Can anyone shed any light on this ….
I’ve got an VP 250 (AQ151 with 290 SP-A leg). The engine was running rough, so I cleaned out the carbs and re-aligned the timing, went well for a couple of minutes, then stopped dead, like it was seized but had play a couple of millimetres either way on the crank, was not able to turn it over on the starter motor or by hand using the crank.
I took the plugs out which all looked ok and she was still not able to turn over. Replaced the battery for a new one, still the same. I then checked the valves, starter motor etc.. and these were all fine. The prop could turn both ways in neutral, when in forward only one way and again in reverse only the other way. I left it for a day and was able to then turn it over using the starter motor (with the plugs in) very slowly in gear, this freed it up slightly and was able to turn the crank by hand but it was very tight. I then tried turning it over using the starter motor in neutral, forward and reverse and prop turned the correct way when in gear and not at all in neutral but was very slow as through it was struggling to turn it over and would not catch. The engine had stopped a couple of times before but this I believe was due to a fault alternator which I have had replaced (when it was running the volts were OK on the gauge).
Any ideas, I think it could be the bearing in the upper part of the sterndrive ? A the boat is in the water I have not been able to pull the drive off to check the engine turns when disconnected to the drive.
Cheers
Stu
I’ve got an VP 250 (AQ151 with 290 SP-A leg). The engine was running rough, so I cleaned out the carbs and re-aligned the timing, went well for a couple of minutes, then stopped dead, like it was seized but had play a couple of millimetres either way on the crank, was not able to turn it over on the starter motor or by hand using the crank.
I took the plugs out which all looked ok and she was still not able to turn over. Replaced the battery for a new one, still the same. I then checked the valves, starter motor etc.. and these were all fine. The prop could turn both ways in neutral, when in forward only one way and again in reverse only the other way. I left it for a day and was able to then turn it over using the starter motor (with the plugs in) very slowly in gear, this freed it up slightly and was able to turn the crank by hand but it was very tight. I then tried turning it over using the starter motor in neutral, forward and reverse and prop turned the correct way when in gear and not at all in neutral but was very slow as through it was struggling to turn it over and would not catch. The engine had stopped a couple of times before but this I believe was due to a fault alternator which I have had replaced (when it was running the volts were OK on the gauge).
Any ideas, I think it could be the bearing in the upper part of the sterndrive ? A the boat is in the water I have not been able to pull the drive off to check the engine turns when disconnected to the drive.
Cheers
Stu