1989 V-4 Evinrude 88 horsepower SPL E88MSLCER

Hello Everyone,<br /><br /> I finally took a long awiting vacation this past Memorial Day weekned and went to Rend Lake in Southern Illinois to do some boating/camping. Anyway, I went out for the second time last Friday with my boat and my wife wnated to be pulled on the tube so I did that for probably 20 minutes or so, any way to save gas I shut down the engine so I could get my wife back inside the boat and continue on. When I went to crank her up all I got was a thump or a tap each time I cycled the key but no engine cranking, so I took off the engine cover and went stright to the flywheel to turn her and she had slight movement both ways, so I gave it a little more effort and the flywheel freed up. So I decided to crank her again and she started back up and ran great for a while. I thought she had siezed up but I never heard a overheat alarm go off. Anyway back to the story. I went on pulling my daughter's friend on the tube and as I got back to the bridge I stopped the boat again and got her back in the boat. Went to start the boat and the same thing tap or thumping noise but no engine movement from the starter. So I took the engine cover off again and turned the key and all I got was a thump or tap noise and the starter motor did not turn at all no movent off the starter gear to turn the flywheel. So I gently tapped on the starter thinking it was stuck in a hard spot and nothing so I got towed in and about 15 to 20 minutes later into the towing I reached over and turned the ignition key and she fired right up so I disconnected from the tow boat and drove myself in to the docks. I am thinking the first time this did this is because the starter motor gear got bound up in the flywheel and caused the flywheel to have a bind in it. Is this what you think after describing my problem in this paragraph is what happened. Anyway after troubleshooting and checking connections my starter solenoid was bad so I went to O'reilly auto parts and bought another one exactly the same thing and I never had a problem with the boat agin. This happened last Friday and I replaced the solenoid Saturday morning before I went out again and never had a problem with the boat Saturday or Sunday it ran great and actually started alot stronger than ever before. What do you guys think about it?

Re: 1989 V-4 Evinrude 88 horsepower SPL E88MSLCER

Hi Bubba<br /><br />I think it's great that you found your problem. Odds are it was failing when hot and would work again given the time to cool off. So how was Rend?? I haven't had a chance to get there this year, but I did make it over to Carlyle the weekend before last. Very nice and uncrowded!! Glad it all worked out. Sounds like you had a much needed break....

Re: 1989 V-4 Evinrude 88 horsepower SPL E88MSLCER

RICKDB1BOATS,<br /><br /> Rend Lake was great. Me and my younger daughter left last Monday the 22 May and headed out to Wayne Fitgerral Sate park with the camper. The first couple of days was cool outside and you didn't need Air Conditioning to keep you cool. Then I came back on Wednesday 24 May to pick up my wife and older daughter and the boat and it was getting hotter outside and was a very nice and hot memorial day. It was great being with the family and using both my camper and boat but like I said the boat scared me on Friday when she acted up I thought the worst had happned to her, but she runs like a top now. I heard Carlyle lake could be very dangerous if you don't know the water that well there. I have heard of people getting killed there and you can run aground pretty quickly like going from 12 feet to 2 feet in seconds. That why I don't go there don't want nobody to get hurt or killed there.