Well, I've still been tinkering with the boat since it's still just really bogged down. I've cleaned the carbs twice now very very thoroughly and made sure the float needle is not sticking.
I discovered the problem to be with the bottom (3rd) cyclinder. The spark plug was not very carboned and was wet. So I swapped the spark plugs and tested the spark and that is not the issue. I also checked suction on the bottom carb and it's got suction so the reed valves seem to be fine and look good from visual inspection.
I suspect the float on the bottom carb might be set too high and it's flooding the bottom cylinder with fuel, so much so that it doesn't spark- or at least it doesn't spark well. I've made the adjustment and just waiting to test it on the lake.
Other than that, I installed the glovebox. I also finished up buying a few things to make me fully legal in Michigan (Type IV PFD and flares).
Got my oldest to help me scrub off all the mildew from the inside of the boat to make it more appealing for my wife to be in there.
Took the wife on a date night along the river. The plan was to boat 12 miles into town, moore along the seawall and walk to get some dinner. Then boat 12 miles back. However, with the motor issue, it didn't really go that fast and was going through fuel pretty quickly so we decided to turn back around mile 10- plus it was later than we anticipated. She really enjoyed riding in the boat though, so I think it's something we'll do more often in the future.
Looking forward to figuring out this motor deal so we can just enjoy rides with a little more confidence and less fuel consumption.
