Horrible night

[troutbum1982]

Was supposed to be a big night, first time actually going out to go fishing in the boat and I ended up donating a trim tab to the lake somewhere unknown (dont want to talk about it), along with that I am having some pretty serious problems with my inboard. Had it at full throttle when it decided to bog down and die. It will stilll start, but as far as giving it any gas you can forget it. The only thing that I can spot is that the flap above the barrells on the carb is locked open. Any ideas as to what may be causing it to act up like this??

 

[dubs283]

Re: Horrible night

the "flap" above the carb barrels is most likely the choke plate and should be fully open when the engine is warm

as far as the runnabilty issue it could be:

tune-up/ignition issues

bad fuel/water in fuel/fuel tank pick-up tube clogged, etc...

along with any number of problems

you need to do some initial troubleshooting and post what you find, then we can get a better idea as to what is going on

the adults only sticky has some great troubleshooting guides

 

[windsors03cobra]

Re: Horrible night

Sounds like fuel starvation, the choke should be open when warm.

 

[coastalcruiser]

Re: Horrible night

I am having some pretty serious problems with my inboard

Inboard what? Is it a 1982 troutbum?
There are rules for posting here, you need to read them.

 

[grahamh]

Re: Horrible night

Sounds like fuel to me too.

 

[troutbum1982]

Re: Horrible night

Thanks those for the help, and as far as the inboard comment....... it is a merccruiser and that is as much as I have figured out. Its in a 1984 thompson and its the first inboard I have ever had so I am in the dark on it. It was meant as a general question.

 

[coastalcruiser]

Re: Horrible night

The guys's here can tell you anything you need to know. All we ask is some basic information. You can post photos, tell us what you do know, look for s/n etc. there is a sticky on the this forum explaining the rules regarding questions.
We can help you identify your drive system too.

If your boat engine has a spin off water separating fuel filter, suggest you change it every year and keep a spare in the boat.
Change that unless you already have.

Another thing you can check is look inside the distributor cap for condensation
That will keep you from going fast, but the engine will run. Just dry it if its wet.
This link might help you find out what drive you have http://www.mercstuff.com/drive_id.htm

 

[troutbum1982]

Re: Horrible night

thank you.... I will change the seperator and check that other stuff out today

 

[jtybt]

Re: Horrible night

What carb? if 4 barrel...primary or secondary plates?

They don't issue crystal balls here.

 

[scipper77]

Re: Horrible night

What carb? if 4 barrel...primary or secondary plates?

They don't issue crystal balls here.

I think Don_s has one, maybe he will chime in.

 

[troutbum1982]

Re: Horrible night

Way to encourage a new member!!!

 

[gadget73]

Re: Horrible night

When you take that spin-on filter off, dump it into something so you can see what sort of junk was in the filter. If its got a bunch of water or other junk inside, its a fair bet that was your problem. When I was doing this for a living, most of the time the first thing I did to diagnose engine running problems was replace the filter and dump the old one into a jar. If there was any garbage in there at all, I'd run the boat with the new filter and more often than not it fixed the problem.