So this has been an eventful spring for me and I have been in my motor 3 weekends in a row (Sat and Sunday) tracking issues and finding new ones etc.
Long story short my rectifier wires coming from my stator were cooked and had no insulation left around them...I replaced the stator and found that my battery was dead...replaced the battery and put it in the water for some test running and found that my impeller was toast (no water coming out of the motor at all). Dropped the lower unit and replaced the impeller...greased the drive shaft and gear shaft because the drive shaft was siezed into the crank and took 2 hours to drop the lower unit with pry bars and hammers etc.
Put the boat back in the water and got half power...top carb bowl was dry as a bone...pulled carbs off and cleaned both needle valves/valve tips and put back together...replaced all fuel lines in the motor and securely zip tied to guarantee no loss of vacume in the fuel system...put the boat in yesterday and it ran like new...beautiful idle beautiful power under throttle started with the key instantly...drove it around for about 10 minutes and then it died on me out of the blue...almost like it ran out of gas...when I tried to start it it turned over kinda slow...Towed it back and put it on the trailer and went to see my dad for Father's Day.
Thinking about it today I was running through what the issue could have been...the fuel and plugs and battery were all new as of 1 week ago or less...So I started thinking maybe that slow turnover after it stalled was due to a weak battery...then I started thinking why would the battery be weak...I think I may have the answer...if the rectifier was bad it would have caused a lack of charge on the battery and maybe as the voltage dropped it got low enough that the battery was not powering the ignition system? Perhaps that is why the motor was turning over a bit slower after the stall? My fear is that the motor may have damaged the stator (which is brand new) and this is why it stalled...that being said I am really hoping the stall was from lack of battery juice and not damage to the stator.
I ordered a new rectifier and will inspect the stator condition when I get home today from work...more to come.
Long story short my rectifier wires coming from my stator were cooked and had no insulation left around them...I replaced the stator and found that my battery was dead...replaced the battery and put it in the water for some test running and found that my impeller was toast (no water coming out of the motor at all). Dropped the lower unit and replaced the impeller...greased the drive shaft and gear shaft because the drive shaft was siezed into the crank and took 2 hours to drop the lower unit with pry bars and hammers etc.
Put the boat back in the water and got half power...top carb bowl was dry as a bone...pulled carbs off and cleaned both needle valves/valve tips and put back together...replaced all fuel lines in the motor and securely zip tied to guarantee no loss of vacume in the fuel system...put the boat in yesterday and it ran like new...beautiful idle beautiful power under throttle started with the key instantly...drove it around for about 10 minutes and then it died on me out of the blue...almost like it ran out of gas...when I tried to start it it turned over kinda slow...Towed it back and put it on the trailer and went to see my dad for Father's Day.
Thinking about it today I was running through what the issue could have been...the fuel and plugs and battery were all new as of 1 week ago or less...So I started thinking maybe that slow turnover after it stalled was due to a weak battery...then I started thinking why would the battery be weak...I think I may have the answer...if the rectifier was bad it would have caused a lack of charge on the battery and maybe as the voltage dropped it got low enough that the battery was not powering the ignition system? Perhaps that is why the motor was turning over a bit slower after the stall? My fear is that the motor may have damaged the stator (which is brand new) and this is why it stalled...that being said I am really hoping the stall was from lack of battery juice and not damage to the stator.
I ordered a new rectifier and will inspect the stator condition when I get home today from work...more to come.