Help keep me out of the dog house. Force 120 L drive question

[theopenbook.com]

Hi all,<br />I need your help. Buying this boat got me in the doghouse and now the problems that I’m having sure aren’t helping. This is our first boat so I’m new to all the ends and outs of boat ownership. Anyway, this boat had been sitting at a local repair place for a couple of years. The owner and the shop were in a dispute over the cost of repairing it. They settled the dispute and I bought it from the owner with the trailer for really cheap. I had to take the lower unit apart and replace the universal joint and shaft which was damaged when the owner hit something in the river. By the way this is a 1991 Force 120 L Drive. I got it all back together at the end of last season. It started on the really old gas (I should have known better) and ran in the yard. So this year was going to be our big event. We got it out and it started just fine. I drained out ¾ of the old rotten gas (that’s all my siphon hose would get) and filled it up with new gas. We loaded up the family and took it to the lake, where it started right up but quickly died and I haven’t been able to start it since. I pulled the plugs (Champion L76V) and they were pretty dirty, so I gave them a light wire brushing. When hooked to the plug wire and the engine turned through they seem to have plenty of fire. I took both carburetors off and gave them a good cleaning. The fuel pump seems to be pumping fine. The darn thing still wont start or even sputter, cough, or smoke. Any suggestions?

 

[12Footer]

Re: Help keep me out of the dog house. Force 120 L drive question

Try this, and get back to me;<br />Spray some WD40 directly into the carb,while someone tries to start it. If it fires at all, we know it's the carbs (because the fuel pump is pumping).<br />My best guess would be the pickup tube inside the carb bowls is clogged.

 

[theopenbook.com]

Re: Help keep me out of the dog house. Force 120 L drive question

I haven't tried WD-40 yet, but when this first happened I tried spraying raw gas down the carbs and also ether with no results.

 

[12Footer]

Re: Help keep me out of the dog house. Force 120 L drive question

Hmm. Well, raw gas and ether are not adviseable (no lube is major reason). I allways used a spray bottle with fresh 2cycle fuel, but have learned from this site, that WD40 works just as well for such testing.<br /><br />Buy a new set of plugs. Stick with the UL76V champs.<br />If you have fire to all cylinders, all that is left is fuel delivery or timing way out.<br />Let us know how it performs on new plugs and WD40. (You can even disconnect the fuel line for this),as you will want it to start or cough on the spray, thus narrowing it down to fuel problem.

 

[theopenbook.com]

Re: Help keep me out of the dog house. Force 120 L drive question

Thanks for the info. I took the carbs back off and soaked them again in cleaner, just to make sure. But when I went to give it a try the stupid battery is dead. I'll put it on the charger see what happens this weekend.

 

[theopenbook.com]

Re: Help keep me out of the dog house. Force 120 L drive question

Tried it again this morning with new plugs and still nothing. I think it has to be something with the ignition system. The spark looks OK (maybe a little thin) for the first few cranks and then it quits. After it sits a few minuets it'll do the same thing, fire a few rounds and then quit. At first I thought that it might be a bad coil but all four are doing the same thing. The coils are blue and are stamped Mercury. Any suggestions, again thanks for the help?

 

[12Footer]

Re: Help keep me out of the dog house. Force 120 L drive question

Weak sparks that quits sure does sound like coil,but as you said, not all at once.<br />It might be arching-over at the kill switch. disconnect that thing,and see if you get spark back. I had one fail on a control...like ta drove me buggy.<br />Other than that, I can only sugest the stator.

 

[theopenbook.com]

Re: Help keep me out of the dog house. Force 120 L drive question

Thanks 12Footer,<br />If you’re talking about the kill switch that works by attaching a lanyard to the driver, I already disconnected it because the lanyard is missing. I read in another post that a bad ground could cause a similar problem and when I got disgusted and quit working on it today I did notice that the ground connection was loose on the battery. Do you know of a way to check out that stator? And if it is the stator do you have a ballpark guess on the cost of a replacement?

 

[12Footer]

Re: Help keep me out of the dog house. Force 120 L drive question

As far as replacement, try to locate a used one if the following fails, because I know they're over 100bukz.<br />The following comes outta the book;<br /><br />Remove the terminal block cover located below the CD modules.The stator wires are <br />located on the side closest the ignition coils.<br /><br />Disconnect the wires numbered 1 and 2 (Brown/blue and Brown/yellow).<br /><br />Get a volt/ohmeter,and set it on the 400DVA,<br />And connect the leads to the wires from the stator that you just disconnected.<br />Crank the engine over, and look for 210volts or greater.<br />If over 210volts,reconnect the leads and pull<br />next set from terminals 3 and 4,and check them same as you did 1 and 2.<br />3 and 4 will be brown/black/blue and brown/black/yellow, respectively.<br />It sounds harder than it is.

 

[theopenbook.com]

Re: Help keep me out of the dog house. Force 120 L drive question

Thanks I'll give that a try. I wish the darn thing would run. Today would be a great day to be on the water.

 

[12Footer]

Re: Help keep me out of the dog house. Force 120 L drive question

Naw, it's a ZOO out there today...At leat it is down here in the shoeshine state. I took my baby boat to the ramp saturday, and there were boats waiting to unload around the corner! I woul've been number 10 on a single lane ramp.<br />I turned around and came home. <br />Next weekend tho, yea buddy. I will say a little prayer you get her up and running

 

[theopenbook.com]

Re: Help keep me out of the dog house. Force 120 L drive question

Havn't had a chance to check the stator the wire colors that you gave me don't match. I've got red / blue and red-white / blue-white and 2 yellow. I checked all the connections and gave them a squirt of contact cleaner. Now the odd thing is a get a really hot spark on 1 and 3 and nothing on 2 and 4. I'm about at my limit with this thing so I think I'm going to bite the bullet and take it to a shop to get it fixed.

 

[theopenbook.com]

Re: Help keep me out of the dog house. Force 120 L drive question

So much for getting someone else to fix it. The first place I called is 6 weeks behind and the other is 3 weeks behind. The heck if I'm going to pay out the nose and then have to wait forever.