68 Offshore restoration

Sharpie243

Cadet
Joined
May 31, 2025
Messages
10
What do you mean by stops? With a laser tach, where do you check? Flywheel teeth?

I have a cheap chinese oscilloscope, never have turned it on even, but I've been thinking of using that to check the gear counter pulsars output and extrapolate rpm from frequency.
 

Sharpie243

Cadet
Joined
May 31, 2025
Messages
10
I was able to get some uhmw cut for the anchor nest. The aluminum is kinda crude, I'll probably replace with a couple pieces of angle, soon. Also tested the trolling motor for the first time ever, figured I should if it's partly a backup plan of the main goes out. Hasn't been used for a long time so there was dust or corrosion on the control contacts, once worked loose it seems to work. I found a cheap laser tach with reflective tape online, when it comes I'll perform more engine testing.
1000000163.jpg
 

SHSU

Lieutenant Junior+Starmada Splash Of The Year 2019
Joined
Mar 8, 2017
Messages
1,755
What do you mean by stops? With a laser tach, where do you check? Flywheel teeth?

I have a cheap chinese oscilloscope, never have turned it on even, but I've been thinking of using that to check the gear counter pulsars output and extrapolate rpm from frequency.
You should have an idle speed screw/stop to adjust your idle speed. Also, if you are Out of the Water I have found my motor to Idle higher then when in the water.

As for the tach, mine came with some reflective tape I put on top of the fly wheel.

SHSU
 

Sharpie243

Cadet
Joined
May 31, 2025
Messages
10
You should have an idle speed screw/stop to adjust your idle speed. Also, if you are Out of the Water I have found my motor to Idle higher then when in the water.

As for the tach, mine came with some reflective tape I put on top of the fly wheel.

SHSU
This year of Suzuki didn't have idle speed adjustment. I think previous years did, I don't remember the reason for it going away. Doesn't really explain one spark plug firing slower than others anyway. The cheap tach has a wire wrapped around a spark wire and senses the em field, I'm wondering if that wire length just happens to have some resonance that makes it appear slower.

Clearly it's getting spark, so I plan to just go use it on the river again and see if the motor will rev higher or not, it did before. I don't really have a need to go 35 vs 25 mph, but a little wary of something not working right on the water.
 

SHSU

Lieutenant Junior+Starmada Splash Of The Year 2019
Joined
Mar 8, 2017
Messages
1,755
If you have one spark that is firing slower have you checked your stator?

SHSU
 

Sharpie243

Cadet
Joined
May 31, 2025
Messages
10
I've checked the ohm reading, and they were all consistent. I was in the process of making all the special tools required to pull the flywheel for visual inspection when I decided to try running it again on water.

Here's my thinking:
I have cdi ignition, it doesn't really make sense for it to fire at a different rate of a trigger coil was going out. If anything, a weak signal would seem like it should just retard the timing at the same rate. If it only occasionally missed, then I wouldn't expect a consistent rate, I would expect it all over the place. If a capacitor in the cdi box was degrading, I would expect it to simply not spark. I am no ignition expert, so maybe there is more going on than I realize, but if it runs normal on the water I'm okay chalking it up to the limitations of the measurement tool.
 

Sharpie243

Cadet
Joined
May 31, 2025
Messages
10
Checked with laser tach, mid 8xx, but that lower spark plug still reads 5xx on the digital tach. Tomorrow I will try to swap coils to see if the 5xx follows the coil. I am partly wondering if there could be a weird inductance issue happening, preventing the plug from firing every time, but if that were the case I would expect the spark to be good less than half the time. Best guess right now is still some weird em field in that particular wire that is giving bad readings. I still think I won't know if anything is wrong until I check top speed on water. At least it fires up every time.

My flywheel is yellow zinc coated which was too shiny for the tach so I had to spray it flat black. I figured that spraying whole running would give the most consistent finish. Didn't think it would have enough build up to fling that much off, but gave the back of my boat a light spatter coat...

I did notice that my oil tank gauge may not be functioning correctly (on top of my battery charging circuit not fully functioning even after rectifier replacement). I'm debating doing an oil injection delete, partly so I'm not worried and partly to get rid of the oil tank to make room for a real alternator (pulley off top of flywheel). I was reading about the system, and partly talked myself out of the delete because it was such a better system of oiling then gas mix. Supposedly it will inject after the carb and the oil will stay separate better. Looking at my motor today, it looks like it is injecting into the gas line prior to carb, I'm checking if this is correct or a previous owner mod. If it is correct, I think the oil delete may happen as I see no benefit.

Also today, cut some aluminum for a better anchor nest. Broke the sharp edges, hopefully assembly will be tomorrow.

1000000224.jpg
 

Sharpie243

Cadet
Joined
May 31, 2025
Messages
10
Why do you allow so many things to deteriorate knowingly ?Now several things make getting it right is difficult.

Knowingly being the key. The oil gauge was working last year. Not sure why it isn't now, probably need to check connections, just figured that out yesterday deciding to test it. The battery charging I did replace the rectifier, but it didn't seem to help, maybe the coil is bad, but it ohm'ed out correctly (no detectable shorts to ground either) and looks like it will cost me as much as an alternator to replace. Perhaps I can rewind my own if I pull it. The ignition issue is it's own thing to test, separate from the charging circuit.

It's hard to say the cause of any of it, it's all troubleshooting, once you figure out what's wrong, then it gets replaced and the deteriorated condition no longer exists. None of it points to a single piece of equipment.
 

Sharpie243

Cadet
Joined
May 31, 2025
Messages
10
Version 2 of the anchor nest was attached, it should work well for now. Pondering a version 3 that adds a hinge to the front for easier solo anchoring.

1000000235.jpg
 
Top