1990 Force 90HP Not reving in neutral/hard start

[Illini River]

Hi all.

I have a '90 Bayliner Capri 1800 with a 1990 90HP Force and I think I might have an issue with the throttle box. When I put the motor in neutral and give it some throttle, shouldn't I notice a difference in rev/RPM's on the motor? Right now when in neutral and I give it throttle, there is no difference, like it's not getting any extra gas. I've been having a hard time getting started and I'm thinking this is why. I'm basically trying to start the engine every time at a slow idle.

Am I on the right track with this and if so, is this an easy fix. Maybe just a loose cable?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Bigprairie1]

Re: 1990 Force 90HP Not reving in neutral/hard start

I have exactly the same year boat and motor and mine does exactly the same thing.
I'm not sure why either. I haven't looked into it but it may be a deficient cable issue (time certainly affects the steering control...why not a throttle control). I have an original force 90 owners/operators manual that gets into this somewhat...and I should read up on it.
What I do now to give it some gas before starting is (with the key off) push/pump the throttle forward once or twice in the regular 'gear/go' position then back to neutral. At that point I spin the key. Same fuel 'shot' affect.
Give it a try. If I find out any more I'll let you know.

 

[Illini River]

Re: 1990 Force 90HP Not reving in neutral/hard start

Awesome thanks! I'll give it a try (hopefully tomorrow morning).

I have another quick question for you. What pitch is your prop? I have a 16" and I'm wondering if I should go to a 15.


Thanks!

 

[Bigprairie1]

Re: 1990 Force 90HP Not reving in neutral/hard start

I'm pretty sure my prop is a 15 pitch. This is something I have to look into a little more, but I'm pretty sure I read that on the side of it.
It pushes my boat at 38-40mph. What kind of speed are you getting out of your boat right now?

 

[QuadManiac]

Re: 1990 Force 90HP Not reving in neutral/hard start

I've got same boat/motor, 1 year newer. With 2 ppl, (500lbs total) i can hit a consistent GPS 35MPH. With 3 ppl (650lbs) and about 150 lbs of additional stuff last week I was consistently maxed out at 30. I'd like to hit 40, is it just my load? Don't know what RPM's are, but I'm just about to add a Tiny Tach to find out if prop change will help.

 

[Illini River]

Re: 1990 Force 90HP Not reving in neutral/hard start

I'm pretty sure my prop is a 15 pitch. This is something I have to look into a little more, but I'm pretty sure I read that on the side of it.
It pushes my boat at 38-40mph. What kind of speed are you getting out of your boat right now?

Right now with the 16 pitch prop and just myself in the boat I'm getting around 4200 RPMS at around 30 MPH. This seems a bit low to me. Could the pitch of my prop make this much difference?

 

[QuadManiac]

Re: 1990 Force 90HP Not reving in neutral/hard start

Right now with the 16 pitch prop and just myself in the boat I'm getting around 4200 RPMS at around 30 MPH. This seems a bit low to me. Could the pitch of my prop make this much difference?

Is that pitot tube/speedo speed, or GPS measured? My pito/speedo consistently reads about 5-7 MPH less than GPS. You know which one I trust!

 

[Illini River]

Re: 1990 Force 90HP Not reving in neutral/hard start

Is that pitot tube/speedo speed, or GPS measured? My pito/speedo consistently reads about 5-7 MPH less than GPS. You know which one I trust!

This is the speedo speed. I probably wouldn't worry about it if I were getting more RPM's, but since they're lower than what I thought they should be I'm trusting the reading.

What kind of RPM's are you getting and what pitch is your prop?

 

[QuadManiac]

Re: 1990 Force 90HP Not reving in neutral/hard start

Don't know the pitch, I'll be checking it this weekend. Don't know the RPM's cause I don't have a tach, yet. MiniTach is on it's way. Then I'll be doing the whole diagnostic thing, to see what works best for me.

Anybody think I can do much better than 35MPH, where I am now? BTW, hole shot is just fine right now, I'd certainly be willing to trade a bit of that for a little more top end.

 

[loomcat]

Re: 1990 Force 90HP Not reving in neutral/hard start

Hey guys, I too have a 1990 85hp Capri with L-Drive. The owner before me put on a hand bulb pump on the fuel line to pump fuel in as the system doesn't have a fuel pump. He told me to pump it a few times (he said 3, but I find it takes about 10) before starting. It worked fine, but now, 3 years later and I'm have many problems with starting and idling. I can get it started at home with water hooked up and idles in neutral and gear fine, but when we put it in the water after a short haul, it is hard to start and won't idle. Of course slamming it into gear will also make it stop. Which was an early symptom before the starting/idling problems began (it would die when I'd put it in gear).

I'm not happy with this boat and would really like to change out to a different engine/drive. Any ideas?