Honda BF40A No Power

[arbogaster]

I have a 1998 Honda BF40A I just purchased. <br />The motor had sat a little while with old fuel and was not running great when it was purchased.<br />Initially it would not push the boat more than 5 mph at full throttle, it was hard to start and keep running at idle. Under load it had no power but would rev up a little when out of gear. It would shake and run pretty rough. After looking around I found some sand and other crud in the fuel tank. I cleaned out the tank and put about 3 gal of fresh gas inside and a bottle of fuel system cleaner. I pulled all three carbs an broke them down most of the way and probed around with a fine wire and cleaned out every orifice I could find and then blew it out with an air compressor. I put it all back together and it ran noticebly smoother in the tank. I took it to the river and it was easier to start but would stall when it went into gear. Finally I got it moving and at full throttle we were barely up on plane. The motor seemed to stall out if I applied fuel too quickly and seemed like it should have had more power. The fuel line on this setup is currently about 16' long. I plan on replacing the fuel tank and line as well as putting some gas without the cleaner mixed into it, and putting in new plugs. i would like to order a factory service manual for it so I could check some other things. Does anyone think that tearing down the carbs completely, and dipping in that gunk eating carb cleaner would help or is there something else that I should check? All suggestions greatly appreciated. This site is awesome

 

[Navigator]

Re: Honda BF40A No Power

You put in a new fuel Filter too Correct?<br /><br />It still sounds like the carbs are dirty. you may very well want to tear them completely down and clean them. The best way is to soak in carb cleaner then blow out the passages with compressed air. Probing with a fine wire wont always clean the ports, in fact a lot of times pushing a wire into a port will just lodge whatever's up there even more.<br />The honda has some very small ports so make sure you get them all. And dont forget the carb rebuild kits when you tear them down. Reassembling them with the old gaskets and other parts is just asking for trouble. Invest a little, enjoy a lot.<br /><br />Nav

 

[arbogaster]

Re: Honda BF40A No Power

I did not swap out the fuel filter yet. I am going to tear everything down again this weekend and go through it with a fine tooth comb. I did a pretty good job on it last weekend but it sounds like you have to be incredibly thorough to get the job done. I plan on soaking the carbs in cleaner overnight and really scrubbing out every little orifice once they have a good soak. How well should this thing run before the carbs are synchronized. I was planning on getting a Carb Tune II and doing it myself but I won't get it by this weekend.