Hi, I have a 1972 Mercury 800 Thunderbolt outboard and when I put it in the water she starts ok and when I put it in gear she bogs down and dies, she idles good in neutral, I can rev her up good. Any help would be great. Thanks Bob
Well, this seems to be a common issue right now. At least half a dozen posts on the same topic each day.
I have the same problem, same motor. Mine is a 1971. I did manage to get mine past the stall by goosing the throttle a little, then it would idle in gear just fine. I went thru the sync and link procedure twice to verify the setup and all was good. I have not personally done any work on the carbs so that is where I'm leaning towards next. The other thing I'm going to try is advancing the timing from 3-4* BTDC to around 6-7* BTDC and see if that makes a difference.
BCSpanky, Normally you would remove the powerhead, disassemble the motor down to removing the crankshaft and pistons. Now have the #3 cylinder bored oversize and install a new oversized piston and ring set. Now reassemble.
You must also fix the problem that caused it. So clean the carbs, rebuild waterpump and perform link and synch procedure. Total cost should be on the order of $200 plus lots of your labor.
OK I started to tear down the powerhead and ran into a snag, I'm having trouble removing the housing under the Stator where the timing belt goes around the crankshaft. I removed the four bolts that hold it to the powerhead, but can't pull it off. Am I missing something here or should this come off without too much trouble.
