Greetings. First time poster. 2000 Four Winns 180 with 4.3 Mercruiser with TB V. Boat was cutting out while underway late in the Fall, not this Spring and then just started again. Marine mechanic did some tests on ignition and did not find anything offside and it didn't act up (of course) when he went for a ride. Its like someone flicks a light switch - its immediate. Does this sometimes at around 1000 rpm and but mostly on plane. After it dies and I return the throttle to neutral, it fires up immediately and off I go to play the game again - intermittent, no pattern and no warning - next 5 minutes or a day from now. Boat never stalls going into or out of gear BTW - shift is smooth and easy.
Threw a few parts at it - coil for one. Has a new dist cap, battery and ignition switch. Cleaned some contacts and checked for frayed wires and poor contacts but electrical diagnostics are not my wheelhouse and all seemed fine to me.
After reading some posts here, I started to explore the shift interrupter. It does kill the engine if I push it in manually. Recently, after it died while on plane, I checked the position of the V-arm without bringing the throttle back to neutral and it seemed to be hanging a bit on the switch - not in the center of the V. Pic enclosed. Makes sense to me that the button on the switch should always be dead center of that V in the arm (except when its doing its thing). Do these arms bind up or have spring tension that gets weak? Didn't seem bound and spring tension feels fairly strong. I did lubricate the pivot point and worked it a bunch. After that I had my son going through the throttle range while I watched the switch and couldn't replicate the position in the pic - it always returned to neutral. Boat ran without incident for 30 minutes. So maybe licked it, but just feels so random.
I also read that a faculty tach can kill ignition? My tach was funky in the fall and now appears dead. Should I remove tach wire from the coil?
I'm away from the boat at the moment, but appreciate any thoughts people have. I'll be back in it tomorrow and can put some more time on it to see if it happens again.
Thx, Steve
Threw a few parts at it - coil for one. Has a new dist cap, battery and ignition switch. Cleaned some contacts and checked for frayed wires and poor contacts but electrical diagnostics are not my wheelhouse and all seemed fine to me.
After reading some posts here, I started to explore the shift interrupter. It does kill the engine if I push it in manually. Recently, after it died while on plane, I checked the position of the V-arm without bringing the throttle back to neutral and it seemed to be hanging a bit on the switch - not in the center of the V. Pic enclosed. Makes sense to me that the button on the switch should always be dead center of that V in the arm (except when its doing its thing). Do these arms bind up or have spring tension that gets weak? Didn't seem bound and spring tension feels fairly strong. I did lubricate the pivot point and worked it a bunch. After that I had my son going through the throttle range while I watched the switch and couldn't replicate the position in the pic - it always returned to neutral. Boat ran without incident for 30 minutes. So maybe licked it, but just feels so random.
I also read that a faculty tach can kill ignition? My tach was funky in the fall and now appears dead. Should I remove tach wire from the coil?
I'm away from the boat at the moment, but appreciate any thoughts people have. I'll be back in it tomorrow and can put some more time on it to see if it happens again.
Thx, Steve
