1985 Evinrude 90 hp
My outboard seems to not like running while once warmed up. Here is a detailed list of its problem as they occurred. May 2008 while at Balsam Lake on my spring fishing trip with friends I couldn't get it to rev up and GO at all, cold or hot....it would get up to around 3,000RPM's and then just fall on its face and never get up on plane. After a 2 days of this I sucked it up and limped it to a marina. 2 hours later I got the call that they fixed it. They said the kill switch was acting up and just cut the neutral wire off of it and away it went. This was great news and it ran great the rest of the trip and for the whole summer.
So for the rest of spring and summer I never had an issue with the engine at all until September while at Leech Lake in Minnesota with my dad and brothers. One evening I was just cruising around at 30 mph and the motor started to lose power and came off plane and went right back down into the water and wouldn't rev up again. I could get it up to 3,000 rpm range again but not any higher . All I could do was head back to the cabin with the bow straight up in the air at full throttle because it wouldn't go over the 3,000 hump and take off and plane out. So next morning I went to a marina in Walker and bought new plugs and fuel filter knowing damn well this wouldn't fix it but the old people I was with insisted that I should try it. So it fired up and after 3 attempts at full throttle it finally went on plane and the tach hit 5,000 rpm's. Headed back in, ate breakfast and then headed out for a day of perch fishing. This was very short lived though. Not more than 15 minutes after heading out across the harbor to go fishing it lost rpm's again. So I tried starting and re-starting and full throttling the engine several times just for the hec of it with no avail. All this got me was a messed up bendix on my starter. Man was it jacked up, the gears were all but gone. I had to use my trolling motor the rest of the way back to the resort and call it
a day.
Being very impatient and having one and a half days left on the trip I made
some calls for a new starter and ended up loading the boat up and driving to
Hackensack Minnesota an hour away to this salvage yard of outboards. Once there the starter was removed and the owner replaced just the bendix on the starter for just $25.00, not bad right? I mentioned the "reving up" problem to him and he tested the power packs for me as he stated that they don't work on outboards any more and only sell the parts but would still check it out for me. The test came out good but inconclusive. Spark was good. The owners exact words were "If I had to bet I'd still say its a power pack even though they tested fine. One of them must short out when it gets hot." So back to Leech we went and loaded it back
in the water. Now some where in this morning/afternoon trip my steering took a dump also. At this point I packed it in and called it quits.
Once back home I took it to my mechanic to have the steering looked at as well as the rpm issue. The steering cables and whatever it is that goes under the dash were all replaced. However the shop couldn't get the motor to not rev up. Granted they only had it in a tank but he did say they let run for 45 minutes and get hot but it purred just fine. Who knows?! Got home and took it to the Rock River to make sure it would run alright before my last bass tournament. Here's how that little test run went. Loaded in the river and headed up stream....took of just fine and drove it around 4,200 rpm's all the way up stream for a good 10-15 minutes. As I turned around and headed back down stream and punched it....boom, only could get to about 3,000 rpm's again. Lucky for me I had the current to help
get me back or it would have took forever.
So the boat is somewhat stored behind my garage waiting for spring to come around. What sucks is not knowing whats wrong with it and that no one I have talked to has any ideas, not my regular mechanic, not Anglers Edge or Jerrys Sport service in Beloit. My conclusion is that this issue it has now only occurs after the engine is hot and under load. I have considered ordering 2 used power packs from Minnesota and praying for the best but no one else seems to think that could cause it.
What your first thought? If I could afford a new engine I would but that
isn't going to happen. Any ideas?
I would do a running test on the entire ignition system using a peak reading volt meter. This would pin point which componet is breaking down. Trying to guess which part is bad is not the way to go. This can get exspensive, and not give the best results. When an engine is running like that. It is not a good idea to keep using it, just to get by. If this should prove to be a fuel delivery problem, running it can cause engine damage. The way to start trouble shooting is compression, ignition, fuel.
The think the idea here is to test what's wrong, not guess what's wrong. I was hoping my answer would be of some help, but I can quess with you all day.
I know in late September the compression was checked again and came out really good. As for fuel, why would it lose pressure only after getting hot? When the ice melts my mechanic is going change some seals and replace the water pump but I have a feeling it won't "rpm act up on him" and it never has unless out on the water being ran. I only thought of replacing the 2 power paks because I can get them used from the guy in minnesota for 25.00 each and thats cheap compared to giving it to a mechanic again. If its wrong then I am only out $50.00 and back to square one anyways.
ok I was reading some other threads and thought these 2 things should be mentioned. My tach, the old one and brand new one, sometimes don't work but sometimes does. And my vro was not put back in when I had my engine put on another boat a year ago. I apparently had the old model vro pump and was told get the new model or don't use it at all.
finally its fixed....so hard it was simple. 2 mechanics later and all it was was a coil shorting out and arching. Have put a couple hours on it now and haven't had a problem.
1985 Evinrude 90hp loses rpm's
Re: 1985 Evinrude 90hp loses rpm's
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