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Give up on Solex carbs?

Boat finally goes in the water in the morning. Been in the boatyard for a week getting bottom paint.... not sure why that took me so long. I got my electric trolling motor on standby in case I can’t make it to the dock. My problem now is that I can’t find wiring diagrams for the motor, thought they’d be in the engine manual but no. Also need them for the Volvo instrument cluster. So tomorrow it’ll still be a hotwired coil and screwdriver to the starter.
 
Got my fingers crossed my manual shows the AQ140 has idiot lights do you have guages on the dash for oil pressure and charging system. Do you have the AQ125 wiring diagram. All you would need is the guages and a oil pressure sending unit. The hour and volt meters wire from the ignition switch. The AQ165 shows you how the voltage regulator is wired.
 
I have volt, temp, oil pressure meter. Those I could probably figure out, but I’m not sure about the ignition switch... need to know what all the connections are on the back of the switch, then I could figure out the rest. I’ll be replacing the amm meter with a battery monitor, but that’s easy. I cut all the wires, but thought the diagrams were in the manual so I didn’t take notes
 
Normally there are three terminals. One is fused from the start solenoid batt pos. Start goes from the switch throught the neutral safety switch to the start solenoid and accy provides power to the guages and the ignition coil. I see your diagram shows 5 terminals on the ignition switch. One to the coil im guessing it is marked with an I and another to the guages once again guessing marked with a A the fifth wire goes to a extra switch notgoing to anything. You want to add a fuse block and pull a couple heavy guage wire if you do not have a house circuit. That way you keep all appliances off of the engine circuit. Be sure and put a inline fuse in the hot wire at the battery if you add a house circuit.
 
Ok...

Weather finally cooperated with my plans today. I got to test the engine, outdrive, and kicker.

First video is what seems like a high cruise speed. Making 20 knots at just over 4K



The second is just me testing the kicker. Was making about five knots at wot. I need to get a flat pitch prop.



Third is a pic at WOT. I wasn’t able to take a video since I had to keep the bow straight. But I made 28 knots and was gliding on top of the water. Then it started loosing power and I pulled it back. I think it’s leaning out at wot. Might need a bigger main jet to compensate for the single carb, or remove that silly restricter plate that’s under the carb. The flame arrestor could also be cleaned.



Im not sure what WOT rpm should be, but it seemed to top out at 5400 until it slowed down. I’m idling at 1000 with a goal of 650 rpm in gear. However it doesn’t seem to like that and prefers 800 or even 1000 in gear at idle. I still need to monkey with the timing, so I’m not putting too much faith in those numbers or the idle mixture.

I need to fabricate a hose for the crank vent to the carb. My temp stays at the upper green arc. I measured the coolant tank awhile back with my temp probe and got the same temp as the thermostat that was in it, don’t recall the temp, perhaps 140c. Whatever temp I got seemed to jive with the temp gauge. Still need to replace the oil cooler seal rings as the leak is a steady flow when running.

Outdrive seemed ok, but then I don’t really know what to expect. Seemed like the transmission was warmer than I’d think after awhile at 4K rpm, but it cooled right down at slower speeds. Can’t imagine it overheating dangerously inn48 degree water.

Nothing else to really mention. Hydraulic steering seems to have some play in it as “center” seems to move around a bit. Single stern drive is a bit squirrelly at idle speeds anyway. The boat could use trim tabs but did well anyway. Gotta give it some power to get on plane, and 4K seems high for an on plane cruise.. But I have to remember that I’m used to twin 350’s spinning much larger props.
 
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WOT rpm is 5000 pm me if you want to purchase a 14X17 short hub if i temember your running a 14X15 your a little underpropped if the tach is correct?
 
kimcrwbr1 said:
WOT rpm is 5000 pm me if you want to purchase a 14X17 short hub if i temember your running a 14X15 your a little underpropped if the tach is correct?
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I wonder if that high rpm is why it leaned itself out? Wouldn’t I need to go up a couple pitch sizes to drop 400 rpm? It’s a brend new tach but I haven’t checked it against my rpm multimeter.

Up up a couple sizes to like 14 x 19”

The extra prop it came with is 15 x 19.. I didn’t think it would fit originally but have since seen pics if 270/280’s with that style prop on them.
 
