93 60hp Mercury Tracker losing power under load ?

[rayjay6361]

1993 60hp Mercury Tracker pro series, Serial # 0G107135 Mounted on a 93 18' Bass Buggy pontoon

Long time boater first time poster here so let me start by saying hello to everyone I'm rayjay6361 from Western North Carolina & I have a problem, Yesterday I had the family on the lake, We had been cruising along at full throttle for about 15 minutes when the warning buzzer went off . The buzzer had only sounded one other time about 8 years ago when my impeller needed replaced , I immediately shut the engine down and let it cool for about 30 minutes, It restarted fine and I slowly throttled up to half speed and everything seemed fine, I went to push the throttle up more and suddenly lost power, it did not stall, I backed the throttle off and it picked up power again but every time I tried to speed up the power would go away, We called it a day and slowly motored back to the ramp, Once I trailered the boat but still in the water, I shifted into neutral and rev'd the engine slowly up to full throttle ( a ritual for running the fuel out of the engine ) and everything sounded and ran great , I think it may be time for another impeller ? But what could I have damaged to cause the loss of high end power under load ? Anybody ?? Help : (

 

[scrapper042000]

1)merc waterpumps small and well maybe pumping but not enough flow for heavy load /high speed ....2)pull out your spark plugs 3)disconnect lanyard chord (red) from remote so that you have no spark ........crank engine over and watch to see what comes out of cylinders ? brownish goop? .........I could be wrong but I have 1995 and 96 models with water intruding to into the cylinder due to a sleeve in the cylinder moving .........still nothing ? 4)compression test ,if your motor is overheating your piston can expand and well drag /score and bog your motor down and yes lower compression is the result ....not to scare you but just some things to check before you spend a lot of money .........anybody can help you spend your money with the try this try that .....look at your plugs when you pull them check for moisture etc .....plugs sometimes give us an indication of whats going on in the cylinder .....

 

[scrapper042000]

don't forget pull the red chord off before cranking or your motor could start a fire ......spark from the wire /fuel and air from the cylinder .....

 

[rayjay6361]

I'll do that and report the results, I just so happened to have pulled the plugs and cleaned them the day before we went out and everything was normal so we shall see, Thanks : )

 

[rayjay6361]

Pulled the plugs and readied for the " goop aka water in cyl " test , went to turn the motor over and nothing, checked the battery and connections, Good ! checked to make sure shifter was in neutral , Good ! On a whim I push the tranny disengage button and push the idle up and turn the key and it turns over ( I only do this when I'm having trouble getting it to crank ) so I keep it turning for 10 seconds, Cylinders are clean as a whistle no water no goop, Do the compression test using the same method x3 per cylinder 112 ave for all 3 cylinders 110 - 114. I'm beginning to think I may have a bad shifter ????? Your thoughts ?

The shifter is a Quick Silver 3000 and my wife just reminded me that when we bought the boat from the original owner there was a recall on the shifter unit but he had had no trouble out of it ( and neither have we ) and never got it changed out , However I do still have the recall paperwork : )