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Electrical???

M

mtmrayz

Member
I have an AQ131A-275 outdrive. My engine starts right up and runs strong when scooting about on the lake. The temperature stays right where it should, according tho the thermostat on the dash. However, the boat does not like to idle or cruise around slowly. If I do, the engine will die and I will have to sit and wait 45 min to an hour. Yesterday I went on a test run after installing a new ignition switch. I was motoring in a bay going very slow. The engine temperature did not rise. The engine just cut out.

When I turned the key, I got nothing. Not a click or sound of any kind. The engine temp was not up. The fuel lines felt fine. The coil, however, was very hot. After about an hour, I turned the key, got nothing, turned it again and it started right up.

I ran down the lake to the dock, again started going very slow. After a while, it tried to die and I pumped the throttle and was able to keep it going with the rpms up.

The PO told me he installed electronic ignition and got rid of teh points and condenser. Based on other things, he may not have doe it correctly.

Any ideas? The wife will not come out on the lake with me and it is hard to pick up skiers without going into idle.
 
Locate the engine/hull harness interface connection.
It will likely be at/on/near the transom.
It will have a black plastic jacket covering over it.
The connector itself will be white plastic.

Pull this connector apart, clean the contacts with an electrical contact cleaner and/or corrosion blocker...... connect/disconnect.... repeat several times, and give this a try.

.
 
It sounds like it could be a combination of several things.
1) If you've got nothing when you try to start, then you'll need to check for loose or corroded connections. Use a multimeter and start at the starter to see if you've got juice when it's in the start position. Keep working back to the coil and then back to the battery and all connections back to the switch until you find the guilty party. Might want to clean and firmly re-attach the battery and starter connections first.
2) If the coil is geting hot, it's possible the PO didn't change it to a 3 ohm resister coil when they changed out the points. But before you replace it, make sure you check to make sure it's got voltage on both sides when you have the no crank situation.
3) If it runs fine at high rpm and won't idle, first try adjusting the idle speed and then mixture. Verify fuel is clean by dumping the fuel filter contents in a jar and looking for water. If that doesn't do the trick, it's most likely time to clean out and rebuild the carb.

Edit: Rick, you beat me to it, must be more awake and a faster typer than I this morning!
 
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joe_merchant said:
................
Edit: Rick, you beat me to it, must be more awake and a faster typer than I this morning!
Click to expand...
Well, not necessarily, Joe......., but between the two of us, we've pretty much given him a good place to start! :D

I find quite a few issues right at these harness connectors.
Often, I'll circumvent this by installing ring terminals, and by using a marine rated terminal block, and I'll drape it with a rubber cover that falls down over it.

.
 
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I've also seen problems at the connector. Mine have pushed some of the terminals completely out of the connector. Royal pain in the rear to make the connections after that. I've had to bypass the connector and make up new spade terminals for some of the wires to get them to stay put.
 
Thank you both for all the great info!

I have a couple follow up questions, though.

Are any of the above more likely to occur after the engine has been run for a while and has been going at a low speed? The reason I ask is that the boat starts great and idles around great when I first launch. The problems only appear after I have been running for a while and am motoring around slowly. This will help me "triage" how to begin.

Secondly, I have a multimeter but am completely intimidated by all the settings on the dial. Any advice or pointers on where to set it?

As some additional info, I replaced the coil last week. The one on the boat when I bought it had a hairline crack across the black plastic top. The bottom was also bulged a bit so that it wouldn't sit flat. I took those both as signes that a new coil might be a good idea. However, I have no idea if I got a "3 ohm resister coil."

The problems I am experiencing have not changed with the new coil. I guess it seems to start a bit quicker, but dies the same as before.

Thanks again.
 
I think your best bet at this point is to try to find a friend who is famiiar with a multimeter and basic electricity. It's rather difficult to explain all of that in a forum like this and stay on message. The basics of an engine are fuel, spark, and compression. All need to occur in the right amounts and at the right times. The purpose of the troubleshooting tips we're giving you are to find out which one is missing and when. You can also pull a plug wire after the engine quits and hold it close to the block while cranking to see if spark is there. But please find someone with some basic engine knowledge to go with you. You can get a good strong shock that'll make you mad if you're not careful. You desire to find out how to fix the problem is what these forums are all about. Don't be discouraged, just be aware that you may need a little extra help with some of the basics.
 
