Re: 1997 force 40 horse please help
I talked with one local mechanic yesterday. First he told me that there should have been an internal screen in the foot, there wasn't. When I purchased the boat the guy told me there were two extra props in the seats I never looked at them. The one that was on the motor had some damage and the guy explained that he had hit a stump in the river. That should have been the first red flag. We started and ran the motor, worked great but I did notice that the water stream wasn't really strong like on my dad's boat that should have been the second red flag. I looked at the pressure gage and it read 5psi so I really didn't think it was an issue. After I got it home I changed the foot oil, flushed the onboard fuel tank and other general maintenance. I decided to pull out the other props and take the damaged one off. When I looked at them they were both damaged worse then the one that was on it. At that point I should have known. I replaced the prop and took it to the lake the next weekend. Boat fired and ran well but I did notice that the water pressure gage was setting on about 3psi without it running. Well I just chalked it up to me not checking well enough and that it was just something else I needed to replace. This was my first pontoon so I didn't know what to expect. I did notice that I had wash coming almost to the top of the motor and I knew I had to do something about that. So I just took it easy that day and kept it around 3500rpm. When I took it out I saw that the motor was bottom out on the transom and that the tilt pump was sticking out beyond the transom's side that would account for the wash over. So that next week I raised the motor and figured that issue was resolved. That next week end I took it to the river. My father in his boat and my family and I in ours were making the run down about 45 miles and then back up the next day. While running down we hit a sand flat that we couldn't see because of the muddy water and the problems began. It took us the remainder of that day to come back up the river 8 to 10 miles because I could only run at 3000 rpm. There was no way a 14 foot john boat with a 25 was going to pull my boat up the river against the current. To make a long story short this is this motor's first time being packed up and it wasn't flushed properly. The original owner had water pressure issues before and his answer was to remove the water intake screens. This is what has allowed me to draw not just sand but large particles into the motor. The motor is blocked where the inlet tube enters the power head also under the exhaust plate. There were not only large particles of sand, but red clay that was like cement in there. I even pulled out stones the size of a pencil eraser. After cleaning all of that out, I flushed it again the put it back together using the old gaskets. I did this to see if there may be an obstruction in the head all was clear and the new pressure gage jumped to 5psi just using a water hose. I am waiting for new gaskets now so that I can replace everything. I will post again as soon as I have everything back together. I wanted to post this so that maybe someone may learn from my foolish mistakes.
