I'll try to describe my symptoms as best that I can - I've got a 1970 Mercury Model 200 20 hp outboard. Thought that maybe our "surging" issues were carburetor related but have since cleaned the carb and it looked really good. So I guess we're onto the ignition now, I really don't know anything about boat motors at all and was hoping somebody could give me maybe a check this, then check that, list of stuff, etc. to try before I start buying parts/tearing things apart.
The motor starts ok, will operate at about 5-10 mph where it feels ok, but give it anymore throttle than that and it revs up nice, but not really delivering any power, although intermittently I feel random 1 sec. surges of power coming from the motor, like the power that I assume it should be delivering for our size of boat (14ft fiberglass).
Anybody got any suggestions?
Another issue is that the cowl says "thunderbolt", but I've read elsewhere that these motors didn't have electronic ignition until 1975, is it possible I've got the wrong cowl on there? The serial no. indicates a 1970 model.
If anyone has a manual or service guide for this motor that would be incredibly helpful as well (just the pertinent pages). Thanks for all your help, this is my first post so don't beat on me too bad.
The motor starts ok, will operate at about 5-10 mph where it feels ok, but give it anymore throttle than that and it revs up nice, but not really delivering any power, although intermittently I feel random 1 sec. surges of power coming from the motor, like the power that I assume it should be delivering for our size of boat (14ft fiberglass).
Anybody got any suggestions?
Another issue is that the cowl says "thunderbolt", but I've read elsewhere that these motors didn't have electronic ignition until 1975, is it possible I've got the wrong cowl on there? The serial no. indicates a 1970 model.
If anyone has a manual or service guide for this motor that would be incredibly helpful as well (just the pertinent pages). Thanks for all your help, this is my first post so don't beat on me too bad.