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1986 140VRO wonbt idle

T

total_chaos

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"I recently bought a boat with

"I recently bought a boat with a 1986 140VRO and it won't idle. According to the previous owner it hasn't been used much in the last 10yrs. Anyway I ran it here at the house hooked to a hose and it ran even at idle. When I put it in the lake it wouldn't run at idle but it would run at high rpms. I couldn't even get it in gear without it stalling. I took it home and ran it on the hose and it ran. So I'm figuring the back pressure from the water was causing the problem. So I fill a drum with water and sure enough the thing won't run. Prior to all this the tank had been emptied and it sat for a year. I replaces all the fuel lines and it only got new gas in the tank the day I took it to the lake. Prior to that I just ran it out of a gas can. It also had a new fuel water seperator.
A friend of mine said it sounded like the low idle ports in the carbs were plugged. I took all the carbs apart and they were infact dirty. I cleaned them all and reassembled and fired it up and it ran great, even in the drum. So I go back to the lake and run it. It idled fine so I ran it up the lake 10 miles and it ran fine. So I bring it down to an idle to troll with it (yes it's a fishing boat) and it trolls about 10 minutes and quits. I refire it and it starts acting like it did before. I pull the carbs apart and they're clean. I check the plugs and I see 1 on each side appears to be dead. Prior to this I had checked spark on all cylinders with a timing light and all were firing.
Some other things I noticed are: the first time I had a problem the starboard side was running cold and the port side seemed to be at temp (the heads). After I cleaned the carbs the first time the port side was running cold and the starboard side was at temp. I also found between the cleaning that different plugs seem to be dead. The first time the starboard side didn't seem to be firing and now one on each side seems to be dead.
Another thing I found was: I went to the Evenrude website and checked the carb chart and it calls for a #20 orifice on the port side and a #16 orifice on the starboard side for the intermediate orifice. I have 32's on both sides and for the idle air bleed orifice it calls for a #28 and mine has a #45.
I also read that a bad battery can affect the spark and 1 of the 2 batteries does not hold a charge however I was running it with the perko switch on both so I thought that would be ok. I do plan to get a new battery this week and see if that fixes the problem.

Anyone have any other ideas??
Brian"
 
"Brian, the battery on that mo

"Brian, the battery on that model is used for starting, power trim, and activating the fuel primer. The ignition system is totally seperate. As for the ignition. The two starboard cylinders operate on one power pack, the two port ones on the other. One trigger on the stator fires each power pack. This makes for easy troubleshooting if a whole bank of cylinders loses spark. Ignition coils and wires are independant for each cylinder and could cause the issue. Because the problem is intermittant, I would check the wiring from the stator to the power packs though. This wiring has to flex as the stator moves to advance the timing. The two brown wires are the charge coils that provide power to the packs. There should also be a connector with a couple different color wires. These are the triggers for the power packs. Also check the orange wires going from the pack to the coils. These actually fire the coils. Dirt, corrosion, or loose connections on any of these can lead to intermittant issues.
D"
 
D
My 140 only has 1 power pac

D
My 140 only has 1 power pack. Since that is the case I think I can rule out the stator being bad as if it was nothing would fire. Maybe I'm confused (as I'm not real good with electrical) but I thought this was a CDI system and a bad battery would effect the spark. Like I said I'm not real good with electrical and that was something I saw on another website. I will start checking wires though. Thanks for the response. Any help is appreciated.
Brian
 
It is a CDI system. It's j

It is a CDI system. It's just that the power to charge the capacitors is drawn from a dedicated winding in the stator instead of from the battery. I'm not totally familiar with a 1 pack system on the V4. Most of the V4's of that era had a powerpack mounted on the side of each cylinder bank. They must have done something different with the looper block. All of the troubleshooting I outlined above should still apply. Check for loose wires and corroded connections before you start changing parts. Might want to pick up a manual. There are procedures to test various parts of the system. This could save you a lot of money vs changing parts.

D
 
"Brian, I also recommend what

"Brian, I also recommend what dcramer has to say. I had an '85 115 that had intermitant spark issues and was driving me nuts. Turns out that two of the coils had corrosion between the coil and the block. Pull each coil off and ensure that there is a good clean connection to the block as this is how they are grounded."
 
