Bambihunter
Recruit
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2016
- Messages
- 4
This 1999 Mercury / Tracker 40 horse is on a Bass Tracker 175. It says Mercury on it, but I am not sure but what it may be a Force (bought and made by Mercury). I have a couple of problems with it. I have been reading through the forums and found a few answers but not sure on a couple more.
Since I have owned it, it would fire right up and idle great. Doesn't seem like it is missing or anything at low RPM or load. However, once you put the throttle down it runs OK, but weak, until you approach full throttle. It will sometimes cut out and sputter. Under normal load, the RPM's would never get above ~4200 or so. Thinking this motor was too small for the boat, the previous owner bought a 12 pitch prop (has 14 on it) to try but the RPM stayed the same at full throttle. If I trim the motor up excessively, it will cavitate and the RPM's will shoot up so doesn't seem to be artificially limited incorrectly. This boat on a calm day will run around 16mph and stay roughly the 4200 rpm mentioned earlier. I ran a compression check on the top cylinder and it was 120. I could not get my tester threaded into the bottom cylinder since the cowl was too close to it. I initially thought it may just be worn out (bottom one still could I suppose)
Last weekend, the boat wouldn't start. I noticed it sounded like the key choke function didn't really click like a solenoid, or even a mechanical relay for that matter. But, instead sounded more like an electric fence popping (for the farmers among us). After researching this issue, it sounds like the choke is more of an enrichment solenoid and not a true choke so perhaps it doesn't normally make much noise. One of those things you don't notice until it doesn't work since I normally only use it while cranking. We were able to start it by blocking the intake a bit, and manually running the throttle on the engine. I am going to pull the hoses and test the solenoid this weekend to make sure that is it but I think it is. The motor ran fine once the initial startup and run.
That brings me to my next question, it will NOT crank the motor in the fast idle position but it will run in that position once started. Is that normal for this engine? Only by doing this manually at the motor were we able to fast idle it.
That once again brings me to another, and final initial question. While looking at the choke, I put the throttle in various positions and noticed the "butterfly" goes past wide open and actually starts closing it. I would assume this is why it decreases in performance unless I pull it back slightly. I have thought ever since I bought this boat that it had way too much slack in the throttle control. You put it in gear and it engages quickly and positively as you expect, but you have to go quite a ways before any carb engagement happens. I see how to adjust that, and it looks straight forward. BUT, I see that same lever ties into the timing and with the performance what it is, they may both need to be adjusted, or just one or the other.
Since I have owned it, it would fire right up and idle great. Doesn't seem like it is missing or anything at low RPM or load. However, once you put the throttle down it runs OK, but weak, until you approach full throttle. It will sometimes cut out and sputter. Under normal load, the RPM's would never get above ~4200 or so. Thinking this motor was too small for the boat, the previous owner bought a 12 pitch prop (has 14 on it) to try but the RPM stayed the same at full throttle. If I trim the motor up excessively, it will cavitate and the RPM's will shoot up so doesn't seem to be artificially limited incorrectly. This boat on a calm day will run around 16mph and stay roughly the 4200 rpm mentioned earlier. I ran a compression check on the top cylinder and it was 120. I could not get my tester threaded into the bottom cylinder since the cowl was too close to it. I initially thought it may just be worn out (bottom one still could I suppose)
Last weekend, the boat wouldn't start. I noticed it sounded like the key choke function didn't really click like a solenoid, or even a mechanical relay for that matter. But, instead sounded more like an electric fence popping (for the farmers among us). After researching this issue, it sounds like the choke is more of an enrichment solenoid and not a true choke so perhaps it doesn't normally make much noise. One of those things you don't notice until it doesn't work since I normally only use it while cranking. We were able to start it by blocking the intake a bit, and manually running the throttle on the engine. I am going to pull the hoses and test the solenoid this weekend to make sure that is it but I think it is. The motor ran fine once the initial startup and run.
That brings me to my next question, it will NOT crank the motor in the fast idle position but it will run in that position once started. Is that normal for this engine? Only by doing this manually at the motor were we able to fast idle it.
That once again brings me to another, and final initial question. While looking at the choke, I put the throttle in various positions and noticed the "butterfly" goes past wide open and actually starts closing it. I would assume this is why it decreases in performance unless I pull it back slightly. I have thought ever since I bought this boat that it had way too much slack in the throttle control. You put it in gear and it engages quickly and positively as you expect, but you have to go quite a ways before any carb engagement happens. I see how to adjust that, and it looks straight forward. BUT, I see that same lever ties into the timing and with the performance what it is, they may both need to be adjusted, or just one or the other.
