2 stroke Yamaha Outboard loses power momentarily when hits wave. Please Help

HI Guys,

This problem started occuring intermittently three weeks ago and then this last weekend it was so bad that I turned the boat around and went back to the dock. Here is what is happening.....


I have a 2002 175 HP HDPI 2 stroke Yamaha.
At low RPM there are no issues. Once I go up to cruising RPM 2800 - 3200 or higher and the bow rises prior to going on plane the power to the motor momentarily dies, as soon as the bow drops again, it immediately returns to same RPM. If i can get through this and actually get on plane, once the boat hits a wake or wave and the bow rises, the same problem occurs with a complete loss of power momentarily until the boat is completely horizontal again. If you can imagine what this is like when there are three wakes in a row that the boat has to travel through, then you can imagine how ridiculous this looks and sounds with the boat revving up to 3000 RPM one second down to nothing the next and then back to 3000 again as it goes over the wake.

Everything ran fantastic all summer until this started happening a few weeks ago and got progressively worse until I can no longer use it until it get fixed.

Any advice is welcome. Has anyone heard or seen this before?

Thanks.

Classic symptoms of poor cable connections. Remove, clean and reattach the battery cables at both ends. Also, at a battery switch if the motor has one. While at the motor check any other red power feed wires that are there. Do the same for them.

When was the VST filter and the HP filter changed last? Yamaha will run up to RPM with dirty filters and fall on its face when under a heavy load IE...Rough water.

Make sure the oil tank on the engine is full and unplug the harness on the reserve tank take it for a ride and see if the problem still occurs.

FYI, cruising RPM for your engine is in the 4000rpm range.

boscoe said:

Classic symptoms of poor cable connections. Remove, clean and reattach the battery cables at both ends. Also, at a battery switch if the motor has one. While at the motor check any other red power feed wires that are there. Do the same for them.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I will try it this weekend. It does have a battery switch too.

I had an authorized dealer change out the filters during winterization last year. Oil tank is full. I will try unplugging the reserve this weekend along with cleaning all power cable / battery connections.

Thanks for the help. I will let you know how it goes.

I am having the same problem. "

2 stroke Yamaha Outboard loses power momentarily when hits wave. Please Help"​

I have tighten all the battery cables etc. Any other thoughts.

I have a Yamaha 200 2 stroke. 2012