"Thanks guys, I've got a 3

"Thanks guys, I've got a 3 day weekend coming up, maybe I can get it fixed. Sure would like to fish off of it rather than just looking at it in the driveway.
Brian"
 
"Ok guys, I checked all the wi

"Ok guys, I checked all the wires and the amphanol plugs and everything looked good. No corrosion or loose connections. I also pulled all the coils and checked for corrosion at the contact point and they were clean. I checked all the coil connections and they were fine.

I also recleaned the carbs just to make sure it isn't a fuel problem.

I fired it up and it was missing. I put a timing light on the spark plugs and they are all firing by the light. However the port side of the motor clearly isn't firing. The starboard side is nice and warm and the port side is cold. The plugs are cold on the port side. All the plugs are wet so I know they're getting gas. I'm confused by the fact that the timing light is showing spark but obviously it's not firing. Power pack??? Or is the stator bad on one side??? I didn't have a socket big enough to pull the nut on the flywheel so I'll have to get one. When a stator is bad can you see the crack in the magnet?? Is that the most common prblem with the stator?? Thanks for any help.
Brian"
 
"if u r getting spark(by y

"if u r getting spark(by your timing lite),..on all cyl's,...change the plugs....if that does'nt help u have biger probs,and your ign is ok since it is firing on all cyl's..run a compression check,....check for water in fuel,...etc.."
 
Maybe the wires from CD to the

Maybe the wires from CD to the coils are wrong on the one side.The plugs will fire but at the wrong time.Try changing the plug wires on the side that is not producing power.
 
The plugs were brand new when

The plugs were brand new when I fired it up this last time. Also I did a compression check last fall and they were all above 110lbs. Unless something happened to it during the winter. I will check the compression again. I will also swap the wires coming from the CD. That would be something stupid but nice if that was it. I have a fuel/water seperator but never thought to check it as the gas was just put in the tank a few weeks ago. Thanks
Brian
 
"jwbmarine, I checked the comp

"jwbmarine, I checked the compression and all the cylinders are 110lbs.

Next I checked the 2 cylinders that I thought weren't sparking by disconnecting the 2 cylinders (spark plug wires)that I know are firing and I tried to start it. It started and ran. Then I diconnected 1 of those plug wires and started it and it ran on 1 cylinder. I checked the other 3 and they all ran the motor. So spark isn't the issue just as you said.

Is it possible the timing is off and it's not firing at the right time???

If it's fuel I don't know what part of it. The gas was new at the first trip out. It didn't have fuel in the tank for at least a year prior to that. I had drained it all. I cleaned the carbs twice now and they are spotless. I did install a new VRO pump last fall as the old one was leaking. I see now I could have rebuilt it. I checked the choke to make sure it was working correctly and it is. I tried pumping the fuel ball up when it's running and that doesn't do anything. I couldn't really pump it as it was already full.

Any other suggestions???
Brian"
 
"Take a flashlight and look un

"Take a flashlight and look under your flywheel, observe the Stator for melting or cracks. Must use a flashlight. You need to check CDI web site in regards to do a Stator test its simple it could be the Pack or Stator. I have a 1987 140v4 and worked on it from the prop up in regards to various issues. If you need the instructions let me know I can scan the pages from the OMC manual. It can also be the Carbs flooding the engine since the jets are bigger as you said, Mine was the same and I re-jet to the exactly to what you saw in the manual. Do you have a Tach install? If yes provide numbers in neutral and when you shift into gear. Is the VRO connected? What is the gap and model of plugs used? See your problem can be very simple or very hard to diagnose since its only during trolling, my guess you are fouling up the plugs. Simple step bring a set of clean plugs and swap it out on the water if the problems pops up, This does two thing for you verify if you are fouling the plugs and you get to observe a before (when you install em) and after trolling. If you are fouling the plugs and is using a 50 to 1 mix make sure the plugs are gap to .40 (use a spark plug gap tool) not a feelers gauge! Keep us posted"
 
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