FinallyIOwnABoat
Recruit
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2017
- Messages
- 3
I just bought a used boat about a month ago. It is a 2003 McKee Craft 172 Backwater and it has a 2004 Tohatsu 90 hp TLDI. First time I took it out it started right up and ran well, I was able to shut it off and restart with no issues. Daughter had to use the restroom so I went to a dock turned the engine off and when she got back in I was able to restart it and slowly made my way back out to deeper water and when I tried to give it some throttle it died and I had a hard time getting it restarted but luckily I was able to get it started and back off the water. Did some research and thought it was likely old gas so I replaced the fuel/water separator and dumped a can of Seafoam in the tank and ran it from home with muffs. Stalled one time in the driveway but figured that was because I didn't prefill the water/fuel separator with fuel but once restarted I could not get it to repeat the issue so I figured problem solved. I have taken it out 2 times since this and it has started on the first try and ran flawlessly for the entire day both times. After taking it out last Monday, I brought it home and started it and ran fresh water through it in the driveway for about 15 minutes on idle. No issues! So I load the wife and kids up this past Sunday drive 45 minutes to the boat ramp, put the boat in the water and I can not get it to start. It was acting like the battery was low. When I turn the key it makes the beep sound and then I try to turn it to start the starter cranks the flywheel but seems to not be cranking with enough power. I unplugged the battery and plugged to another battery I had with me and it does the same thing. Another boater saw me having issues and offered his freshly charged battery and it did the same. The GPS/depth finder and electric trim work fine but the engine will not start. I have been removing the key and kill switch when I park the boat so it has me wondering if the kill switch could have broken and the motor thinks it is removed. The other strange thing it is doing is the beeping sound comes back when I turn the key to start. So what I mean is it beeps for a couple of second when turned to on (this is normal) and when it stops I attempt to turn to start and the engine tries but with little power to start and the beeping returns. Could I have a bad kill switch or ignition switch? I tried turning the key to on and cranking the flywheel manually but it didn't do anything like it was not sending anything to the spark plugs. Pulled and cleaned all 3 spark plugs but cant get the boat to do anything. My local marina cant look at it for 3 weeks and I really want to get it out a couple more times before winter. Any suggestions on what to check, what to do?