sportsmanphil
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2009
- Messages
- 257
OB is a 1989 Mercury 45 (classic 50)
A bit of background. I bought this boat from a friend of mine. He liked the boat but got a fish & ski from his father in law after he passed away. So he sold me this boat. Just before I bought it he had a repair facility check out an issue with it.
Basically if you ran the boat for over an hour or so it would want to shut down. First the repair facility tuned it up with plugs and wires. Didnt fix it so it went back and he removed/cleaned the carbs. Did it again so he took it back and the guy said it had two cracked plugs (I doubt that). It did it again but before he took it back to the facility, I bought the boat.
I take the service book, my Fluke meter and head to the lake. I run it till it wants to die out. Above 2000 RPM the engine would hunt to run. RPM's would search, bog, take off for a second, bog again. If you drop the throttle to 2k or less it would run fine. I beached the boat and started to test the signal swith and stator. I find the stator ran to ground (which isnt acceptable). After letting the engine cool for a while the stator test was fine. I crank the engine and off I go for about 20 minutes and it started again.
When the engine bogs etc, the spark is almost non existant. When its running fine it throws a 2" blue spark.
That said I figure a stator (according to laddie, a CDI stator is my best bet)
Now the boat sat for 3 months this winter. I filled it up and took off Friday with my oldest to a local lake. Ran the boat for a long time with zero issues. Saturday I took the boat back to a different lake and I didnt even get out of sight of the boat ramp and it started acting up at higher RPM's. I figure its the stator but it always takes an hour or running before it acts up. We fish for a while and I crank it back up and it runs perfect for a long while.
Towards the end of the day we were working our way back to the boat ramp and all of a sudden it doesnt want to idle. It would run great but backing down off the throttle it would die out and become a pain in the *** to start. I would have to start it with the fast idle up and quickly drop the fast idle and throttle forward. I also noticed that when it stopped wanting to idle that it smoked noticably from the exhaust (which may be loaded up with fuel/oil from extended cranking)
Then the last thing. I back the boat in the drive way and drop the trim down to let the water out of the OB and DANG if I dont have a bit of gear oil mixed with a bit of water dripping from where the prop meets the foot. It stoppped dripping after producing a 3-4 inch puddle.
I am going to assume the stator is causing the high rpm issues. My only concern is that it usually starts after being ran for a good period of time and gets warm. Is there any other ideas or common issues that I should look for outside of the stator?
Second, any ideas why the thing would just decide not to idle anymore? Could it be related to the stator?
Last, ideas on the gear oil leak at the foot? I assume that a prop shaft seal kit and impeller is in my near future.
A bit of background. I bought this boat from a friend of mine. He liked the boat but got a fish & ski from his father in law after he passed away. So he sold me this boat. Just before I bought it he had a repair facility check out an issue with it.
Basically if you ran the boat for over an hour or so it would want to shut down. First the repair facility tuned it up with plugs and wires. Didnt fix it so it went back and he removed/cleaned the carbs. Did it again so he took it back and the guy said it had two cracked plugs (I doubt that). It did it again but before he took it back to the facility, I bought the boat.
I take the service book, my Fluke meter and head to the lake. I run it till it wants to die out. Above 2000 RPM the engine would hunt to run. RPM's would search, bog, take off for a second, bog again. If you drop the throttle to 2k or less it would run fine. I beached the boat and started to test the signal swith and stator. I find the stator ran to ground (which isnt acceptable). After letting the engine cool for a while the stator test was fine. I crank the engine and off I go for about 20 minutes and it started again.
When the engine bogs etc, the spark is almost non existant. When its running fine it throws a 2" blue spark.
That said I figure a stator (according to laddie, a CDI stator is my best bet)
Now the boat sat for 3 months this winter. I filled it up and took off Friday with my oldest to a local lake. Ran the boat for a long time with zero issues. Saturday I took the boat back to a different lake and I didnt even get out of sight of the boat ramp and it started acting up at higher RPM's. I figure its the stator but it always takes an hour or running before it acts up. We fish for a while and I crank it back up and it runs perfect for a long while.
Towards the end of the day we were working our way back to the boat ramp and all of a sudden it doesnt want to idle. It would run great but backing down off the throttle it would die out and become a pain in the *** to start. I would have to start it with the fast idle up and quickly drop the fast idle and throttle forward. I also noticed that when it stopped wanting to idle that it smoked noticably from the exhaust (which may be loaded up with fuel/oil from extended cranking)
Then the last thing. I back the boat in the drive way and drop the trim down to let the water out of the OB and DANG if I dont have a bit of gear oil mixed with a bit of water dripping from where the prop meets the foot. It stoppped dripping after producing a 3-4 inch puddle.
I am going to assume the stator is causing the high rpm issues. My only concern is that it usually starts after being ran for a good period of time and gets warm. Is there any other ideas or common issues that I should look for outside of the stator?
Second, any ideas why the thing would just decide not to idle anymore? Could it be related to the stator?
Last, ideas on the gear oil leak at the foot? I assume that a prop shaft seal kit and impeller is in my near future.