First Boat - 1987 Bayliner Bass FS Trophy

[Jcullen87]

Hello, I am new to these forums and new to boats. I bought a fixer upper and have a few questions.

The motor is an 85HP mercury force.

First off, there is an issue with the tilt/trim. It goes up and down just fine, but when I raise it up it goes down slowly on its own. If I raise it all the way up it takes about 30 seconds to a minute to take itself back down again. I can also hear the motor turning when it is going down on its own.

Also, i am not sure my water pump is working correctly. Water is coming out the back, but it spits and is not a steady stream like I see on other boats. There is also quite a bit of smoke but when I bring the boat in its not hot where the water shoots out. I was hoping I didn't put too much 2 cycle in with the gas, but after double checking my measurements I believe I did it correctly.

Lastly, when I pulled the boat in the back of the motor behind the spark plugs was pretty hot. It was hot outside but it still felt hot enough to ask about it and make sure there is not a problem.

Oh just thought of one more question. The lake I went to was about 140 acres, 11 feet deep at the deepest, and there was grass everywhere. Is it okay to take a motor through that kind of vegetation? I was constantly raising the trim every 2-3 seconds (as it falls on its own) to near the water line to avoid as much of it as I could and then stopped every 50-100 feet to clean off what was on the prop.

I know I need to take someone with me who knows more about boats, but right now I don't have anyone.

Thanks in advance for your knowledge and advice as I am in dire need.

 

[NYBo]

Re: First Boat - 1987 Bayliner Bass FS Trophy

Welcome to iboats!

If the motor is original to the boat, there's no Mercury in it. It's U.S. Marine, who bought the Chrysler outboard division. Mercury came later.

Your trim problem is electrical. Check the switch, the relays, and the wiring. Something is stuck or shorted.

Force outboards of that vintage don't have a regular tell-tale like many others do. Water will sputter out of the relief ports, just as you described. You can add a tell-tale if you like. Read here.

The motor should be running at around 140*F, hotter in that area. If your overheat alarm is working, don't worry about it, except for this caveat:

Running any water-cooled motor in heavy weeds isn't a good idea. Weeds can clog the water intakes, leading to overheating. Little pieces can be sucked in and foul the water passages and impeller.

Speaking of impellers, you should replace yours if you don't know how old it is.

 

[Jcullen87]

Re: First Boat - 1987 Bayliner Bass FS Trophy

Thanks for your reply. The motor is original to the boat so I will make sure to buy the right manual! I am redoing all of the wiring this weekend so if anyone has any tips please let me know. I bet you are 100% right about overheating. An alarm went off while I was starting it after going through quite a big patch of vegetation and I removed one of the screws so I could hear myself think enough to get out of the grass an back to the dock.

I will definitely replace the impeller before I take her out again.

Thanks again and if anyone has any more pointers I'd love to hear them. I am going to take some pictures tis weekend to add to my post in case someone might see something that I need to pay attention to.

Great forums!