Is it an elephant ear prop? I’ve seen people mention those, not sure what the advantages would be... don’t even know if the one I have in there is an elephant ear prop or not. But yeah I could try your prop I guess. Worse case scenario is it comes off and I lose it lil
 
I will try and find the spacer for this prop i put a 15x19 L on mine but i have a 16ft bowrider. My guess this prop would be a gootmatch for your rig.
 
kimcrwbr1 said:
I will try and find the spacer for this prop i put a 15x19 L on mine but i have a 16ft bowrider. My guess this prop would be a gootmatch for your rig.
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Which prop would be a good match? The one you got or the one I’m selling? I originally thought the one I’m selling wouldn’t fit because it’s different looking than the one I have on there now.... but I’ve seen pics with them on 270/280 drives, so I dunno. I thought maybe the splines looked different.
 
There are short hub and long hub my new prop has the long hub. Sounds like you have the long hub also if your not using the two piece cone. If the splines match and you can install the cone you can try the right hand prop. You will need to change sides on the shift link going to the upper gearbox and your controls will work correct!
 
I’ve confirmed I have a 14X15 on there now by reading page 1 of the thread.. so need to try 14X17 I guess? The prop on there now is a short shaft prop according to the pics I see online. Do the long shaft props have the collar on the prop that makes the prop cone sit down in the prop a little?

I wouldn’t be able to screw with switching the shift cable around until I pull it out of the water again if I were gonna try and use the reverse rotation prop.
 
I am not sure you may need a different line cutter for a long hub prop. The spacer in front of the prop may just be missing the disk that is supposed to be spot welded on it. Thats all stuff you can work out later just keep the throttle at around 5100 rpm according to my book. That would be a good prop for water sports. How fast is the hole shot?
 
Do you have easy access to the fuel tank pickup tube? Your cutting out at WOT may be a fuel flow issue i doubt it is the carb. Try removing the fill cap could be a venting issue or a plugged strainer on the pickup tube. That engine sounds like its running pretty healthy a little noisy tho.
 
I’m using a six gallon plastic tank for now, the boats tanks likely need flushed. I didn’t open the fuel vent on that tank if it has one. Didn’t tray a hole shot as I need to work my confidence up to that. I always feel that’s a ton of stress on everything and I want to get it running just right before stressing it that much. Really need to get the timing dialed in too.
 
I’ve gone out a few times now. Replaced oil cooler raw water seals.. it’s such a bad design that I’m not sure how these didn’t leak when new. After replacing all the seals I learn that one of the copper tubes had a hole in it. So with the engine running it sprayed water all over the place. I recalled reading someplace about people bypassing their oil coolers. So I bought the single tube between the heat exchanger and manifold. No more oil cooler for me.

Noticed some weirdness.... when running, the carb sweats and drips water. It’s clean unsalted water. Perhaps the Venturi effect is condensing it out of the atmosphere. Doesn’t seem to do it on warm sunny days. It’s absolutely not gas and doesn’t taste salty.

I need to come up with a hose for the valve cover to carb. I’m always running with the dog house open as I don’t have a blower and it has an automotive alt in it. The smoke coming out of the valve cover is smelly. Valve cover port is about an inch and the carb fitting is maybe 3/8 or 1/2”. Could replace valve cover with 125a style, but I don’t that’s necessary unless I wanna paint or polish the new one. The cover on there now looks like hell.

One other issue is that even with 1000 rpm idle, when I initially put it in gear it almost dies. It’s ok if I keep it at about 1200, but I think that’s too high. I can slow down to idle in gear from higher rpms without much problem. But being on the verge of stalling when shifting in and out of gear when parking isn’t cool. Also don’t know or like how the engine won’t slow back down to 1000 rpm after driving in gear at higher rpms. It’ll settle back down to 1000 in neutral after maybe a min. Otherwise it’ll idle at 1400.
 
Do you still have the points, condenser and coil? It made a world of difference onmine after adjusting the point gap with a dwell meter and then adjusting base timing at 6 degrees. Put A timing light on it and confirm the base timing retirns to 6 degrees when you throttle down the mechanical advance may be sticking?
 
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