4.3L 1989 Mercruiser Poor Idle

[amy35ism]

I am looking for some advice on what to do about a poor idling engine. The engine starts and runs great. Even at low speeds the engine does fine, but as soon as I put it in neutral, it will not run for more than 10 seconds without stalling. Thanks for your help

 

[Catchem]

Re: 4.3L 1989 Mercruiser Poor Idle

adjust idle screw mixtures on carburator and then set up idle adjustment.Sounds like your not getting enough gas when in neutral which means idle mixture screws are closed too much.Open 1/8 th of a turn until idling well in neutral.You will then need to adjust the idle adjustment cam.BTW what type of engine and carb?

 

[Chris1956]

Re: 4.3L 1989 Mercruiser Poor Idle

Skeelsman, Just to be clear, the motor stalls when shifted from forward to neutral? If so, it is likely your ignition kill switch on the shift cable is out of adjustment or bad. Check to see that the switch brakes and makes continuity at the proper spot on the shift cam. I had a problem when the motor would stall upon shifting from neutral to reverse (on the muffs, no prop), however neutral to forward and vice versa was fine. Turned out the shift cam or cable was sticking.

 

[Bondo]

Re: 4.3L 1989 Mercruiser Poor Idle

skeelsman,<br />It's My Guess,<br />That You have the Same Problem that Chris had.......<br />And,<br />The Lower Shift Cable is going to be Your Fix as well.......<br /><br />BTW,<br />Welcome to the iboats Forums................

 

[BinLurkin]

Re: 4.3L 1989 Mercruiser Poor Idle

What Bondo & Catchem said. Except I'd start by turning the carb idle screws out to 1 & 1/2 tuns & see if that helped first. If not try 2 turns out from the bottom. Sometimes they just ain't getting enough gas to begin with.