jerrymlewis
Seaman Apprentice
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2010
- Messages
- 46
First of all, I have a 1974 Enterprise 20' tri-hull with a Waukesha (PleaseCraft Marine) marinized Ford 302 V8 w/4barrel Holley carb and the Volva AQ270 outdrive (with a 'special/unique' bellhousing - a bit shorter than the standard Volvo primary drive with TWO bearings).
Thanks to this forum, I changed the two worn primary drive shaft bearings, the 'knocking' universal joints, and both the leaking drive and exhaust bellows. The outdrive is now working fine.
My continuing issues are with the engine. First, I was getting very hard starting after getting warmed up and noticed that I sometimes didn't have spark at the plugs - intermittent, usually after a long evening/night of troubleshooting in the driveway attached to the hose while fixing the other stuff mentioned above. I'd give up and go to bed and it would start and run fine the next day.
But out on the lake, after an hour or so of skiing or wake boarding, if I shut off the engine, it might not always start back up. I thought it was timing, worn lobes on the distributor, bad points, weak pickup coil, old plugs, bad wires, etc - so I change all those (new disty, new wires, new plugs, new fuel filter). But the problem still happened to the point of killing my battery cranking away with a boat load of people after we'd been out boating for a couple hours.
Got a new battery. Better, but still might not always start back up - and the cranking was getting slower and slower each subsequent time we stopped (change skiers, etc) and tried to start up again. Then it would take longer and longer "cooling off periods" to get it to start back up. After the second tow into the marina from the other side of the lake when it wouldn't restart, I pulled the solenoid, starter and alternator and took them into the shop for testing.
Turned out my starter was drawing way too much juice, killing my battery the more I tried to start - I guess it was swelling as it heated up and got even harder to crank. A new starter - and I thought a great ending to my saga, as it seemed to start first time, every time.
Until I took it out today for the post-successful shake down run of yesterday - in which everything worked great - first day on the lake with the family after all the work on the boat. But with the admiral and friends on board, I started hearing some hesitation and/or missing at cruising speed (20-25mph, 2000-3000rpm). Shut it down, switched fuel tanks (thinking the anti-siphon valve in the front tank may be constricting fuel), started right back up. But after 5 minutes or so, started slowing down and missing, coughing on its own. I headed for the marina and dropped off the other boaters. It ran fine at the dock, even restarted over and over again. So I decided for another test run, alone.
After a few minutes (5 or 10) it started missing and acting like it was starving for fuel or misfiring. I turned for the marina, but it died on me while I was still a half-mile away, and downwind. I pulled my test light and all the voltages seemed to be there (thanks to the Adult Section) = ignition, coil +, coil -, solenoid, etc. It cranks great, it's getting fuel (I even shot some starter fluid), but NO SPARK.
I pulled out my timing light to check if the timing had shifted. No flashing (due to no spark). I then attached my dwell meter, 24 degrees as specified - so the distributor points are opening/closing correctly. I felt the coil, warm but not too hot (it was a 90 degree day). I tried over and over, no spark. None out of the coil into the distributor (had my special test light that goes into the spark plug line - no lighting of the lamp) or with a pulled 'clean as a whistle' spark plug grounded on the exhaust header. No spark, no "snap" sound.
I paddled to the closest shore (20-30 minutes, a big heavy boat for my little paddle), walked the mile thru the woods back to my truck in the parking lot, unhooked the trailer, drove back as close as I could get to the boat, took my tools to pull the coil, drove to town (15 miles), described my recent experience and the counter folks all said "it's the coil!" Bought a new coil (even though my old one tested marginally within specs) and headed back to the lake. Installed the coil. Cranked fast, no start. Added starter fluid, no start. Said a few prayers and crossed my fingers, tried again. No start. By this time, a nice guy came over and asked if I needed some help. Yep. He towed me to the marina. I tried some other ideas (both mine and all those on the docks, particularly those that confessed to being mechanics) but nothing 'hit.' No fire. The smartest docker mentioned "it'll be a loose wire or sumpin'."
Onto the trailer, towed home, hooked to the hose. Tried again. Still nothing. Logged onto iBoats forum and searched for 'no spark' etc and read up on all the others that have had this (or similar) problem. Printed out some suggestions and diagrams, back to the driveway to check other voltages and resistances and found that my external ballast resistor was only metering 4 volts on the coil side and 5 volts on the ignition switch side. I was getting 14 volts out of the alternator while cranking, but I recall 8 or 9 volts was going into the coil earlier in the week - and now only 4 volts. I started suspecting the ballast resistor (or wiring to it).
For grins, I bypassed (for testing purposes only, I know not to run 12v into the coil full time) the resistor with a jumper - and it started right up. I quickly pulled the jumper, still running fine. I turned the engine off, turned the switch to start, it complied - started right up. I went back to double check the voltages now going into the coil: about 8 or 9 volts in and 9 or 10 volts out (don't remember precisely, but lower than 12v). I checked the ballast resistor - same as the coil, 8 in/9 out (or so).
Now it is starting every time (about 12-15 restarts). But I fear it will heat back up whilst on the lake and stop sparking/providing fire for the coil/distributor/plugs.
Any advice on what to do or check next?
