1995 Mercury 5.7 EFI Alpha one backfire, cutting out, loss of power. Rinker Captiva 232

sleddude

Cadet
Joined
Jun 26, 2010
Messages
13
1995 Mercury 5.7 EFI Alpha one backfire, cutting out, loss of power. Rinker Captiva 232

Hello all,

I have posted previously about a "cutting out" problem on my rinker. The problem is back, with a few more distinct symptoms

The problem is frustrating because the motor runs flawlessly 98% of the time, it just cuts out every now and then.

Recent History:
earlier this season, the boat was not shifting properly. It would only shift into forward with a big movement of the throttle lever, which would cause it to shift at high rpm and slam into gear (not fun docking). It would also "cut out" on acceleration out of the hole.

My mechanic adjusted the shift cables and it fixed the problem. He also did "tune up" type repairs, filters, plugs, etc. However, the intermittent "cutting out" remained.

I used the boat a few times with the issue. Last night when coming back from a week vacation the cutting out problem seemed to get worse, and on that trip, the shift problem came back. It got to the point that I could not get it into forward with 1/2 throttle, and I didn't want to rev it up any more to catch the gear. It seemed to go into reverse fine.

The symptoms are this. Most of the time the cutting out happens when I am accelerating from an Idle. I hit the throttle and the boat starts to come up on plane and then there is a backfire and the motor returns to idle. I have to throttle down and then I can accellerate again. Sometimes it will do it 3 or 4 times in a row before it will get up on plane. Until three days ago, it only cut out when accelerating up out of the hole. Three days ago I was cruising along on plane about 20 mph and it cut out. It has cut out a few more times while cruising since then.

A few points:
The boat idles perfectly. Other than when it cuts out, it runs extremely smooth.
When it cuts out, it idles, it does not stall. (I should note that it did stall once while docking going from forward idle to reverse idle.
Much more likely to cut out with hard acceleration than with gradual acceleration, although it has happened both ways.
I call it a backfire, however it is not a "Bang", it is more like a "Puff" of air noise.

Reading through the forums, I have a found a few items that could be relevant, any help would be appreciated.
1) Shift interrupter switch?
2) Shift cables
3) Fuel injectors (this would suprise me because the boat runs flawlessly most of the time)
4) other ideas?
 
Last edited:

NHGuy

Captain
Joined
May 21, 2009
Messages
3,631
Is this boat engine fuel injected or carburetor? What year and engine?
 

sleddude

Cadet
Joined
Jun 26, 2010
Messages
13
Update! Brought my boat to another mechanic, Rochester Sports Center in Madbury, NH.

They had a similar boat do the same thing this summer and found that it was an oil pressure sensor switch. Turns out that was the problem with mine, when the boat was coming up out of the hole and the bow rose up, the oil would naturally flow to the back of the motor and the sensor was not picking up pressure. Changed the oil and the sensor and I am good to go.
 

alldodge

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
43,106
Update! Brought my boat to another mechanic, Rochester Sports Center in Madbury, NH.

They had a similar boat do the same thing this summer and found that it was an oil pressure sensor switch. Turns out that was the problem with mine, when the boat was coming up out of the hole and the bow rose up, the oil would naturally flow to the back of the motor and the sensor was not picking up pressure. Changed the oil and the sensor and I am good to go.

Only way the oil pressure would drop when coming up on plane is if there was not enough oil in the motor, maybe down a couple quarts or more. Hope it was the switch, and it very well could be along with a bad connection on the switch.
 
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