I am devastated and really need some help. I just bought a 93? 60hp Johnson Bass Tracker and was sitting on cloud nine when I bought this boat. This is my first one. It took me a long time to get this and boy was I happy. I drove about 3 hours to get it and was kind of disappointed when I got there, because they had told me on the phone, that all this boat needed was the carpet replaced and seats. However, when I got there (MOBILE BAY MARINE), it was clear that the last owner of this boat definitely neglected it.
The trailer was horrible. It looked like we might not even make it home with that trailer. The U-bolts are a rusty mess, along with the rest of the trailer. They were right about the carpet and the seats. However, another thing they forgot to mention was that the hull had some damage. It has some ugly welds, which definitely needs fixing. I figured that I could get one of my friends to clean up the welds. The thing we were most worried about was if the boat trailer was going to be capable of that 3 hour drive back home.
I decided to go ahead and take it a little bit further, so I went ahead and took the motor cover off. Everything looked pretty clean inside the cover. The guy cranked up the boat and it sounded great. The boat ran great for a while. To me, the motor was worth what they were asking for the whole thing. I bought the boat. At that point I was really excited to get it out to the water.
The boat made the 3 hour ride back home with no problem. I went jug fishing that night and it ran great. It idled perfect, stayed cranked, always fired up on the first turn, and never died on me. The next night, it ran great again. It was awesome. To make it better, I had 2 great nights of jugging. Each night, I took the boat out for around 12 to 15 hours.
*-----The Problem-----*
The problem occurred on the third trip. I took the boat to another channel. We wanted to try it out. It looked very promising. Lots of lily pads and gators. Water temp and depth was perfect. Well just as we thought, we started catching em quick. We were so busy going in and out of the pads, removing cats and re-baiting, that I forgot to look back at the water stream exiting the engine.
The boat cut off. I tried to crank it back up, however, no luck. A light smoke was coming from the cover. No alarm sounded, as it should when the motor over heats. It had definitely over heated though. I lifted the prop out and saw that the water inlets were blocked by lots of grass and pads.
We tight lined for a while and let the engine cool down. After about an hour, I was able to get the engine to fire back up.
Once it cranked back up, it was running very rough. It would die if I didn?t give it enough gas and it started spitting and sputtering if I gave it too much. We stayed in it for a little while and recovered a couple of jugs.
I noticed that the battery wasn?t charging either. The battery eventually went dead.
---- My Attempts To Fix It----
Once I got the boat home, I removed the engine cover to remove the spark plugs. I noticed a little oil coming out of some of the head bolts. It was a very little bit of oil. The first one I noticed leaking was #4. The one directly across from 4 was leaking a little and the 2 under them. About six bolts were loose, so I tightened them up. I changed all 3 plugs, since I don?t know how to tell if they are fouled or not. I replaced the fuel line and filters. I looked at all of the wires. Most of them looked fine. I did notice one coming from the ignition witch that had been spliced kind of nasty. There was some kind of sensor up top near the 1st spark plug that looked odd. The plastic screw in cap is a little melted and want screw in properly. There are some wires not plugged in, but I think they were already like that.
The battery isn?t charging and it is still running very bad..
I need any help. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jjwildcat
----* I have pictures of everything*----