engine lugging at all rpms off and on

insaneasylm

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Jul 26, 2008
Messages
80
hey guy my 3.0 merc alpha 1 gen 2 started lugging and sounding real funny at all rpms. I had the engine out a few weeks ago and every thing went back in fine also replaced all the bellows.

So on to the whole story. I took the boat out twice after doing all the work to it. The boat ran great with no problems at all. On the way home after the 2nd outing i didn't get the prop all the way up in to trailer and it hit the ground pretty hard when i was almost home. Checked it out in the drive way and everything seemed ok. Next time i went out it ran fine most of the time but a couple of times when i was at around 1/4-1/2 throttle it started lugging like i was dragging on the river bottom. But at wot it was fine. so i checkd the outdrive oil for shavings and water but all was good.

Took it back out today and that lugging started happening at all most all rpms. I got it up to wot right away and it sounded fine. Took it down to around 1/4-1/3 thorttle and it started again. Then went back up to wot and was going good then the engine reved real quick like in netural. So since i had the wife and kids with me i just decied to head back at around 1/4-idel.
It was going all right but at times the engine sounded like it wanted to die.
Then we were almost back to the dock and it started again at trolling speed. real bad this time. Felt like i lost all power to the prop. so i put it in netural for a min and slide it back into trolling and it went fine.

Could this mean the shift cable is bad. I didn't replace it when i did all the work to the boat And i had to do a lot of ajusting to get it to work when i put it all back together. Or did i screw some thing up when i left it down and it hit the road. Oh when it did hit i wasn't going that fast cuz i just turned the corner to come down my home street.

Sorry for the long post just wanted to let you guys know all the info. Also i hooked up the muffs in my drive way tonight and it ran fine with no load on it. thanks for any help.
 

mkast

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Nov 6, 2002
Messages
1,934
Re: engine lugging at all rpms off and on

When was the last time the engine was tuned up?
 

insaneasylm

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Jul 26, 2008
Messages
80
Re: engine lugging at all rpms off and on

Well all the oil was changed when i had it winterized. I don't know when the spark plugs where last changed or the distributer cap was replaced. But the engine runs fine with out a load on it. What i really would like to know if the shift cable was going bad would that create those problems or should i be looking some where else for the problem. Like when it hit the ground would that have knocked it out of aligment. So would being out of alignment cause those problems.
 

mkast

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Nov 6, 2002
Messages
1,934
Re: engine lugging at all rpms off and on

Look elsewhere, shift cable won't cause engine malfunction.
 

dlyman

Cadet
Joined
Jan 6, 2006
Messages
17
Re: engine lugging at all rpms off and on

Maybe the prop is slipping on the hub? Just mark the hub and the prop with a marker and go run it if, after a bit, check to see if the marks line up. If not you need a new hub.
 
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