New to the forum and having problems

[bluerdg]

I'm new to the forum, so bear with me. I've had my boat for about 10 years and until this month I've never had a real problem with it. It's gotten regular maintenance and stays covered in the off months, so it's not been abused. I've got a Force 40 hp that came on my Tracker boat 10 years ago. It's labled as being made by Mercury. A week ago I took it out and made it half way across the lake when it just shut down. Sounded flooded and wouldn't start, It wasn't a great morning anyway so I just trolled my way back to the ramp, pulled it out of the water and pulled the cover. It looks like the insulation on the top of the cover sagged enough to melt the plastic cap on the bolt on the flywheel (looks melted and found the cap in the carb throat). I removed it, wiped out the throat and she fired so I shut her down and headed home. I did go out during the week and hooked up the hose to make sure all was good. After a little coaxing (and setting throttle about 1/2) I managed to get it to start up, but it kept bogging down (idled at 700ish) in neutral and would stall. I adjusted the top rod on the throttle and got it to settle at 1000 in idle, tested it a bit with prop both engaged and disengaged and it seemed fine (couldn't figure out why I needed to adjust anything since it was running fine until it apparently sucked in the plastic cap) but it all seemed well. Yesterday we took it out and although she stared up fine, and would easily redline with prop disengaged, when I engage the prop, I've got nothing. Full throttle barely gets to 3000 and she won't even plane out. We again made it a short day and trolled our way around back to the dock. I did notice that my amp gauge spiked up to about 16 when at full throttle and would hang there 10 seconds or so then suddlenly drop back to about 14. I know my way around engines and have tools to rebuild a Miata engine but I've never been in this one beyond changing plugs. Any ideas?

 

[pnwboat]

Re: New to the forum and having problems

Need to know what year motor. Serial number helps. I'm assuming it's a late 90's 40 HP motor.

Maybe something else got sucked into the carb.? Maybe the reeds have gotten something jammed in them preventing them from working properly? Easy to check if you take the carb and intake adapter off. Reeds should lay perfectly flat on the reed plate. No gaps between the reed and reed plate.

See the diag. below.

http://www.crowleymarine.com/mercury_parts/2532/12.cfm

 

[bluerdg]

Re: New to the forum and having problems

Need to know what year motor. Serial number helps. I'm assuming it's a late 90's 40 HP motor.

Maybe something else got sucked into the carb.? Maybe the reeds have gotten something jammed in them preventing them from working properly? Easy to check if you take the carb and intake adapter off. Reeds should lay perfectly flat on the reed plate. No gaps between the reed and reed plate.

See the diag. below.

http://www.crowleymarine.com/mercury_parts/2532/12.cfm

Thanks for the info, I know from my wallet card the boat was manufactured in 96 and is a 97 model yr. As for the details on the motor I'll have to check on it when I get to the house. I'll post this evening unless I find a squirrel or something jammed in there.

 

[bluerdg]

Re: New to the forum and having problems

Tag on motor says 1997 40 ELPT SN 0E246210 Tag also has 96 in small white square in bottom corner. Probably the same as my registration card - manufactured in 96 as 97 model yr. The diagram looks to be very similar with carb attached on the front end of the assembly shown. I'm getting ready to take a look. I'll let you know if I find anything. Thanks again. I just hate taking it in to the shop and waiting 2 weeks before they even look at it, if it's something I can take care of. I've just never had to open this one up, so I just need to know where to look for issues.

 

[bluerdg]

Re: New to the forum and having problems

Pulled carb and adapter assembly. Carb reed plates and reeds were squeeky clean, all the reeds were flat on the plates. Found small amount of fine sediment in carb bowl. Cleaned and flushed carb. Pulled fuel filter, small amount of sediment in filter but squeez on bulb shot fuel with no resistance. Reset throttle cam back to lining up with lever at center mark. Will fire but not start in neutral. Throttle at 1/2 will get it to start but at high rpm. Idles at 1000 at roughly 1/4 throttle, dies immediately in neutral. Good spray from top port but noticed that exhaust water from prop looked milky. Rear block is hot to touch (no temp guage and never checked before) but I have no idea if it's too hot. Too hot to keep my hand on it long 2-3 seconds max but no burns. Exhaust spray from top port seems to increase with throttle increase. All hoses flexible and in good shape, no apparent leakage at connections. All electrical connections are shrouded and tight. Small brass canister attached to block under carb (hose to carb bowl and electrical connections) drains bowl when button is depressed. What next?

 

[bluerdg]

Simple Fix

Simple Fix

On the off chance someone find's this in a search I'm posting my findings.
I appreciate the earlier direction and schematic on the reeds and reed plates (gave me the insight to pull carb and adapter plate) It wasn't the problem but now I've got a squeeky clean carb and adapter assembly. After managing to get my motor started after my initial shut down, I decided to pull the plugs again (to get a look at the valves), to find that both my plugs were coated in oil. When I did this after the first shut down, one had a little bit, the other was dry and they seemed clean enough. However I've surmised the following after installing a new set. The cap from the flywheel plug obviously restricted airflow without completely eliminating it (causing me to run very rich for a period of time) I suppose in retrospect there may have been a bit of audible irregularity to the run when it initially shut down, probably dismissed it to having set a bit or passing some junk through the system. Restricted airflow most likely combined with a build up of fuel mixture that eventually choked her out. The cap remaining in place in the throat of the carb and flooded cylinders explain why she sounded flooded when I tried a restart on the water. Plugs had been in there a while and combination of events must have been just the right mix to take it from running fine to fouled plugs. It all makes sense, as after 2 days sitting, all the fuel has had an opportunity to evaporate, carb is clear and plugs are new, and she fires up like a champ. She blew a thick cloud of smoke for about 30 seconds buring off all the residual oil that managed to build up, settled into idle right at 1k with solid and clear streams from the exhaust. I've been on here for 4 days and been to two shops looking for answers and it ended up being a simple fix for less than $10 in new plugs. Start with the easy stuff and work your way up.

 

[pnwboat]

Re: New to the forum and having problems

Glad you got it figured out!

 

[bluerdg]

Re: New to the forum and having problems

Appreciate the help, my issue got plenty of hits, but little in the way of suggestions. I've been elbow deep in vehicle motors, but other than normal maintenance I've never had to touch this one. They're similar enough to make me dangerous I suppose, I just didn't know enough about outboards to know if I was even starting in the right place. I see now that other than the environment, they aren't all that different.