115 inline 6 Mercury outboard 1983 problems

mbranton

Cadet
Joined
Mar 16, 2010
Messages
13
I have the boat repair shop do yearly tuneup, lubricant change and impellar change every January or February. Told every year, boat motor in "great shape". I use the boat once a week, regardless of weather thru-out the year.
This year, January, boat stopped cranking and I took to shop.........did not give me a reason why it would not crank; however, it was not the fuse.
They did all yearly maintenance and boat was now cranking; bill of $314.00 paid for January 2010.
Got boat back on water and initially noticed it was vibrating at idell speed.
I emptied old gas and changed fuel filter and the vibration significantly reduced.
After getting back out on water, I noticed that the boat was slow to "Plain out".
Also, I noticed that at times, the boat would not open up over 2000 RPM and would eventually stall.
I was not able to take back to repair shop because they are not open on Saturdays and I could not leave during work week to take to shop 60 miles away.
I have taken boat out at least 6 times since returning from shop this past January and at times it would "open up" past 2000 RPM's and go like it should and at other times it would not and stall as describes above.
I was told that the engine could have a carborator problem.........they ran "sea foam" thru carborators during the maintenance of engine this past January and Last February of 2009, they completely cleaned all carborators based on $1,200 bill in addition to yearly maintenance. My concern is that I was not told if the fuel pump might be a problem? Compression test and replacement of plugs during tune up should have revealed a problem on the plugs if fuel pump was "wetting" the plugs or were plugs showing signs of "burn".
I don't know if they did a leak down test on cylinders?
My question is: "what would any of you suggest to pinpoint this problem?"
Boat is no longer cranking...........it is turning over, it is getting gas based on fuel to middle of three carberators.
 

arsenalpsu

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Dec 1, 2008
Messages
290
Re: 115 inline 6 Mercury outboard 1983 problems

A motor needs 3 things to run, compression, gas, and spark- all tuned correctly. If the shop did a compression test recently you might be ok there so check for spark. As it runs sometimes and not others i would think it's a connection or a bad wire in the stator, trigger, spark plug connestions, coils, switchbox, etc. Get an OEM book and start testing your electronics.
 

mbranton

Cadet
Joined
Mar 16, 2010
Messages
13
Re: 115 inline 6 Mercury outboard 1983 problems

Thanks for advice Arsenalpsu; repair shop is reviewing mechanic records and head shop man is gonna call me back...........let you know what he says.
A motor needs 3 things to run, compression, gas, and spark- all tuned correctly. If the shop did a compression test recently you might be ok there so check for spark. As it runs sometimes and not others i would think it's a connection or a bad wire in the stator, trigger, spark plug connestions, coils, switchbox, etc. Get an OEM book and start testing your electronics.
 
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