150 Xr2 and what not to do!

[fd203]

Just thought I would pass on a few things I learned this past weekend on my outboard experiance, most of you probably already know all this but I did not until I was already at the lake and did not have the computer to ask this forum for any help. It all started the first day out on the water and the motor started first spin and idled perfect, hammer down and could not plane out at all, 1700 RPM was all she had, good old gentlman at the boat dock told me it was the high speed on the stator, so I made a running jump to a local marina where low and behold he had one and even assisted on putting it on for a rather fair price, back in the water she ran right up on plane but noticed my battery was discharging, not good so back into dock and same man camping chuckled a little and told me to check the rectifier, having no Idea what a rectifier was he showed and back to the marina. after a $25 dollar rectifier and $45.00 in gas back to the lake, and she was charging at 13 volts, but oh you guessed it I noticed she was blowing good water from the tell tale but also some water under the cowling, I again made my way to the dock afraid of messing up big time and no friendly man at the dock to assist me this time so back to the marina with a mechanic looking at me with dollar signs, he told me it was the poppet diaphram which he did not have but I could run it but watch out for overheating. I decided to cut my losses and go home. now I know most all you know all of this but maybe this might help just one person out there. MORAL of this story test close to home.