Motor Help Please

J

joeyd50

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 12, 2005
Messages
158
Had the boat out a couple months ago and it ran fine, 36 MPH at 5500 RPMs 1975 85HP Johnson on a 1987 18.5' Skeeter Bass boat. Friday the boat would not go over 3600 RPMs and not plane. I picked up a couple of carb kits and a friend was going to rebuild them, he done some adjustments first, and removed a screw from the bottom of carb, ran the motor while spraying carb cleaner and lots of dirt came out, after that the motor would rav like some kind of race boat in neutral. Took if out to the river and no power, took compression test, almost 125 in each cylinder. Any idea what to look at next? Sorry for long post.
Thanks
Joe
 
SKEETR

SKEETR

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 3, 2008
Messages
430
Re: Motor Help Please

procede with rebuilding the carbs. Sounds like they need it.
 
SKEETR

SKEETR

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 3, 2008
Messages
430
Re: Motor Help Please

btw I would not advise doing that carb cleaner trick ever again. Sounds extremely flamable.
 
J

joeyd50

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 12, 2005
Messages
158
Re: Motor Help Please

Rebuilt the carbs, now the boat will reach 4500 RPM's, but that?s it, first time out this year it reached 5500 RPM's. I'm sorry for all the questions, but I'm sure posting here will get me to the most logical next step to take.
Thanks
Joe
 
E

ezeke

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Sep 19, 2003
Messages
12,532
Re: Motor Help Please

Take the cover off the carbs so that you can see what the throttle plates are doing, then advance the control arm fully; the throttle plates should be perfectly horizontal and exactly equal to each other.

The jets in your carburetors are all fixed, so there is nothing to adjust.

It would probably be better for you to start over with two new OEM kits and rebuild the carburetors again.
 
tashasdaddy

tashasdaddy

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Nov 11, 2005
Messages
51,019
Re: Motor Help Please

if you did not remove the jets, as i described, you wasted your time.
 
J

joeyd50

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 12, 2005
Messages
158
Re: Motor Help Please

tashasdaddy, to be perfectly honest with you, I did get the low speed jets out and cleaned them, but was having trouble getting the hi speed jets out. When the carbs were out I could see thru the upper carb hi speed jets but the bottom carb were cloged. I cleaned them the best I could, and holding them up to a light they looked great. They looked just as clean as the low speed jets I took out. I'm sure I probably screwed up, but it looked good.
Joe
 
J

joeyd50

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 12, 2005
Messages
158
Re: Motor Help Please

I'm starting to think the tach on my boat may be off a bit on the RPM's, could someone tell me how to hook a old auto two wire Tach & Dwell to my motor. I say this because my boat did get up to 34 MPH, actually a little faster then it did early this year.
Thanks
Joe
 
Randybeall

Randybeall

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 2, 2008
Messages
319
Re: Motor Help Please

Sounds like you need the shop manual. The only way to hook an automotive tach/dwell meter to the ignition is at the tach lead from the engine. Dwell of course will be not working. Some tachs will read some won't. You may have ignition problems since you think the tach is off. Shop manual has clear instructions for checking it all out.
For the carbs, did you clean the fuel system and pump some fuel through the fuel pump before hooking up the carbs again? If no is the answer, you probly did your self in.
 
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