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Jerry
PS. Is there a limit on how long these questions can be? Sorry this one is so long, but I wanted to tell the tale and include as many facts as I could remember. I really don't like being towed into the dock for a third time this week!
Thanks to this forum, I changed the two worn primary drive shaft bearings, the 'knocking' universal joints, and both the leaking drive and exhaust bellows. The outdrive is now working fine.
My continuing issues are with the engine. First, I was getting very hard starting after getting warmed up and noticed that I sometimes didn't have spark at the plugs - intermittent, usually after a long evening/night of troubleshooting in the driveway attached to the hose while fixing the other stuff mentioned above. I'd give up and go to bed and it would start and run fine the next day.
But out on the lake, after an hour or so of skiing or wake boarding, if I shut off the engine, it might not always start back up. I thought it was timing, worn lobes on the distributor, bad points, weak pickup coil, old plugs, bad wires, etc - so I change all those (new disty, new wires, new plugs, new fuel filter). But the problem still happened to the point of killing my battery cranking away with a boat load of people after we'd been out boating for a couple hours.
Got a new battery. Better, but still might not always start back up - and the cranking was getting slower and slower each subsequent time we stopped (change skiers, etc) and tried to start up again. Then it would take longer and longer "cooling off periods" to get it to start back up. After the second tow into the marina from the other side of the lake when it wouldn't restart, I pulled the solenoid, starter and alternator and took them into the shop for testing.
Turned out my starter was drawing way too much juice, killing my battery the more I tried to start - I guess it was swelling as it heated up and got even harder to crank. A new starter - and I thought a great ending to my saga, as it seemed to start first time, every time.
Until I took it out today for the post-successful shake down run of yesterday - in which everything worked great - first day on the lake with the family after all the work on the boat. But with the admiral and friends on board, I started hearing some hesitation and/or missing at cruising speed (20-25mph, 2000-3000rpm). Shut it down, switched fuel tanks (thinking the anti-siphon valve in the front tank may be constricting fuel), started right back up. But after 5 minutes or so, started slowing down and missing, coughing on its own. I headed for the marina and dropped off the other boaters. It ran fine at the dock, even restarted over and over again. So I decided for another test run, alone.
After a few minutes (5 or 10) it started missing and acting like it was starving for fuel or misfiring. I turned for the marina, but it died on me while I was still a half-mile away, and downwind. I pulled my test light and all the voltages seemed to be there (thanks to the Adult Section) = ignition, coil +, coil -, solenoid, etc. It cranks great, it's getting fuel (I even shot some starter fluid), but NO SPARK.
I pulled out my timing light to check if the timing had shifted. No flashing (due to no spark). I then attached my dwell meter, 24 degrees as specified - so the distributor points are opening/closing correctly. I felt the coil, warm but not too hot (it was a 90 degree day). I tried over and over, no spark. None out of the coil into the distributor (had my special test light that goes into the spark plug line - no lighting of the lamp) or with a pulled 'clean as a whistle' spark plug grounded on the exhaust header. No spark, no "snap" sound.
I paddled to the closest shore (20-30 minutes, a big heavy boat for my little paddle), walked the mile thru the woods back to my truck in the parking lot, unhooked the trailer, drove back as close as I could get to the boat, took my tools to pull the coil, drove to town (15 miles), described my recent experience and the counter folks all said "it's the coil!" Bought a new coil (even though my old one tested marginally within specs) and headed back to the lake. Installed the coil. Cranked fast, no start. Added starter fluid, no start. Said a few prayers and crossed my fingers, tried again. No start. By this time, a nice guy came over and asked if I needed some help. Yep. He towed me to the marina. I tried some other ideas (both mine and all those on the docks, particularly those that confessed to being mechanics) but nothing 'hit.' No fire. The smartest docker mentioned "it'll be a loose wire or sumpin'."
Onto the trailer, towed home, hooked to the hose. Tried again. Still nothing. Logged onto iBoats forum and searched for 'no spark' etc and read up on all the others that have had this (or similar) problem. Printed out some suggestions and diagrams, back to the driveway to check other voltages and resistances and found that my external ballast resistor was only metering 4 volts on the coil side and 5 volts on the ignition switch side. I was getting 14 volts out of the alternator while cranking, but I recall 8 or 9 volts was going into the coil earlier in the week - and now only 4 volts. I started suspecting the ballast resistor (or wiring to it).
For grins, I bypassed (for testing purposes only, I know not to run 12v into the coil full time) the resistor with a jumper - and it started right up. I quickly pulled the jumper, still running fine. I turned the engine off, turned the switch to start, it complied - started right up. I went back to double check the voltages now going into the coil: about 8 or 9 volts in and 9 or 10 volts out (don't remember precisely, but lower than 12v). I checked the ballast resistor - same as the coil, 8 in/9 out (or so).
Now it is starting every time (about 12-15 restarts). But I fear it will heat back up whilst on the lake and stop sparking/providing fire for the coil/distributor/plugs.
Any advice on what to do or check next?
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Jerry
PS. Is there a limit on how long these questions can be? Sorry this one is so long, but I wanted to tell the tale and include as many facts as I could remember. I really don't like being towed into the dock for a third time this week!
