Re: Gutless 3 cyl. 90 hp
My buddy had a 90-3 on an old 16' Jolly Rodger and it had no problem pulling up a slalom skier on a deep-water start. In fact, it had as just about as much guts as an old Merc 1000 Tower of Power Inline 6 he used to have, running on a similar hull.<br /><br />One thing about the 90-3, it doesn't like to run faster than the recommended rpm. Nor do the 4-cyl variants of this motor. Gets real thrashy and not happy at all. Actually ran better with a higher-pitched prop that kept it in its rpm range.<br /><br />So, all that being said, sounds like there's something seriously wrong wtih that motor and you need to diagnose the basics: fuel, spark, timing, compression. <br /><br />One other thing to think about, motors of this vintage did have the 'bad stator' problem, if one of the (2) ign windings in the stator are bad it'll run, but not well. You can't usually detect this problem with a simple spark test. Get a manual and do a resistance check of the hi- and lo-speed windings. You may find a problem there.<br /><br />HTH and good luck.......ed
