carphunter
Member
So... you've seen my other posts in this forum while I've been checking issues on my boat.
I've had the following issue for a couple of days.
When i put the boat in the water two mornings ago, i couldn't get the motor to start. Engine turned and turned. no amount of adjustment of throttle or primer at the key would get it to fire. Thinking at one point, i might have gotten it to fire once when i did the wot throttle trick to get as much air into a possibly flooded engine trick. But ... couldn't get it to start and take... or do start from that trick more than once
i had the cowl off. I can see fuel dripping from the screw on the back side of the bowl on the lower carb. Haven't pulled the carbs off to see if they are both full, etc... but i sort of wondered if i was flooding the engine and never recovering from that.
Next day... replaced plugs just in case. existing plugs had some black on them... i couldn't tell if they looked too horrible, though... just wiping with my finger took some black off.
Had recharged the battery from running it down in starting attempts the day before. (I may get battery checked... it's not used much... and it's 10 years old... but even after a bunch of starting attempts, the charger said it was still at 85%.
put muffs on engine and got it to start in driveway... let it run for a while and it idled fine, and would throttle up ok (i don't throttle up high as i don't trust the muffs to keep enough water in it). Piss water didn't get real hot... normal cooling i guess.
Took boat to launch this morning. took a few attempts and carefully watching to make sure i didn't twist the throttle grip up too much (btw...if someone has one of these motors that still has the throttle marking of "start" position evident.. .could you measure that and tell me where the line is in relation to the sticker/plate it's on on the twist grip? I think it's at the point where the lower speed throttle arm stops moving and the higher speed one starts... but that's a guess as my start line wore off years ago).
Let it idle for a bit, and putt putted out into the river.
opened it up and ran for maybe a third of a mile WOT, monitoring tach. engine seems to run fine and good. no weirdness
Backed off throttle as i wanted to check something.... and the engine died. quick. i don't know if as fast as hitting a kill switch... but it didn't sputter for a bit. (reminding people from my past thread... i had started looking into issues when on a previous trip, i had run the motor WOT for at least a mile up river, then throttled down to get through a slow no wake zone... and then WOT again. When i slightly backed off WOT on that trip...my engine slowed way down.. .and wouldn't throttle up past what felt like 1/3 maybe 1/2 throttle. I could get it to get to higher rpm by hitting the primer key. on that trip...i didn't kill the engiune.... so no clue if it would have restarted if i had stopped it)
back to toay... Couldn't restart engine after the engine killed... trying all the tricks, etc.. trolling motored back to launch
Talked to mechanic this am.
on my side, I'm going to have starter battery tested just in case (doubt it's the issue... but it's easily testable).
Will pull the plugs and have a friend crank the engine to see if there is spark on all plugs.
Fuel filter.... i have the old style filter on my engine that had a blue line around it like 1" from the top side of the filter. Anyone know if the fuel in the filter should be above or below that line? Mine is above the line. I'm thinking i'll replace the filter since it's cheap to do. i could probably crack it open, too and see if it looks super dirty...but if it's been in there for a long time, i'd expect it to be, no matter what.
Fuel primer bulb seems to be firm. I've used two separate fuel tanks... one old, one new. problem exists with both. Gas in tanks is new, premium, no eth, treated with sta-bil at recommended dose.
Engine has been using oil when it's running... i had marked tank to make sure it was drawing and using oil.
I would consider taking the carbs off... but that i might leave for the mechanic. It doesn't look like the most horrible job in the world to dissassemble them... but if it gets that far, and it's not the real problem... he may be in a better spot to continue testing/working. (FYI, this boat doesn't get run a ton... maybe solid for 1 week in the summer, with a few separate day trips other than that. so if anything i'd expect carbs to be dirty...but not worn). i would guess floats/jets/etc to not be worn out... but rather maybe plugged up, etc.
I think the stator is ok... but since i have a multi meter... if i can find the specs for the black stators in these engines with the various wire throughputs... i could detach it and just make sure there's no short. if i knew the resistances for the circuits, i could check that too.
