1994 Sea Rayder overheating and shutting off breaking the flywheel pin

[CapeCoralFL]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 1994 Sea Rayder with a 90HP Mercury engine. I live in Cape Coral, Florida and we have a lot of shallow waters where there is good fishing. Recently a lot of weed got stuck in the intake, the engine heated up, the alarm sounded and the engine stopped. I got it towed, removed all the debris and the engine started fine. However, after a few minutes when I revved up the engine, the engine shut off by itself and would not start again. When I tried to start, the flywheel pin on the engine shaft broke (meaing the engine would not turn when the starter tried to turn the flywheel breaking the pin and the flywheel turned freely). I opened the flywheel, put a new pin, tightened the nut and the engine started fine again. But, once again, after running for a little while the same thing happened again (Engine shut off and the flywheen pin broke allowing the flywheel to turn freely). I tried this one more time hoping the nut was not tight enough and putting a new pin, the engine started with the same result. Someone told me that the Thermostat might have gone bad and needs to be replaced. I would like all of your expert opinions if you think that may be the problem or the heat sensor might have gone bad. The question is, if the heat sensor went bad, should the engine start at all.

Also, I am finding it extremely hard to open the four flat head screws at the back of the engine to get to the Thermostat. It is so tight and there is very little room to turn a screwdriver. I tried using a rachet and a socket with a flat head blade. I could not turn one bit. Very frustrating.

Your thoughts and expert advise will be appreciated.

 

[carholme]

Re: 1994 Sea Rayder overheating and shutting off breaking the flywheel pin

There has been a couple of the same threads on here lately about flywheel keys breaking. Are you replacing them with hardware store keys as these are usually undersize to the OEM keys.

You also say that you are trying to remove the four flathead screws at the back of the engine. The parts manual shows that these are hexagon bolt heads, five of them and the thermostat housing is on the front of the engine just under the lifting eye.

Do you have the s/n for your engine?

Gerry

 

[CapeCoralFL]

Re: 1994 Sea Rayder overheating and shutting off breaking the flywheel pin

Thank you Gerry for responding. My engine S/N is 0E054134. Once again, it is a 90 HP 1994 Force/Mercury engine. I did replace it with a key from Advance Auto store, which looked and shaped exactly the same as the original. However, someone told me that the key is not the problem, since it is only meant to make sure the flywheel is correctly alligned with the shaft. To me as novice, the real problem appears to be for some reason the engine is shutting down after being on for a minute or so, which then breaks the key since the engine shaft is not turning while the flywheel is made to turn with the starter . Either the engine is heating up and automatically shutting down not letting the shaft to turn, thermostat might have burnt out, heat sensor acting up or something could have gone wrong when the engine first time got very hot after the weeds and debris blocking the water intake, with the alarm going off and engine shutting down. That was the beginning of this problem.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. Let me know what you think that could possibly have gone bad.

 

[carholme]

Re: 1994 Sea Rayder overheating and shutting off breaking the flywheel pin

OK,disregard my previous post as this is a Force engine and the mods will probably be along to move it to the appropriate forum.

Gerry

 

[Don S]

Re: 1994 Sea Rayder overheating and shutting off breaking the flywheel pin

0E054134 is a Mercury SportJet 90, not a Force outboard.

Go to this link https://webapps.brunswick.com/literature/literatureSearch.do and type in your serial number.

 

[cyclops2]

Re: 1994 Sea Rayder overheating and shutting off breaking the flywheel pin

Snapping a flywheell key is caused by a few things. Soft/ wrong/ substitue key............Flywheel nut NOT tightned to the full torque............Backfiring of the engine. Usually caused by a ignition timing part failure. Advance timing jumping ahead to soon or stuck at full advance.

Yours almost sounds like a overheated part is now jaming the engine once the engine warms up......Seizing of a part when heated.

GOOD mechanic time..........Get lucky.