cam retard offset

Had a chance to get some good boating in for a long weekend. Came in Saturday from a long day of fishing... and the stb engine was running much worse than normal at idle... so, and this is after I checked the mounts the day before... so I went into the engine room and told my son to start it up and I was just looking for errant sparks... noises and the like, as well as just staring at the dang thing hoping something would jump out at me.. well it did of sorts, I was jiggling a spark plug wire and got the @#$% shocked out of me. So, shut off the engine and started making sure the wires were properly plugged in... grabbed the number one cylinder wire and the thing practically fell off of the plug... pulled it apart and the wire had become disconnected from the clamp. Re-clamped it down and put it back together and the engine idled MUCH better. I then recalled that one of the previous mechanics had replaced all of the spark plug wires, but he told me he did not have the proper Crusader wires for this engine so he made these himself. So here are the questions that came to mind, one, the cylinder that I got shocked on was not the one that fell apart... should I have gotten shocked on a properly functioning wire? Should I replace this "homebuilt" arrangement with OEM wires from Crusader? Or should I just go over each wire and make sure it is clamped down properly on the wire???

Properly functioning spark plug leaks should NOT "leak"...replace them, yes and, based on your last post, I'd bet the rest of the idle issues will be mitigated.

I'd also hunt down the "mechanic" that did the hack job and tell him you would like an immediate cash refund for the wires and the labor...when he starts the softshoe, remind him it is much cheaper than the dmages and the legal fees he'll be liable for...

Sadly, you have learned the hard way why I do as much work by myself...much less aggrevation in the long run (& many few problems, too)....

Ditto!

Jeff

Wouldn't that be a kick in the rear if after all this it turned out to be a crappy job on spark plug wires... I am going to replace them asap.
And yes I agree on the DIY mentality. I havent had a "professional" mechanic touch my boat since 2008, when the last one convinced me he was so much better than the rest I used... his initial diagnosis, bent prop shaft... pulled boat, pulled shaft, destroyed the coupler in the process, turned shaft, and guess what? Shaft fine, but then it was stripped front motor mounts... new mounts, same problem after everything back together. That was it for me.

I dug the the forum with the search engine...have you really been fighting this engine for 4 years?

Actually longer than that. It all started after a new gear was installed in August of '06. I would say majority of my threads I posted on this site specifically were done in the search of an answer for this problem.

Alright Scott...did you replace the hack job wires with decent ones yet???

Bummer on chasing the idle issue for that long....

Got them ordered. Hope they will get here so I can swap out the old ones by this weekend.
Been pretty frustrating. I just seems to me that somehow the installation of the new transmission is tied into this. But supposedly that was tested and proved to be fine. I dealt directly with Marysville Distributors in Michigan and I know they are all over the country supplying the marine industry so I would think their reputation is good. Given the fact that I have now chased this "rough idle" issue for six years I quite literally cannot think of anything to do but start going over what was done in the case that it was not done properly by some "certified mechanic". I at one time thought about having the transmissions switched but that was pretty much a silly thought given the reverse rotation issue...

One thought came to mind while I wrote the above... could it be a possibility that while the transmission was being installed some kind of damage could have occurred to the engine, that is now causing things to shake and rattle in the transmission? This would explain the transmission testing out ok, and explain why it is not a "rough idle" issue. Could the damper plate have been damaged in a sloppy install? The mechanic who installed the gear originally was not the same mechanic who pulled the gear for testing and then re-installed it after Marysville said it was ok. That second mechanic did not apparently see any damage but after he put the gear back the issue was not near as bad. He used the same damper plate. I would have thought that since it was not the same guy, he would not be bashful in telling me he saw any damage done by a competitor. The second mechanic was convinced that it was a "bad gear".

Possible...yes, but I would label it ancillary...

In our case, we pulled the gear and had it "cleaned out" as the end of the dipstick had fallen off and was "ticking" in the pump...The shop had it done inside the quoted "by Friday" deadline....we reinstalled it and no FWD or REV... (it was the gear behind the standard LH engine and still had the originally applied Crusader "rotation arrows" clearly visible)...

Turns out they indexed the pump "upside down" so they sent the crew to the marina...one of the b@st@rds stepped on the HX and cracked one of the hose nipple joints....Had intermittent "missing fits" for almost a month until I got lucky and found the cause...

Bottom line is many "mechanics" get a bit sloppy when pulling or installing a gear and anything on the back half of the engine is subject to their "work habits"...