boat left me stranded at the lake! 3.0 merc help!!!

[c91x]

so i bought an older baretta with a 3.0 merc. boat hadn't been run in over a year and messed with it some and got it running pretty good at the house and put a new impeller in it . So it still had yr and half old gas in the tank but it did run off this stuff so i topped off the tank wiht 91 oct gas and headed to the lake. so i putt putt it around for a half hour or so and we bust out the tube. It's still sputtering a little but i figure it's the gas and it still get up on a plane and has descent power. well while pulling it completely dies and once i came to a stop it fires right up again go a little bit then it happens again. so i lift the lid and check for obvious problems check the battery and the positive side terminal is so hot it burns my hand????? check the voltemeter on the dash and it shows 11 volts. this is the old battery but i put it on a trickle charger and it held a charge so i figured it was good. also while i was checking over the gauges the volts were reading about 14 when we were driving so it is charging but now thinking back it shouldn't be charging that much. Next i turn the battery disconnect switch and sit for 10 minutes or so and try to start it again... it starts for a sec but has no response from the throttle and surges a sec till it dies i tried it again but this time a coulpe backfires. i checked for spark on one of the wires and nothing(weird since it does start sorta? i didn't have enough juice to keep trying stuff and got a tow in. i'm not sure what should be on my check list but i'm thinking
fuel filter
points (i never did mess with these at the house)
spark on all 4 cyl
and not sure what about the super hot positive wire??? think it's grounding out somewhere and draining the battery and the alternator is trying to compensate with the full 14 volts
if so what should i check first

thanks to all that reply

 

[billy boater]

Re: boat left me stranded at the lake! 3.0 merc help!!!

Might not be a bad idea to start out with a basic tune up fuel filter,plugs and so on.u can olm ur wires to see if they are bad or u can wait till night or get it dark in ur engine compartment some how and mist some water with a spray bottle and see if the wires arch at all. i would check ur point gap to see if they are within spec and make sure there isint any carrosion inside ur capand on ur rotor. if its still doing it after that u may wanna look at ur coil. coils tend to act up when they get hot. as for ur batt i would run the boat and get a volt meter and see what kind of voltage ur getting to the batt. should be around 14v. as for ur batt getting hot i had a bad batt once that melted the batt connector. after checkin wires and testing all kinds of stuff it turned out to be a bad batt it must of had some kind of internal short or somthing i cant say for sure but i bought a new one and put new connectors on it and all was good after that. check all ur grounds and make sure they are all good and clean.

 

[deerslayer303]

Re: boat left me stranded at the lake! 3.0 merc help!!!

Sounds like to me you got some fouled spark plugs, If I were you here is what I would do. A complete tune up, cap, rotor, points, plugs, wires,and fuel filter. And I would buy a carb kit, and tear down the carb and clean it TWICE then put the new carb kit in. Be sure to follow the instructions in the kit and set the float height. This is all the thing I do to any engine that has sat for such a long period of time it just saves on headaches.

Good Luck

 

[shdw2001h]

Re: boat left me stranded at the lake! 3.0 merc help!!!

if the battery teminal is that hot I would get the alternator checked, could be over charging. also get the battery(s) load tested, the battery will take a charge but wont hold up under load. before you add new gas to the old did you check the gas tank for water? you might want to syphon some gas from the gas tank, lowest point you can. and see what the gas looks like.

 

[i.boat1]

Re: boat left me stranded at the lake! 3.0 merc help!!!

Clean the main ground at the block. Disconnect the battery first and clean the battery cables, block ground, starter connections, and then pull apart the main plug, and see if its clean in there, then the fuses, maybe need cleaning, then replace the battery cables see if that helps.

 

[fcawth]

Re: boat left me stranded at the lake! 3.0 merc help!!!

The voltmeter indicates how much voltage not current (rate of charging), so you are correct that 14V tells you that it is charging, but it should read that when the engine is running unless your battery ls discharged. (i.e. 14V does not mean that it is charging alot - it could read that and be charging very little).

With an older boat with a questionable history, I'd replace that battery anyway unless you know that is only a couple of years old. You should clean up the connections at the battery and terminals. A bad connection (high resistance) combined with a bad battery (high current when trying to charge) would make it get hot. It would also get hot after lots of starting attempts. It could still be the alternator overcharging but I think you would read over 14V if this was the case.

You might have some water in the gas and you might have picked it up into the fuel system when the fuel was sloshing around. If you don't have too much gas in there, I'd drain it (your lawnmower is much easier to "tow home") . These days with Ethanol in the gas it seems like it makes these "old fuel" situations worse. I use stabil every time because I'm never sure how long it will sit. (Some don't seem to like to do this).

Fuel sitting in the carb can indeed fowl things up in there (again esp with E-10 gas). Wouldn't hurt to rebuild it or put in a professionally rebuilt one, but you could try cleaning out the fuel system first to see if that helps. Take off the fuel filter and dump it into a clear glass jar and let it sit for a while to see if it separates.

Hope this helps

 

[Maclin]

Re: boat left me stranded at the lake! 3.0 merc help!!!

"....points (i never did mess with these at the house)
...."


I would get new points and condensor and get the dwell and timing to specs. If the points are not opening correctly or sticking then that will definitely heat up the positive coil wire and you will have no or erratic spark.

 

[c91x]

Re: boat left me stranded at the lake! 3.0 merc help!!!

thanks for all the replies. i bought a new battery and points kit and i'll check the other things... i'll be back with more questions if the problem isn't fixed


thanks again

 

[JorgeE]

Re: boat left me stranded at the lake! 3.0 merc help!!!

While all the advice above may be right on th emoney, your problem sounds exactly like what our boat with a 140 HP was doing.
Our problem was junk and corrosion in the fuel tank clogging up the filter.
You need to remember that if the fuel filter gets partly clogged, fuel flow is constant at all speeds (as long as pressure is good). At idle, engine uses little fuel, so all's well. You speed up, fuel usage increases until the flow can't keep up with engine need, and it starts sputtering until it dies. You start and the fuel bowl fills again and the process repeats, but each time it runs less time until it won't even start.
I'd suggest putting in an in-line fuel filter, maybe a clear one until you figure out where the problem is, and replace the filter in the carb.
We ended up emptying the tank, cleaning it well (even using Iron Out to get some corrosion that had built up in the tank), and taking an extra carb fuel filter with us on the lake. Eventually, if you clean the tank well, the junk gets filtered out of the fuel system and it will run well - ours did.
On at least two occasions that extra filter saved the day.
If you do replace a filter in the middle of the lake, you need to be patient before starting up again. Make sure you don't spill any fuel in the bilge, wipe any small amount of fuel you might have spilled, and run the blower for a LONG time to vent any vapors.

Jorge

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: boat left me stranded at the lake! 3.0 merc help!!!

the positive side terminal is so hot it burns my hand?????

that means it is loose or corroded

high resistance in a connection or terminal makes heat