Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

[bruceb58]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

Do yourself a big favor when you get your other stuff figured out. Take off all your cables and clean them. You have some major corrosion.

Do the tune up stuff I recommended in the other post.

 

[projo198]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

Will do. Thanks for helping, I really appreciate it. Ya I had planned on going over the whole motor on my downtime replacing bad connectors and cleaning it up. Electrical issues are the worst.

Thanks!

 

[projo198]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

Ok quick update and some questions;

Today I pulled the whole fuel system. Aside from the lines being horribly corroded I found out that half of the tube going into my gas tank was clogged with leaves.

I cleaned these out and am hoping it is what was causing my engine to stall. Would that be enough?

I pulled the fuel pump (had no idea it was totally mechanical) and it looked pretty clean inside. I am going to pressure test it when it's all back together. I also pulled the carb and plan on taking it apart for a good cleaning.

Two questions; this appears to be the only thing I have for a fuel filter.

I'm pretty sure that having a plastic fuel filter on a boat is bad, right? I plan on replacing it with a generic steel one. Is this ok?

Second, I have read that there is supposed to be an anti-siphon device at the tank. I have no such thing. It goes from hard elbow in the tank-fuel line-fuel filter-fuel line-fuel pump. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

You don't want that fuel filter. Buy a marine water seperating filter which will be in the line between the tank and the fuel pump.

You need an anti siphon valve as well.

 

[projo198]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

You don't want that fuel filter. Buy a marine water seperating filter which will be in the line between the tank and the fuel pump.

You need an anti siphon valve as well.

Gotcha, I will start looking today. I still can't figure out how leaves got into the gas tank, unless the cap was left open for a long time or kids shoved leaves in it or something. Before I opened it there were no leaks.

 

[projo198]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

http://www.wholesalemarine.com/p/MOE-033802-10/Moeller+Marine+Aluminum+Anti-Siphon+Barb.html

Is this all I need? I thought it would be more complex than this.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

You may opt for a right angle one depending on your tank.

 

[projo198]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

I think this one will do, my pick up tube already has a 90 degree fitting so this should screw right in.

 

[projo198]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

Ok, short update today though I worked all damn night on it.

First I drained the tank which took forever alternating between 2 one gallon gas cans. That was fun.

In order to re-drill the stripped pick-up tube hole I has to pull the water pump, it was in the way.

Getting the tap straight took forever, but I finally ended up with a straight solid set of threads.

Lastly I cleaned the tank. I used a shop vac through the fuel gage sending unit hole while simultaneously spraying water in the hole I just tapped. I pretty much did this over and over with the front of the boat elevated until no more crap floated back, and there was a lot.

I did a good job of sucking the water up, but I want to make sure it is fully dry before I close it up. Will leaving everything open all day tomorrow in the heat do the trick? I has been getting over 110 lately.

That's it for tonight, I'll post pics o it all together tomorrow.

 

[projo198]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

Sorry no pics, it has been dark by the time I finished working on this damn thing. Just a quick update.

The water pump, fuel pump and carb is back on. I took apart the carb, cleaned the soft pieces and soaked/cleaned the hard parts. I didn't notice anything broken or missing so I didnt' do a rebuild.

The fuel system is totally back together. Today after work I am going to fire it up, adjust the carb, set the idle, hopefully check the timing and compression and then it's back to the water to see if any of this helps.

Thanks for all the help and advise!

 

[howlnmad]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

Interesting that it has a Rochester carb on the 2.3L.

Not an expert but the choke mechanism looks ok.

the top half is apparently marine. i was a bit surprised when i saw a rochester carb on mine as well.

 

[projo198]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

the top half is apparently marine. i was a bit surprised when i saw a rochester carb on mine as well.

What kind of motor do you have? Do you think you could take some pics of the carb itself, more specifically your linkage on both sides?

Trying to see if mine is all routed correctly.

 

[projo198]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

Ok, actually got somewhere yesterday.

I checked the fuel pressure and it was just over 5 psi, which I assume is good because it is supposed to be 3-4, right?

The timing was correct at 10 degrees, and the camshaft was in-line too.

I didn't have feeler gauges to check the point gap, I am doing that today. The digital read-out my friend had showed a dwell way off what it should be, but this was from cranking as we were unable to get the motor to fire up until afterward. Can someone talk me through setting the dwell correctly?

As far as the motor, we did finally get it to fire up. Earlier this week I had taken apart the carb and cleaned everything. We noticed while adjusting it last night that turning the idle screws ALL THE WAY IN was not causing the motor to stumble and die as should be. So I will be rebuilding the carb after work today.

Relaly hoping this thing is getting closer to water-ready, I plan on taking it back out Wednesday.

Thanks!

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

Set the dwell with a meter. Dwell is the amount of degrees that the points are closed so if the reading is low, you need to move the points so they stay closed longer. Once you readjust the dwell, you need to reaqdjust the timing agin as dwell affects timing and it is always done first.

This is what I used to do:
1) Measure the dwell with the engine running
2) Then measure dwell while engine off and just cranking. Note the difference so that you can adjust the dwell so that it will fall into the right range when the engine is running again. for example, if you measured 40 with engine running and 35 while cranking, you need to set the dwell to 31 while cranking to get the reguired 36 that you need.
3) Verify correct dwell was set while engine running.

 

[projo198]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

Gotcha, and I need to make the actual DWELL adjustments by loosening and rotating the plate that everything is mounted to inside the distributor body, correct?

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

No...you move only one half of the points assembly. The part that has the rubbing block on it.

 

[projo198]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

Ok cool. I am leaving work early today and I will do this.

I was playing around with the idea of trying an automotive rebuild kit for the carb, because the auto one is 20 and the marine one is 45.

What do you think?

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

I can't comment on that. Not familiar with the differences.

 

[projo198]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

I can't comment on that. Not familiar with the differences.

I am thinking at this point $20 is worth the peace of mind.

 

[projo198]

Re: Help please! Ford 2.3 and OMC Cobra outdrive stalls when shifted into gear.

Ok, really frustrated here.

I spent 50 bucks to get the"marine" carb kit, and a lot of it didn't even fit! I had to re-use an inner gasket, the main gasket, the needle valve and housing in the bowl, and it didn't even come with new adjustment screws, which I think is the problem!

Worst 50 bucks I ever spent. I did what I could, am installing this afternoon and will update then.