life or death-88 merc 135 hp

kenebar

Recruit
Joined
Aug 7, 2007
Messages
1
I purchased a boat back in april that was supposed to be a turn key.The guy needed money fast for a house closing (friend of a friend's friend type of deal) trusted his word,bought the boat and whammo! pumps lights gauges,nothing worked.After months working on everything and telling the wife and kids its all rutine maintanace, in the water we went.We'll that did not go so we'll and it's the dog house for me.i am new to outboards but not stupid(unless you are selling me a boat and a story) the motor idles rough but takes off smoothly to about 2200 rpms and thats as high as it will go.Replaced all filters,cleaned carbs,checked plugs,checked prop,rebuilt fuel pump that had a tear in the diaphram and tested it again with the same results.I then checked the spark on all cylinders and found that 3 and 6 have no spark,could it be as simple as a couple of bad coils or should the motor still achieve higher rpm's than that?A compression test revealed between 130-135 psi on all cylinders.This is cry for help becuase i have noticed the wife has purchased a baseball bat and 2 shovels and no i don't want to purchase the brooklyn brigde thank you.
 

steelespike

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Apr 26, 2002
Messages
19,069
Re: life or death-88 merc 135 hp

Speaking generically If the motor is dragging 2 cylinders it will be a dog.
yet it will seem smooth at idle.
I don't know if you can swap coils and see if problem follows.
 

quebec#1

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Apr 17, 2004
Messages
226
Re: life or death-88 merc 135 hp

Mine was only running on 5 cylinders then dowm to 3 . It was the stator and switch box that went on mine. Im beginning to wonder myself if buying a used merc was the right choice, it seems like they like to run rough and have tons of electrical problems ? Sorry for the downer but its just my thoughts !
Im sure its the stator and switch box thats going bad on yours , your story sounds alot like mine.
 
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