force 85 engine dies when shifting

[jdkuebler]

the engine idles perfectly in nuetral but when your shifting in and out of reverse like when your docking or loading on the trailer there seems to be no fine throttle control. also with the cover off when you engage forward you have to move the trottle almost halfway through its range of movement before you can see any movement in the carb linkage. Is this normal and if not whats wrong and how do i fix it cause im tired of bashing my boat into my trailer.

 

[roscoe]

Re: force 85 engine dies when shifting

Unfortunately, it sounds pretty normal for most boats.

If it dies, check your idle rpm's, they should be about 700-800 in gear, and 1000 in neutral.

 

[john from md]

Re: force 85 engine dies when shifting

The Force engine is very sensitive to rigging problems. Sometimes people make little adjustments to the rpm or timing rod and it works for them. But, if you go to far, it throws the throttle/timing rigging out of kilter and the engine does things like yours is doing.
The first thing to do is insure you have 750rpm in forward gear when tied to the dock. This will usually give you 1000 rpm at idle.

If you have those numbers and the engine is quitting when going into gear, the timing may be off causing the throttle plate to advance without increasing the timing.

The only way to fix this is to rig the engine by the book. You need to be mechanically inclind to do this as it is a bit complicated. If you try to fudge it by adjusting the idle up, you will get slamming and grinding when going into gear which is not good for your engine.