Dick Sorensen
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2008
- Messages
- 189
1985 merc 185 hp 229 cu in V-6. Couple of weeks ago (on the first run of the season) I noticed a rpm creep 'gain' on the tack...just acouple of hundred and it happened at 3500, 3000 and 2000. It would run up and then by itself drop back to it's starting position.
Scene shifts to last weekend. Running down the Ohio River from Cincinnati to Madison, IN the engine begins to 'lose' rpms. At first just alittle but as the run continued quite a bit...say 3000 rpm's would drop to 1800. I would then lower the throttle setting way down and then slowly increase the rpm's and the boat would perform normally.
Get to Madison, have a local mechanic look at it and he runs a fuel pump pressure test and reports only 4 lbs. of pressure. Replace the fuel pump and the boat runs fine during the 15 minute test ride. He wanted to rebuild the carb but I decided not to.
Next morning turn north towards Cincy and the boat runs like a raped ape for about an hour and then starts duplicating the same performance....losing rpms....drop the throttle...take it back up and it runs great for a while....Get to Markland Lock (that's the lock that the gate fell off of 2 years ago...)...upon entering the Lock the engine goes from a normal idle sound to a high speed whine....No forward or reverse! And I'm 10 feet from the lock doors...get squared away....get towed out of the lock....pull the cover and check all the linkage...it's working fine....start the engine up and it runs fine....just no forward or reverse..
My local factory trained merc mechanic takes a quick look and determines the problem is the coupler.
Would you please share your opinions. Seems to me I've got two problems....(1) something is causing the engine to lose rpms and (2) I am not transferring power from the engine to the outdrive....
Any advice?
Scene shifts to last weekend. Running down the Ohio River from Cincinnati to Madison, IN the engine begins to 'lose' rpms. At first just alittle but as the run continued quite a bit...say 3000 rpm's would drop to 1800. I would then lower the throttle setting way down and then slowly increase the rpm's and the boat would perform normally.
Get to Madison, have a local mechanic look at it and he runs a fuel pump pressure test and reports only 4 lbs. of pressure. Replace the fuel pump and the boat runs fine during the 15 minute test ride. He wanted to rebuild the carb but I decided not to.
Next morning turn north towards Cincy and the boat runs like a raped ape for about an hour and then starts duplicating the same performance....losing rpms....drop the throttle...take it back up and it runs great for a while....Get to Markland Lock (that's the lock that the gate fell off of 2 years ago...)...upon entering the Lock the engine goes from a normal idle sound to a high speed whine....No forward or reverse! And I'm 10 feet from the lock doors...get squared away....get towed out of the lock....pull the cover and check all the linkage...it's working fine....start the engine up and it runs fine....just no forward or reverse..
My local factory trained merc mechanic takes a quick look and determines the problem is the coupler.
Would you please share your opinions. Seems to me I've got two problems....(1) something is causing the engine to lose rpms and (2) I am not transferring power from the engine to the outdrive....
Any advice?
