'84 bayliner capri, '89 Johnson 40hp

[manifold]

I just purchased a 1984 Bayliner Capri 15' with an<br />outboard 40hp Johnson. The boat sat for appx. 4 yrs before we bought it (for $800, is that a good deal?) and I'm pretty sure it was not preserved as it should have been. We cracked open the cowl and let it struggle through a low rpm idle and noticed that the carb nuts were backing off so we tightened them. The motor pops and wont hold an idle for very long at low rpm, plus it is reluctant to shut down when we drop the idle control lever. It has actually revved up a few times when we moved the idle control to it's lowest point. We rebuilt the carbs today and did discover quite a fortune of crap however it is still not running properly. We think that one of the spark solenoids might be roasted as the top one fires appx. every two seconds, and the motor runs without it while it shuts down immediately if we remove the plug wire from the lower plug. Any ideas?? Otherwise the boat is in fantastic condition for what we paid for it. Was it a good deal though?

 

[cclemon]

Re: '84 bayliner capri, '89 Johnson 40hp

Manifold,<br /><br />It sounds like a good deal to me. The reving up problem at idle could have been caused by intake air leaks from the loose carbs. If you replaced the gasket between the carbs and manifold, you problably have fixed that problem. I would suggest running a compression test. If all cylinders are close to the same pressure and somewhere around 100psi, then I would order a manual and start troubleshooting the ignition problem. You can do a pre test, buy removing the spark plugs, put the wire back on the plug, hold the metal part of the sparkplug against a motor head, crank the engine and see it the plug sparks.<br />Use something insulated to hold the plug. Blue spark is good, if you have orange spark, replace the plug and try it again. My first boat was about this size. I had a lot of fun with it.<br />Good Luck.