having a difficult time starting.
We've had it for about 6 years now, and it's never given us a lick of problems. Though the gentleman we purchased it from told us that he always had to put a 'spurt' of quickstart into the carb on the first start of the day. We carried that tradition on. But this year, even that isn't getting it running on it's own.
What we've encountered and what we've done so far:
1. Starter didn't engage - new starter installed
2. Weak turning over - new battery and cleaned all connections
3. Broken terminal (while cleaning everything) on slave solenoid - replaced
4. New plugs - gapped to .035
5. Flame arrester (think that's what device on top of carb is called) was cleaned out with carb cleaner and let to dry
6. Fresh fuel (only about a gallon of gas with stabilizer was left in tank for the year).
Turns strong now, but won't start w/o pouring gas into carb. If we continue to pour a bit of gas into carb it'll run strong, but as soon as we stop the engine kills out. If we put a tablespoon of gas into the carb, it'll start but kill off quickly (after gas is used up). There are no backfires but we don't see, or hear as someone else mentioned on a forum, any fuel going into the carb. We know there is gas all the way to the fuel filter in the carb and that filter is clean - not even a speck in it when we pulled it.
We're looking at doing a rebuild on the carb. It's a Rochester 4bbl. My brother in law says rebuilding them isn't that difficult and kits aren't that expensive. But I'd like to make sure we want to do that. The carb is CLEAN. I mean I've cleaned four carbs off other toys this year and this one looks better than any of the others do after I've cleaned them! Of course, I can't say if the jets are stuck or anything, but is there a way to test for that? Is there anything else I should look at before taking the carb off and rebuilding it? I'm not opposed to it, it's probably been 7 years since it was done (the original owner had total rebuild a year before we bought it).
Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks in advance.
