2011 4.3 not starting.

[Twainer]

Before we took off for our first camping/boating trip of the season, I installed the battery back into the boat & started it up. Second crank it fired up. Get to the boat dock it fires up again. It runs a little rough idling through the no wake zone ( this has been common for this boat until it warms up). Get out of the wake zone & run it up to 3k rpm & it runs great! Get to another no wake zone & it is still running rough at idle & finally dies. Try to start it back up & it cranks but does not fire off. Checked down the carb & it appears to have plenty of gas in it so I am now thinking spark. After we get towed back to the ramp & get home, I check inside the distributor & it has water in it & is corroded. As bad as it looked, I am not sure how I got it up to 3k rpm & running great. I have a cap & rotor ordered, but does anybody think this is not all that I have going on?

 

[Bondo]

Before we took off for our first camping/boating trip of the season, I installed the battery back into the boat & started it up. Second crank it fired up. Get to the boat dock it fires up again. It runs a little rough idling through the no wake zone ( this has been common for this boat until it warms up). Get out of the wake zone & run it up to 3k rpm & it runs great! Get to another no wake zone & it is still running rough at idle & finally dies. Try to start it back up & it cranks but does not fire off. Checked down the carb & it appears to have plenty of gas in it so I am now thinking spark. After we get towed back to the ramp & get home, I check inside the distributor & it has water in it & is corroded. As bad as it looked, I am not sure how I got it up to 3k rpm & running great. I have a cap & rotor ordered, but does anybody think this is not all that I have going on?

Ayuh,..... Is that all that you did,..??
No regular servicing,..??

 

[Twainer]

I didn't have everything together to be able to service it before our first use. But yes I service it once a year. Oil, filter, fuel filter, & change out gear oil in out drive. Anything I am missing? I realize I probably don't need to change out the gear oil annually but I don't know for sure if he had that done & I wanted change it a couple of times back to back to get any & all old oil out of it. We bought the boat 3 years ago this coming July. The prior season before we bought it the previous owner had a tune up done on it. From the old parts that he left me, he had someone change out plug wires, plugs, cap & rotor.

 

[Scott Danforth]

annual maintenance on the drive is to pull the drive, inspect the gimbal bearing, u-joints, bellows and water pump impeller as well as change gear oil

engine maintenance is fuel filter changes, oil changes, etc.

if the distributor had moisture in it, how does the ignition trigger and other components in the distributor look?

have you followed the Thunderbolt Ignition troubleshooting tree listed in the stickies at the top of the forum pages?

 

[alldodge]

Having a carb it should be a TKS.
Agree TBV troubleshooting

 

[Twainer]

annual maintenance on the drive is to pull the drive, inspect the gimbal bearing, u-joints, bellows and water pump impeller as well as change gear oil

engine maintenance is fuel filter changes, oil changes, etc.

if the distributor had moisture in it, how does the ignition trigger and other components in the distributor look?

have you followed the Thunderbolt Ignition troubleshooting tree listed in the stickies at the top of the forum pages?

Yikes! How hard is it to pull the drive off?

 

[alldodge]

It's a tad heavy but other then that should take about 15 to 20 minutes to remove

If its an alpha drive the impeller is in the drive, Bravo is on starboard side of motor. Alpha drive must put shifter in full forward before removing, Bravo in neutral

 

[Twainer]

It's a tad heavy but other then that should take about 15 to 20 minutes to remove

If its an alpha drive the impeller is in the drive, Bravo is on starboard side of motor. Alpha drive must put shifter in full forward before removing, Bravo in neutral

I think I will put that on my list of things to do over the winter. Right now I am just slammed with a full time job, part time job, & about every other weekend booked with camping. The guy before me had the boat serviced & winterized every season so hopefully this was part of his shops service.

 

[Twainer]

Well after installing a new cap & rotor the engine fired right off. While I was working on it I got the oil & filter changed as well as the fuel filter. Blew out the flame arrestor. Will have to get to the out drive another day. There is what appears to be a vacuum port on the distributor cap. What would that be for?

 

[Scott06]

There is what appears to be a vacuum port on the distributor cap. What would that be for?

nothing gets hooked up to it. Its just a vent with a spark arrestor to make the ignition system safe in a marine environment

 

[Bondo]

nothing gets hooked up to it. Its just a vent with a spark arrestor to make the ignition system safe in a marine environment

Ayuh,.... The distributor cap has to be vented, 'n sparks can't jumper around corners,....
hence the brass elbow,....

 

[SternDriveEd]

Just to chime in a bit here. Please do all the maintenance items during the off season. That way you won’t be breaking down during the boating season. Nobody likes an interruption when traveling on their boat.

 

[Twainer]

Ayuh,.... The distributor cap has to be vented, 'n sparks can't jumper around corners,....
hence the brass elbow,....

Got it... thanks all.

 

[achris]

Yikes! How hard is it to pull the drive off?

About this hard...

 

[achris]

I didn't have everything together to be able to service it before our first use. ....

... we get towed back to the ramp ...

'Nough said....