Crapduster
Seaman Apprentice
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2008
- Messages
- 40
When I pulled the carbs off to rebuild them, I noticed the carb to motor gasket on two of the three carbs was upside-down/backwards/reversed... whatever you want to call it; it's a fitted gasket and there is only one obvious way it fits correctly. The guy who had the boat before me said it was serviced by a small boat/engine repair shop. With the gasket backwards, it covers about 1/3 of the carb air passage into the engine. This has to be deliberate, right? It was blatantly obvious to me the second I took the carbs off, and I cannot imagine even the most amateurish of mechanics getting a fitted gasket on backwards. So the real question I have, is how much! of a problem would this cause? Read the rest of the story below for some more history of what has been done so far. Any advice is much appreciated.
I bought a 2000 16' Aquasport Osprey in Nov 2007 and the boat came with an 1986 Suzuki DT85 (DT-85). It has been pretty hard to start, and once you clunk it in gear it usually dies and you have to choke it and crank it to get it started. After about 2 or 3 rounds of this, it will start and idle at 700rpm; sometimes it feels real smooth, other times it's rough like it's not firing on all. It typically takes 3 or 4 of this pattern to get it moving: start, clunk into gear, die, start, clunk into gear... you get the picture. I usually have to clunk it into gear and then hammer on it... if i'm lucky she will pop right up to WOT and run like a top, but usually she bogs and I have to come off throttle... sometimes I can get right back into it and she comes to life... other times she just dies. I think she's ascared of the water.
Plugs, compression, air/fuel leak and spark are most likely not the problem because the plugs have been replaced (NGK B8HS), the compression tested, every single fuel line from carbs to the tank was replaced and the electrical tested at a Suzuki repair shop. As a new boat owner I found out why more people don't own boats; $95/hr labor
You know it's not a good sign when the service manager asks you if you know what "boat" stands for... then proceeds to chuckle as he says "break out another thousand" ...some more laughing, but not from me
A few weeks later I carefully rebuilt the fuel pump with a new Suzuki spring and diaphragm kit. Fuel filters and fuel/water separator have been replaced. Still has the same problems after all this. 
Today I am rebuilding the carbs (Suzuki carb rebuild kits), I already have them apart and they looked pretty clean to me, but I am taking the extra steps of soaking them in Berrymans and using compressed air, setting float heights, scraping old gasket... the long, slow, correct way of rebuilding I hope. When I get all this put back together I am hoping this will be the end of the unreliable motor; I am tired of getting back to dock on my trolling motor
Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks and I will report back in a day or two once I have the rebuild done and have had time to test on the water.
Thanks and tight lines,
CrappieDuster
I bought a 2000 16' Aquasport Osprey in Nov 2007 and the boat came with an 1986 Suzuki DT85 (DT-85). It has been pretty hard to start, and once you clunk it in gear it usually dies and you have to choke it and crank it to get it started. After about 2 or 3 rounds of this, it will start and idle at 700rpm; sometimes it feels real smooth, other times it's rough like it's not firing on all. It typically takes 3 or 4 of this pattern to get it moving: start, clunk into gear, die, start, clunk into gear... you get the picture. I usually have to clunk it into gear and then hammer on it... if i'm lucky she will pop right up to WOT and run like a top, but usually she bogs and I have to come off throttle... sometimes I can get right back into it and she comes to life... other times she just dies. I think she's ascared of the water.
Plugs, compression, air/fuel leak and spark are most likely not the problem because the plugs have been replaced (NGK B8HS), the compression tested, every single fuel line from carbs to the tank was replaced and the electrical tested at a Suzuki repair shop. As a new boat owner I found out why more people don't own boats; $95/hr labor
Today I am rebuilding the carbs (Suzuki carb rebuild kits), I already have them apart and they looked pretty clean to me, but I am taking the extra steps of soaking them in Berrymans and using compressed air, setting float heights, scraping old gasket... the long, slow, correct way of rebuilding I hope. When I get all this put back together I am hoping this will be the end of the unreliable motor; I am tired of getting back to dock on my trolling motor
Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks and I will report back in a day or two once I have the rebuild done and have had time to test on the water.
Thanks and tight lines,
CrappieDuster