74 Glastron V178 135 Evinrude

[mostlysnow]

I have several issues with this boat but do not know how to break each one into category so I will post here each one with hopes I can get answers. I have had good luck before on this site. Thanks in advance.

I will first start off with the ID 135489B 1974
Fuel Mixture 50:1 With medium grade fuel with stabilizer additive as prescribed by Marine Mechanic.

I use both portable 6.6 gallon tanks as well as sometimes the 20 Gallon inboard tank that came with boat with little as 6 gallons of gas each time I fill it up due to making sure it is not picking up any debris.. Or have un stabilized fuel (bad gas)

I have only had this boat since Memorial day weekend. I have had to put lot of elbow grease into getting it into the water already this year and have come to the conclusion need help.

I can get it to run, when it runs it sounds like it is running great, not missing or coughing and has a lot of action out the rear in way of wake from the prop. it is a 13.75 dia. three blade with pitch 17. Tilt or trim is manual at this time as the tilt trim hydraulic motor is out (that is another issue I need to fix in the future.) right now using the rod that goes through the mounting bracket in back there. I have been using the number two hole from the boat (there is four possibilities to choose from) Question here is am I too small for this size engine? I would like to be able to pull skier or tube eventually. I have a 14 In 17 Pitch blade I could switch into, but I was told by prop shop that 14 would be good for the gas mileage and the 13.75 would be for the skiers tubers. With the smaller prop I am wondering if I am just "Spinning my Wheels' so to speak?

Issue one the coils and spark: I have witnessed couple of times that only the number four cylinder wants to fire and the I would loosen the coil wires at the electrical bock and retighten them thinking there might be bad connection and the spark in one, two and three come back. I have tested the resistance in each of the coils and they meet my local repair persons standards. But did replace one coil due to being weak.

I have had it in the water and be running around thinking I should baby it for a while then some times during the cruise I would ask for a little more and it would not plane out. then all of a sudden she would find the energy to open up and give it her all and plane out and then I notice the tach start to work (this will be address in a minute) I have had a GPS out with me and we would get top speed about 33 MPH at about 4 grand RPM

Issue 2 the tach; When just idling the Tach would not work and as I mentioned above. When it works she works and does a great job running then after about fifteen or so minutes she would dog out and return to slow cruising on her own even with throttle in high forward. And the tach would fluctuate or stop all together.

Issue 3 Ignition key switch: I have noticed a couple of times I would be out in the boat and I could jiggle the key in the ignition and the tach starts to work again and she runs even better. I am thinking about taking the control apart to check for contamination between posts. Any thoughts?

Issues one and 2 and 3 I am concerned about there may be a short in the tach wire circuit or something shorting out somewhere in the ignition key system that may be causing the tach to not work as well as the spark not reaching the plugs. How do I do any testing to verify this?


Issue 4 Fuel gauge I have been told by the pervious owner the gauge never has worked for him and was wondering how to go about testing or repairing this as the sending unit is under the body of the boat not sure if it would be too tall to take out to test the current going through to see f the sending unit needed replaced. or the floating agent in there. There was an attempt to remove the tank but it would not budge.

I think I have about addressed everything I can think of at this time. Please help me out the season is running short for me here.

 

[emdsapmgr]

Both props are 17", so they are technically the same, despite the diameter. Disregard the diameter and worry about the pitch (that is the distance [17"] the prop moves thru the water each time it goes around once. -theoretically). The tach problem is probably related to a defective rectifier. That device creates the tach signal as it charges the battery. If the tach is not working-it's likely the battery is not being recharged. Replace the rectifier and likely the tach will work normally. This problem is not related to any ignition problems. Separate system. Since the engine runs ok at rpm's it would appear the carbs/fuel may be ok. The fact that spark drops out indicates a problem with something in the ignition system. You can find some excellent ignition troubleshooting at this website: cdielectronics.com. Key switches can go bad over time. (Esp since they are prone to getting rainwater in them) Considering the age of the engine, you may just want to replace it. You will typically replace 3 or 4 fuel senders before you need to replace the fuel gauge. Look at the sender as the culprit first.

 

[mostlysnow]

Thanks you for the reply. It is very interesting you mention the charging system because I have one time tested to see if my battery was indeed receiving a charge from engine and it was not. So you are saying that I do have a alternator (recharging) system? Because I was not sure so, I took my battery tester when I first got it up and running and checked to see and it was not charging the battery. I just thought this boat just did not have one. Thanks for that bit of information. As for the sending unit, will it come out of the tank without taking the tank completely out of the boat as I mentioned I have tried to take the tank out and it would not move any?

 

[emdsapmgr]

The engine has a small 6 amp charging system. Back in the day of few electrical boat accessories, it was enough to recharge the starting battery after running the engine. You should not have to pull the fuel tank to replace the tank fuel sender on a built-in tank. You will need to figure out how to gain access to the part of the tank where the sender is. Depending on the boat configuration, sometimes that involves removing part of the floor.