Muc, thanks for all info. To be honest I was starting to lean towards just taking it to the marina but after reading what you wrote I'm going to try swapping the oil. It's been a couple weeks and I cannot recall if I had full power in reverse but I think I did.
Another detail that came to mind is that at one point after it started to act up it felt like something caught and I had full power again for a second. Then it just went back to only being able to do 20 mph.
Yeah I try not to dig too deep of a hole for myself when it comes to working on mechanical things. In an earlier life I did a lot more mechanical engine work and things to my vehicles but lately being an IT geek I don't have time to wrench like I would like. so I try to stop before I think I'll mess something up. I am going to learn how to remove the outdrive, that seems like something I can and should learn how to do. But I don't have the tools to pull the entire motor to try and swap the coupler if that's what the problem is.
Back to the problem at hand The other symptoms you described I can't say for certain I've experienced them. This is my first boat that is an IO and everything seems way different than my past outboard boats.
I've only had the boat for 3 years. The previous owner claimed not to know how to work on things and he had a friend who helped him work on the boat. Love to meet that friend in a dark alley . When putting a new starter on the boat standing on my head reaching around the bottom of the engine I saw a Jasper sticker on the bottom of the motor. So not having a maintenance history I don't know if his buddy swapped out the motor which might not be a bad thing but the more I dig into this thing then the more bad things I find.
Even if it ends up being the clutch I'm going to take it to the marina maybe in the fall. The scag has a big crack in it so at some point they hit something pretty hard. I want somebody with an experienced eye to look over it and tell me whether there are things that need to be done.
so once I get the oil changed we'll let you know how things go.
Another detail that came to mind is that at one point after it started to act up it felt like something caught and I had full power again for a second. Then it just went back to only being able to do 20 mph.
Yeah I try not to dig too deep of a hole for myself when it comes to working on mechanical things. In an earlier life I did a lot more mechanical engine work and things to my vehicles but lately being an IT geek I don't have time to wrench like I would like. so I try to stop before I think I'll mess something up. I am going to learn how to remove the outdrive, that seems like something I can and should learn how to do. But I don't have the tools to pull the entire motor to try and swap the coupler if that's what the problem is.
Back to the problem at hand The other symptoms you described I can't say for certain I've experienced them. This is my first boat that is an IO and everything seems way different than my past outboard boats.
I've only had the boat for 3 years. The previous owner claimed not to know how to work on things and he had a friend who helped him work on the boat. Love to meet that friend in a dark alley . When putting a new starter on the boat standing on my head reaching around the bottom of the engine I saw a Jasper sticker on the bottom of the motor. So not having a maintenance history I don't know if his buddy swapped out the motor which might not be a bad thing but the more I dig into this thing then the more bad things I find.
Even if it ends up being the clutch I'm going to take it to the marina maybe in the fall. The scag has a big crack in it so at some point they hit something pretty hard. I want somebody with an experienced eye to look over it and tell me whether there are things that need to be done.
so once I get the oil changed we'll let you know how things go.