Am I expecting too much in wanting my motor to start with one turn of the key?

[dst87mcssac]

Hello,

I have a 98 Crest II 22' Pontoon with a 97 Model Force 75 HP Motor. The motor has one carb and not the three that the larger models have. I have owned the boat and motor now for five years and this forum has kept me running.

The boat motor has been reliable, but I am never sure if it will start or not when I am out on the Lake. My job requires that I travel and I really worry when my wife takes the boat out with my kids when I am gone. I worry as I travel that the boat will not start for her as she is on the middle of the lake. I feel like I can figure out how to make it start, but I worry that she will not be able and has had problem overcoming carb flooding in the past and has had to have friends tow her in.

I change my plugs and fuel Filter every year and I change my water impeller almost every year. I feel like I do a lot of Preventative Maintenance work on my motor and my friends have Evinrudes and Johnsons and they never do anything to their motors. The thing that makes me mad is that their boats all start on the first turn of the key.

When I start the boat, I have to quickly throw it into neutral and rev it up a little to keep it running. It is like it is cold natured. The motor also seems to be very easy to flood when you start it, but it does not happen very often. However, I am always concerned that it will not start.

Three years ago, I asked the dealer about having them clean the carb and he told me that if they messed with them the motor may never run again. I realize I probably need to find a new dealer, but I do 90% of the work myself every spring.

Is it too much to ask that this one carb motor start on the first choked turn of the key? Once it starts it runs very good and the only time I am worried is when I turn if off and go to restart. Do I need to find a good mechanic to give the carb tune up or would that be a waste of money? Can these problems be overcome with some fine tuning? The only thing I have not done is decarb my motor yet and I put about 50 hours on the boat per year. Would a decarb clear up these starting issues? All of my electronics seem to be working well, but I do seem to go thru a starter every two years due to the hard starting issues.

Any help would be appreciated.

Donald

 

[RRitt]

Re: Am I expecting too much in wanting my motor to start with one turn of the key?

when mine was hard to start it was becuase I had allowed gas to evaporate during the off-season and the 2-stroke oil left a residue that gummed up carb passageways.
Can of carb cleaner $2
pack of pipe cleaners $1
new gasket 0.50
starting on first spark ... priceless.

 

[dst87mcssac]

Re: Am I expecting too much in wanting my motor to start with one turn of the key?

Thanks.

That sounds like a great thing to try. Do I use an automotive carb cleaner or do they make a marine carb cleaner. Why do I need the gasket? Do I need to pull off the carb to clean it and then need to reistall it with a new gasket. Do I run the pipe cleaners thru the various passageways? Sorry for the dumb questions, but I want to make sure that I understand what you are saying.

Thanks,

Donald

 

[badly bent or broke]

Re: Am I expecting too much in wanting my motor to start with one turn of the key?

Are you saying that it starts but dies when you put it in gear? I have the same motor that I purchased last year. I found it frustrating that it wanted to die whenever I put it into gear. It would restart just fine but just seemed to be idling too slow. I first rebuilt the fuel pump after reading this forum and that helped a lot but it still seemed like it should be idling a little faster. I increased the idle speed just a little and it does much better now, especially while idling through no wake zones.

It usually starts pretty easy when cold and may die once or twice while warming up but starts reliably the rest of the day.

 

[dst87mcssac]

Re: Am I expecting too much in wanting my motor to start with one turn of the key?

Badly,

No it does not shut off, but I always feel that I need to keep the idle reved up just a little so it will not stall out. I think that I do that to keep the thing going so I do not have to try to recrank it again. Once I am cranked I am usually good to go.

I just read another post where the guy was being told to do a compression check to see where his motor's health was. I need to buy a tool to do that test.

Also, when it stalled on me this weekend I had pulled a lot of kids in a three person tube and I saw the following post:

BTW: water skiing is very hard on plugs because of the extended idling times while preparing inexperienced skiers. If you do a lot of skiing I would not be surprised if you need to clean plugs after every day.

I put new plugs in this spring, but maybe I need to clean them up after that tubing run that I did for several hours.

Thanks for all the help,

Donald

 

[badly bent or broke]

Re: Am I expecting too much in wanting my motor to start with one turn of the key?

What RPM is it idling at when in gear? Manual says it should be 750. I don't think it's too much to ask for it to start on first try. I have limited experience but I will go out on a limb here and say that I doubt that the sparks plugs are to blame. Some of the pros on this forum will probably chime in with additional help.

 

[dst87mcssac]

Re: Am I expecting too much in wanting my motor to start with one turn of the key?

Badly,

Unfortunately, my tach broke this season. It seems to work but the zero RPM starts at 30 RPM and it goes up as normal from there. It is 10 years old so I need to replace it. It is not going to help me diaginose the deal right now. I would pick one up locally but I have heard different stories about the need for a 20 pole for an outboard motor. I will pull it out to inspect it later this week.


Thanks,

Donald

 

[22E6441]

Re: Am I expecting too much in wanting my motor to start with one turn of the key?

I expect my 1969 Chrysler 35 hp to start on the first turn every time, so why shouldn't you? Can you just increase your idle slightly?

People are always amazed that my old motor starts as easy as it does....I'm lucky that the guy I bought it from maintained it well. Can't say as much about the boat itself, but the motor is great.

Carb kit was done last year on mine.

 

[dst87mcssac]

Re: Am I expecting too much in wanting my motor to start with one turn of the key?

22,

Thanks for the help. I will try to add a little idle to the motor and see if that helps from having to slam it into neutral and give it some gas to get it running and to overcome a cold start type condition.

Everything is pointing to cleaning out my carb!!!!!!!

Thanks

Donald

 

[RRitt]

Re: Am I expecting too much in wanting my motor to start with one turn of the key?

i set the idle on mine either of three ways.
They all ended up about the same. The first time I did it by the manual. Putting it in gear and setting it to 750 or so. But being a lazy sod I wrote down in my manual what rpm it was doing in neutral. The next season I just set it to 900 in neutral because that was number I had written down. The third year i just put the boat into gear and adjusted the idle until it was where i thought it should be (while in gear).

 

[dst87mcssac]

Re: Am I expecting too much in wanting my motor to start with one turn of the key?

RRitt.

I was reading my manual last night and saw that 7500 RPM setting. I like your method #3.

I am going to wait to the end of the season and then rebuild my carb. It does not look too difficult looking at the book and by doing a search on this site.

I guess I should of done it years ago. I asked the dealer to do it two years ago when I had it at their shop but he told me that it was best not to rebuild a carb on a running motor. He stated that it may never run again. From looking at this forum, it appears many people rebuild or clean them well every year. I will never go back to that mechanic, but I mostly (90%) do all of my own repairs.

Thanks,

Donald

Donald

 

[dst87mcssac]

Re: Am I expecting too much in wanting my motor to start with one turn of the key?

Hello,

I just want to thank everyone and give a quick update. Last weekend, I sprayed one can of CRC Marine Carb Cleaner on and in my Carb ( Motor only has one Carb) and the boat has now started 3 out of 4 times on the first turn of the key so I think that I am on to something here. I will do the following next:

#1) Decarb with Seaform within the next week.

#2) Rebuild my fuel pump diaphram this fall.

#3) Rebuild my carb this fall.

My wife is begging me not to rebuild the carb until the off boating season incase I do it wrong. Apparently she has little faith in my mechanic abiliities.
LOL !!!! I have a Force Manual to walk me turn both rebuilds.

Making Progress!!!!!!

Donald