1988 Suzuki DT200 - Rev limiter

chackett

Seaman
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Messages
52
I have a 1989 or possibly a 1988 Suzuki DT200. It has been a great motor for many years and today I had a strange problem. Two problems maybe. I don't know if they are related. First the starboard side water temp light came on and the alarm was also sounding periodically. The port side was fine. Also the pee- stream was good, looked strong and wasn't putting out hot water. Touching the water jackets and it didn't seem hotter than normal and there wasn't a difference in temp between the port and starboard sides. Sometimes I figure stuff gets stuck and so I ran it up a bit to try and get anything stuck pushed through. This is when I encountered the second problem. At idle it seemed fine, but once I tried to get up on plane the rev limiter kicked in. I've never experienced the rev limiter but I assume that is what I experienced. It seemed like it was intentionally misfiring, which sounds like the rev limiter. It took me a minute to look at the tach, but the rpm's were way too high. The engine didn't sound like it was that high, but obviously the tach thought there was a problem and so the rev limiter kicked in. I have never spun a prop so I don't know what that looks like, but that was the first thing I thought of. After I pulled the boat out, I engaged the motor and tried to manually turn the prop, thinking it would spin if I had spun the prop. I couldn't get it spin, so I don't know if that was it or not. Can a spun prop still feel firm? i am wide open to ideas. chris
 

99yam40

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Sep 7, 2008
Messages
8,851
spun prop hub is not something you can feel by hand.
mark it and run to see if it moves
 
Last edited:

chackett

Seaman
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Messages
52
Ok. So I marked the hub and prop and ran it.. All the marks were still lined up so I think I don't have a spun hub. I was really hoping that was it. So now I need to figure out why I am getting higher than normal rpm on the tach. My water flow or temp light and alarm are off now. So that's good. But this rpm is too high on the tach. The motor doesn't sound like it's over reving. But the tach is reading up to like 5000 rpm when it doesn't sound like it's turning any more than 2500. I am also guessing it's not just an indicator or gage problem since the rev limiter is kicking in. I'm at a loss on this one.
 
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