1989 15hp Gamefisher/Force

[freeisforme]

I picked up the above motor from an elderly neighbor last week, he's in his late 90's and him and his daughter were cleaning out the garage.
He said he bought it for a vacation 20 years ago, used it for a few hours and put it away. The boat was a small inflatable, not worth bothering with but the motor looks like new, and the price was right.
The problem I'm having is that there's no spark, and a compression check shows only 100 PSI on both cylinders. (I currently am using a 1973 9.8hp Sea King that gives me 143 psi on both cylinders).

I unplugged the ignition kill switch and lanyard switch, no change, and I see no other safety switches. The motor model is 225.581501.
This thing is so clean it could pass for never used, not even a scratch on the prop. The old guy swears that it ran fine when last used, and has no reason to lie about it as he gave it to me for free. I shot some oil in the cylinders and retested the compression and got almost no change, a borescope look inside shows clean, crosshatched bored cylinders and no carbon. (Compression gauge is new and accurate).

Without tearing it apart yet, I can see two blue coils for each cylinder under the flywheel.

What did these use for an ignition?
What are the chances both coils just went bad sitting in the guy's garage for 20 years?
Does the compression sound low for one of these?

 

[jerryjerry05]

Re: 1989 15hp Gamefisher/Force

I can't find the parts diagram.Post some pics.That motor came with a points and electronic ign.
None of them came with 2 coils per cylinder.
The comp should be higher if that tester is right.Remove the flywheel and clean the points.Make sure you have fire before you do any de-construction.
Setting for 20 is a long time for corrosion to work.J

 

[freeisforme]

Re: 1989 15hp Gamefisher/Force

No points, just two coils that I can see. There's a lanyard switch and a kill switch both wired to to a pair of wires in series.
The cylinders are clean with no wear or scratches from what I can see through the borescope camera from work. If I hadn't been told it was run, I'd have guessed it to be new, it's that clean. No signs of overheating, no signs of use anywhere. I checked the compression twice with two gauges, both fairly new, one from Matco Tools, the other a Snap On Motorcycle setup. The Snap On gauge gives me about 105 per cylinder if I pull really hard, giving it 5 pulls per cylinder. It seems to get better the more I spin it over.
Do these have an ignition module or just strait up magneto like a lawn mower?
What sort of pressures should I be reading on one of these?
I'm not as worried about the compression as I am the lack of spark, I think it'll run fine once I fix the no spark problem.
Either way, it's clean enough and I have nothing invested in it so I don't mind spending a little to make it run if this can be a viable motor.
I see several ignition conversion kits listed online, it looks like it converts these to a single dual wire coil and twin CDI modules?
Were these things a problem when it came to the original coils or ignition?
It looks like these only used this system from 1989 to 1992, can I take the points ignition from an earlier Force or Chrysler motor? (I've got an older 9.8 Chrysler parts motor that looks to be the same basic power head).

 

[freeisforme]

Re: 1989 15hp Gamefisher/Force

Well, I went looking for a parts motor, and found a 1989 Force 15 nearly identical to the Gamefisher 15. The thing pulled a 14' fiberglass skiff with two onboard at a good clip, (I'd guess about 18 mph or so with two big guys onboard). For $175 it ran well enough to convince me to buy it. It has good spark, and it's had a more modern ignition kit installed, made by CDI. The motor also has a new impeller and thermostat, (he was installing it when I got there).
It water tested great, starts easy, and when I checked the compression found it's got only 105 per cylinder. When I asked the seller if he thought it was low, he said all of them have about that reading. He proceeded to show me 8 others, all 9.9 and 15hp Force/Gamefisher motors, which all tested between 90 and 110 on both cylinders. One pair he had rigged on his own boat as twin 15hp motors badged as twin 9.9s for use in a local lake.

The problem is now that the 'parts' motor I bought runs fine and I can't see tearing it down for parts. I still want to get the much cleaner looking Sears motor running. So I guess I'm looking at dumping the $200 into it to buy the new ignition kit plus a fresh impeller and t stat to be safe.

The second motor I just bought has a plastic or some sort of composite three blade prop, were they permanent props or just a carry on spare type of deal? My original Sears motor has an aluminum twin blade prop, 8"x9 1/4P is what it's marked. It was too late when I got home to hang the Force motor on my boat and head down to the river with it, but it's my guess that that motor will fly on my little aluminum boat with just me in it. My 12' flat bottom V hull Duranautic has to be only a fraction of what the 14' Carolina Skiff that this motor was on weighed. I'm thinking I'll probably see well over 20 mph, maybe more? I get 19 on my GPS with the 9.6hp Sea King, so this has to be better yet.

Since it looks like I'm buying an ignition kit for the Gamefisher. Does anyone know of a good source for the parts? Or any other options?

 

[austins35]

Re: 1989 15hp Gamefisher/Force

Thank you I just got a 1988 15hp Gamefisher.
This one is giving my some headaches.

She fires over, an runs about 3-5 seconds then nothing. I took the carb off, she was a little dirty nothing too bad. just some cork from the old gasket.

I'm thinking it's something to do with the fuel not getting pulled into the carb efficiently enough. it's kinda like the engine fires and runs just long enough for the gas in the carb to burn then she dies.
my model # is 225.581500
I'm gonna try an get her running correctly.

do the coils die off an on in these motors. I'm getting spark at both cylinders. but I wondering if the coil isn't going south.

great reading here thank you

 

[Skiwi]

Re: 1989 15hp Gamefisher/Force

Thank you I just got a 1988 15hp Gamefisher.
This one is giving my some headaches.

She fires over, an runs about 3-5 seconds then nothing. I took the carb off, she was a little dirty nothing too bad. just some cork from the old gasket.

I'm thinking it's something to do with the fuel not getting pulled into the carb efficiently enough. it's kinda like the engine fires and runs just long enough for the gas in the carb to burn then she dies.
my model # is 225.581500
I'm gonna try an get her running correctly.

do the coils die off an on in these motors. I'm getting spark at both cylinders. but I wondering if the coil isn't going south.

great reading here thank you

Hi Austin, Welcome

You will get more accurate replies and help if you start your own thread rather than tagging onto someone else's.

 

[Scout27]

Re: 1989 15hp Gamefisher/Force

Guys - just bought a 15 Gamefisher mdl#225581491. No spack and I assume the coil or coils are bad from siting. Where can I get replacements? Can these be updated with later equioment?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Fishadict]

Re: 1989 15hp Gamefisher/Force



Hi Austin, Welcome

You will get more accurate replies and help if you start your own thread rather than tagging onto someone else's.

Check if fuel is going threw the line conection i had the same problem it was the conectors

 

[jerryjerry05]

Check if fuel is going threw the line conection i had the same problem it was the conectors

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