I've had the following issue for a couple of days.
When i put the boat in the water two mornings ago, i couldn't get the motor to start. Engine turned and turned. no amount of adjustment of throttle or primer at the key would get it to fire. Thinking at one point, i might have gotten it to fire once when i did the wot throttle trick to get as much air into a possibly flooded engine trick. But ... couldn't get it to start and take... or do start from that trick more than once
i had the cowl off. I can see fuel dripping from the screw on the back side of the bowl on the lower carb. Haven't pulled the carbs off to see if they are both full, etc... but i sort of wondered if i was flooding the engine and never recovering from that.
Next day... replaced plugs just in case. existing plugs had some black on them... i couldn't tell if they looked too horrible, though... just wiping with my finger took some black off.
Had recharged the battery from running it down in starting attempts the day before. (I may get battery checked... it's not used much... and it's 10 years old... but even after a bunch of starting attempts, the charger said it was still at 85%.
put muffs on engine and got it to start in driveway... let it run for a while and it idled fine, and would throttle up ok (i don't throttle up high as i don't trust the muffs to keep enough water in it). Piss water didn't get real hot... normal cooling i guess.
Took boat to launch this morning. took a few attempts and carefully watching to make sure i didn't twist the throttle grip up too much (btw...if someone has one of these motors that still has the throttle marking of "start" position evident.. .could you measure that and tell me where the line is in relation to the sticker/plate it's on on the twist grip? I think it's at the point where the lower speed throttle arm stops moving and the higher speed one starts... but that's a guess as my start line wore off years ago).
Let it idle for a bit, and putt putted out into the river.
opened it up and ran for maybe a third of a mile WOT, monitoring tach. engine seems to run fine and good. no weirdness
Backed off throttle as i wanted to check something.... and the engine died. quick. i don't know if as fast as hitting a kill switch... but it didn't sputter for a bit. (reminding people from my past thread... i had started looking into issues when on a previous trip, i had run the motor WOT for at least a mile up river, then throttled down to get through a slow no wake zone... and then WOT again. When i slightly backed off WOT on that trip...my engine slowed way down.. .and wouldn't throttle up past what felt like 1/3 maybe 1/2 throttle. I could get it to get to higher rpm by hitting the primer key. on that trip...i didn't kill the engiune.... so no clue if it would have restarted if i had stopped it)
back to toay... Couldn't restart engine after the engine killed... trying all the tricks, etc.. trolling motored back to launch
Talked to mechanic this am.
on my side, I'm going to have starter battery tested just in case (doubt it's the issue... but it's easily testable).
Will pull the plugs and have a friend crank the engine to see if there is spark on all plugs.
Fuel filter.... i have the old style filter on my engine that had a blue line around it like 1" from the top side of the filter. Anyone know if the fuel in the filter should be above or below that line? Mine is above the line. I'm thinking i'll replace the filter since it's cheap to do. i could probably crack it open, too and see if it looks super dirty...but if it's been in there for a long time, i'd expect it to be, no matter what.
Fuel primer bulb seems to be firm. I've used two separate fuel tanks... one old, one new. problem exists with both. Gas in tanks is new, premium, no eth, treated with sta-bil at recommended dose.
Engine has been using oil when it's running... i had marked tank to make sure it was drawing and using oil.
I would consider taking the carbs off... but that i might leave for the mechanic. It doesn't look like the most horrible job in the world to dissassemble them... but if it gets that far, and it's not the real problem... he may be in a better spot to continue testing/working. (FYI, this boat doesn't get run a ton... maybe solid for 1 week in the summer, with a few separate day trips other than that. so if anything i'd expect carbs to be dirty...but not worn). i would guess floats/jets/etc to not be worn out... but rather maybe plugged up, etc.
I think the stator is ok... but since i have a multi meter... if i can find the specs for the black stators in these engines with the various wire throughputs... i could detach it and just make sure there's no short. if i knew the resistances for the circuits, i could check that too.