I will try to keep this as brief as possible here, and apologize using any wrong terminology. New to owning a boat but looking forward to learning all that I can. I have an 87 Cobalt I/O V6 Alpha1 gen1 with the Thunderbolt4 Ignition and a Quicksilver throttle, old style from what I have seen. Garaged all year in Missouri, Opened the 4 drains at the bottom of engine, and single one back of boat, forget what those are called, and removed the water cooler hoses.
Got to the lake last week, closed up all the drains and put the water hoses back on but must not have tightened one enough. Before pulling out of the garage I did check the shift cable because I had trouble with it last year, just seemed a little loose. I watched the video on adjusting the cable, 6" from brass fitting to the hole on the end of the cable housing, locked in reverse and fwd so I thought it was fine. On the short, maybe a mile ride from ramp to the dock the bilge pump started going and I saw smoke coming from the compartment. Instantly shut it off opened the compartment and it was pretty much full of water, about halfway up the crankcase but being pumped out. The smoke I realized was steam from the water hitting the engine. Saw the hose and put it back on tight. Let it sit for a few until the pump sucked out all the water. Started right up, temp normal and into fwd and to the slip. Tied up, everything seemed fine.
Got up the next day checked all the hoses, oil was fine, no funny color or smell, started up just fine, I did use the throttle only button briefly to start it. I'm still new to boating and had a rope and tube attached behind so I push the boat out of the slip. Put it into fwd and it just revved up. Pulled the rope and tube out tried a couple times more, no fwd but reverse did work. Backed back into the slip and turned off.
Since it's still in the water I checked the prop again with engine off, and manually with the lower shift cable gently pushed it in to forward and the prop spun ccw, did not lock, pulled the cable out to reverse, spun cw and it locked. I mentioned that to someone that knows more about boats than I do and he said that it was a safety mechanism that when the engine was turned off the prop does spin freely in fwd to avoid starting it up in gear and taking off, but that seems contradictory to what I have read, or maybe just reading it wrong.
So with my limited knowledge I assume it has to be out of water to repair at this point. A few days go by as I do not have a truck to pull it and waiting for my brother in law to get here, I look into it a bit more and while messing with the throttle I realize the square throttle button does not seem to be working right, push it in and there was no definitive click, and had trouble pushing the throttle forward while holding the button. I fiddle with it a bit, make sure it is in neutral and hear the click so I start it up, starts fine, push very gently towards forward and can just start to hear the little grind as fwd engages so pull it right back to neutral. Grab some paddles and unhook the boat, was backed in, start it up and into fwd and right out of the slip. Do a few circles, in and out of F N R, engine on and off, for about 15 minutes. Take it down the cove, seemed to drive just fine. Out into the main lake no problems. Call the kids that had been dying to go tubing all week, get them down on the tube and take a few loops around inside the cove, no problems, so out to the main lake. Temp, oil, everything seemed fine, do a couple loops then started faintly hearing what I thought at first was an airplane or helicopter, they fly overhead often. Didn't see one, as I go to pull back the throttle I hear it a bit louder, drop it into neutral, tried going back into fwd and nothing, just revved. Saw the temp was getting high so I turned it off. Pulled the tube, opened the compartment, other than the heat I did not notice anything wrong. Let it cool down, started right up, sounded fine, but no fwd or reverse. Luckily got a tow back to the slip and there it sits.
So with my limited knowledge, and my brother in laws apprentice knowledge we will call it, trying to figure it out. Thinking/hoping it is just something with the linkage, maybe the throttle only button on the throttle, I've read that the little spring in there gets out of whack and can cause similar problems. So with all that being said, and with it still in the water, we are planning on checking that button on the throttle, and again the remote (upper), and shift (lower) cable? If my terminology is wrong please let me know. But with being in the water those cables can really only be checked at the top of the engine and anything lower would have to be out of water? Which we can do, but trying to avoid that if possible. And as far as I can tell that would be the extent of what we can troubleshoot while still in the water.