I understand your point. While I have some basic mechanical understanding, the electrical will require some assistance or a bunch of reading.

Let me try this way for a start though. If you had this multimeter, where would you point the dial to start testing the wiring around the coil?

multimeter07.jpg
 
Right where it is pointing to now; DC 50 volt scale. You always want to set it to a scale that is higher than the anticipated voltage of the circuit being tested. "10" would be too low. Though you could set it to "250", you would get very little movement on the meter and would not be very accurate. 12 volts should give you a sweep of about 1/4 of full scale.
 
RicardoMarine said:
Locate the engine/hull harness interface connection.
It will likely be at/on/near the transom.
It will have a black plastic jacket covering over it.
The connector itself will be white plastic.

Pull this connector apart, clean the contacts with an electrical contact cleaner and/or corrosion blocker...... connect/disconnect.... repeat several times, and give this a try.

.
Click to expand...
Is this just a connector on the wiring harness? At first I thought it was connecting to the hull like some kind of ground. After looking, there is nothing like that.

I did find something interesting. There is no ground wire from my coil. Does it just ground through the clamp that holds it on the engine? I have four wires coming out of the coil. Black and red going to the distributor, a gray wire that I believe goes to my ignition switch, and a purple wire that runs through a black sleeve toward the distributor. It is just taped off, hanging and connected to nothing. I don't see anything I would identify as a ballast resistor although I really have no idea what one would look like.

The coil I have is an Accel 8140c. I am going to try and find some specs to see if it has a built in 3 ohm resistor.
 
The only specs I find for this coil say

Primary resistance is 1.4 ohms and secondary resistance is 9.2 kilo ohms

I am guessing that I need to replace the coil with one with 3 ohm resistor. Does that sound correct? Would that cause my problem/

Thanks for your help.
 
mtmrayz said:
Is this just a connector on the wiring harness? At first I thought it was connecting to the hull like some kind of ground. After looking, there is nothing like that.
Click to expand...
Yes..... a connector that joins the Engine harness to the Hull harness, and goes FWD from there.
It's there, you're just not finding it!

Below is a Tilt Out mechanism 4 conductor harness plug.
Your Engine harness/Hull harness connector will be the Big Brother to this, and with more conductors.

With age and corrosion, these will loose continuity.


This connector will carry;
  • Helm POS
  • Helm Negative
  • All instrument circuits
  • Starter Motor solenoid circuit
  • Ignition circuit
Again.... example ONLY.... your Engine/Hull harness connector will have more circuits in it.
NOTE: it will somewhat hidden underneath the black plastic jacket covering that I mentioned earlier in post #2.

Volvo Penta tilt harness plug.jpg

(I did not have a photo of an actual hull harness.... I grabbed this one from the Internet)

.
 
Ahh, thanks. I saw all the wires running forward. There is a loop of them attached to the transom. I bet my connector is there. I will clean it up tonight and try a new coil with 3 ohm resistance.
 
Ricardo,
I found the connection and cleaned it up a bit. Tonight, it would not turn over at all. Pulled it apart and put it back together a couple times and lo and behold, when i turned the key, it turned over! I need to find some of the electrical connection cleaner you mentioned and give it a good work over.

While working on it, I created or discovered another problem. The needle valve in the carburetor stuck open and poured gas into the manifold. I am going to start a new thread with that one. Thanks for the great info.
 
I didn't want to contradict the more senior members, but my thinking is that it is a gas issue. Especially now that you've found a stuck needle valve. I was thinking it may be suffering more of a vapor lock than electrical issue. Also, check to see if your anti-siphon valve is a bit rusty. If so, it may explain why everything seems to work when at higher rpms but not at lower ones.
 
The pertronix 3 ohm coil did the trick. I still need to work on my connections, but the boat ran great today. Knock on wood........
 
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