throttle down but no movement?

[strokeoluck]

We took the boat out on a small lake near our house today; the goal was to get a little more practice launching/retrieving (went well!), but we also cruised around the lake a few times. We mostly just motored around doing about 7-10 mph. The first time I wanted to speed up, we had an issue. As I put the throttle about 75% to 80% down, it almost felt like someone picked the lower unit out of the water and the prop was just spinning - there was very little grip, we were barely moving forward. I backed the throttle off and left it in neutral for about 15 seconds, and then tried again. Same result. I put it in neutral one more time and then tried it again. Third time was the charm, everything worked normal and we got up on plane quickly and easily did ~30 mph (not WOT, but fast enough for the wife, two kids and our dog).

Unfortunatley I didn't look at the RPM gauge so I don't know what the RPM's were when this thing was going on. We were in a part of the lake that was a little weedy, but I don't think we were in the "weediest" area (couldn't see weeds floating on the surface or close to the surface).

Everything else seemed normal during the ride. The only two minor things were: 1) the speedometer wasn't working (can't recall if that was working before), and 2) the oil pressure gauge was bouncing between 40, at slow speeds (the halfway point on the gauge) and 60 (3/4) when going fast. But neither one of these things would seem to affect the prop/engine.

Any thoughts???

 

[This_lil_fishy]

Re: throttle down but no movement?

Not uncommon for the weeds to wrap around the lower unit, when you opened up the throttle the prop cavitated (created a lot of bubbles) and the engine revved up..almost like it was in nuetral. A few hits cleared the weeds away and off you went.


This happens to me when I am trolling the shallows, the trick is to bring the drive up if you can and clean it off, or run in reverse for a second or two then back to forward. This usually does the trick.


Ian

 

[strokeoluck]

Re: throttle down but no movement?

Not uncommon for the weeds to wrap around the lower unit, when you opened up the throttle the prop cavitated (created a lot of bubbles) and the engine revved up..almost like it was in nuetral. A few hits cleared the weeds away and off you went.

God bless you!!! That's exactly what it looked and sounded like! I was hoping it was something simple. Thanks again.

 

[This_lil_fishy]

Re: throttle down but no movement?

No worries, first time it happened to me I almost cried thinking it was a dead lower unit...hehe...live and learn.

Ian

 

[burp]

Re: throttle down but no movement?

If you think you have weeds wrapped around the prop, just stop the boat and go into reverse for a second. When you go forward the prop should be weed free.