Sorry for the long post but wanted to be as specific as possible to alleviate any back and forth Q/A with info I did not mention. And thanks in advance for any advice offered.
Got to the lake last week, closed up all the drains and put the water hoses back on but must not have tightened one enough. Before pulling out of the garage I did check the shift cable because I had trouble with it last year, just seemed a little loose. I watched the video on adjusting the cable, 6" from brass fitting to the hole on the end of the cable housing, locked in reverse and fwd so I thought it was fine. On the short, maybe a mile ride from ramp to the dock the bilge pump started going and I saw smoke coming from the compartment. Instantly shut it off opened the compartment and it was pretty much full of water, about halfway up the crankcase but being pumped out. The smoke I realized was steam from the water hitting the engine. Saw the hose and put it back on tight. Let it sit for a few until the pump sucked out all the water. Started right up, temp normal and into fwd and to the slip. Tied up, everything seemed fine.
Got up the next day checked all the hoses, oil was fine, no funny color or smell, started up just fine, I did use the throttle only button briefly to start it. I'm still new to boating and had a rope and tube attached behind so I push the boat out of the slip. Put it into fwd and it just revved up. Pulled the rope and tube out tried a couple times more, no fwd but reverse did work. Backed back into the slip and turned off.
Since it's still in the water I checked the prop again with engine off, and manually with the lower shift cable gently pushed it in to forward and the prop spun ccw, did not lock, pulled the cable out to reverse, spun cw and it locked. I mentioned that to someone that knows more about boats than I do and he said that it was a safety mechanism that when the engine was turned off the prop does spin freely in fwd to avoid starting it up in gear and taking off, but that seems contradictory to what I have read, or maybe just reading it wrong.
So with my limited knowledge I assume it has to be out of water to repair at this point. A few days go by as I do not have a truck to pull it and waiting for my brother in law to get here, I look into it a bit more and while messing with the throttle I realize the square throttle button does not seem to be working right, push it in and there was no definitive click, and had trouble pushing the throttle forward while holding the button. I fiddle with it a bit, make sure it is in neutral and hear the click so I start it up, starts fine, push very gently towards forward and can just start to hear the little grind as fwd engages so pull it right back to neutral. Grab some paddles and unhook the boat, was backed in, start it up and into fwd and right out of the slip. Do a few circles, in and out of F N R, engine on and off, for about 15 minutes. Take it down the cove, seemed to drive just fine. Out into the main lake no problems. Call the kids that had been dying to go tubing all week, get them down on the tube and take a few loops around inside the cove, no problems, so out to the main lake. Temp, oil, everything seemed fine, do a couple loops then started faintly hearing what I thought at first was an airplane or helicopter, they fly overhead often. Didn't see one, as I go to pull back the throttle I hear it a bit louder, drop it into neutral, tried going back into fwd and nothing, just revved. Saw the temp was getting high so I turned it off. Pulled the tube, opened the compartment, other than the heat I did not notice anything wrong. Let it cool down, started right up, sounded fine, but no fwd or reverse. Luckily got a tow back to the slip and there it sits.
So with my limited knowledge, and my brother in laws apprentice knowledge we will call it, trying to figure it out. Thinking/hoping it is just something with the linkage, maybe the throttle only button on the throttle, I've read that the little spring in there gets out of whack and can cause similar problems. So with all that being said, and with it still in the water, we are planning on checking that button on the throttle, and again the remote (upper), and shift (lower) cable? If my terminology is wrong please let me know. But with being in the water those cables can really only be checked at the top of the engine and anything lower would have to be out of water? Which we can do, but trying to avoid that if possible. And as far as I can tell that would be the extent of what we can troubleshoot while still in the water.
Sorry for the long post but wanted to be as specific as possible to alleviate any back and forth Q/A with info I did not mention. And thanks in advance for any advice offered.
