New Boat Owner - 1989 Bayliner Force 125

[lazypengu1n]

I wanted to thank ALL of you for all your input and for iboats.com for being here. Without this forum I would have never been able to figure out what was wrong with my chance investment.

I found this boat on CL for dirt cheap, $400. Good trailer, and the owner stated they had it on the lake 3 weeks before and it was working.

Picked it up and took it home, engine did not crank correctly. Later I would discover the starter was shot, but anyways after reading and reading I learned how this motor worked form the ground up. It lead me to figure out that the magnetic ring under the flywheel had come apart which was the reason why I was getting no spark. After fighting with the flywheel for days and posting a question here, I got the enough courage to use a pry bar and it just "popped" off. My friend that I had asked to help me with this HUGE task asked, "That's it!?" I was shocked!

Moving forward, I then discovered that the speed the flywheel was spinning was not sufficient for the motor to start, so was able to find a new starter. Problem solved, but engine still did not run. = (

As I was checking it, I discovered that the when I would try to start the motor the prop was spinning with it... hummm... what's this neutral thing??? Pulled on the lever, choke on, gave it some gas and BAM! The beast started.

Now my next problem, with the engine OFF, in neutral when I manually turn the flywheel, the prop spins in reverse, horrible metal grinding sound too. When in neutral, the prop still spins in reverse when turning the flywheel. When in forward, NOTHING...

This is probably the last leg of my adventure before I can hit the water and see if she floats. Any input on this issue would be great. I did look at the linkage cable and its good. I believe the problem is with the lower half. could it be a linkage problem there or is it totally shot? I am leaning towards a blown lower half? Any recommendations would greatly be appreciated!

1989 Bayliner Force 125 - Engine says US Marine on it, the engine mount has US Marine sticker with faded info of course and the Ignition system is Prestolite.

Best,
John

 

[lazypengu1n]

Re: New Boat Owner - 1989 Bayliner Force 125

I was stubborn and ended up taking off the lower unit. Looks like it is shifting correctly form Forward / Neutral / Reverse and the grinding sound I heard was the impeller that was shredded bouncing around. Going to find a new one and hopefully get everything back and figure out my shifting issue this weekend!

 

[reddogg]

Re: New Boat Owner - 1989 Bayliner Force 125

Pull the gear lube drain plugs, they have a magnetic end that picks up metal shavings. If it's making gringing noises and there is allot of metal on the plugs it could indicate worn/striped/damaged gears. When you pull the plugs notice if the gear oil is contaminated with water, this would indicate leaky seals or a leaky o-ring. Also notice if the correct ammount of oil drains from the gearcase, if it had a leak and was run dry or to low this could have caused the gears to get munched. Look to where the throttle and shifting cables enter the engine, there should be a thumbwheel on the cable you can use to adjust the shifting.

Red