Nandy
Commander
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2004
- Messages
- 2,145
I have a 50 horse power merc 500. Built in 1968. This motor has been running with minimal need for service and the usual yearly maintenance for the last 4 season or so. The last few trips the motor was not running at it's top. It generally does 27mph at wot but now it was doing about 24mph. It will hesitate a bit every now and then and it was running a bit rough at idle speed.
Long story, you can skip it and go to the next paragraph. On monday I went to a new ramp. The lakes here are very low and that made for a very steep ramp. Launching the boat was not a problem but when I was retrieving the boat in the trailer by winching it the motor got a nice dip in the water. I tend to winch the boat by looking away from that nasty steel cable, that makes me give my back to the boat. When I was done "winching" and look back the angle of the trailer put all the weigth of the boat in the back forcing the motor under water way past the merc 500 label. Both carbs got water on it so I went home, empty the carbs and shoot some mix to the motor. Then went to take the sparks pugs out and notice cable #3 was almost completely removed from the sparkplug. Anyway I shoot mix to the motor by sparks plug holes. Crank it for a while and repeat the process. Next day I try to start the motor but I wont. So I deduct the distributor might still be wet and waited until today. I tried to start it today, and it did start and died right away. This repeated a few more times.
So here is where im going, I took the sparks plugs out. Tie them all to a ground and made sure I had good spark in all of them. I did spark in all of them, but #2 tends to miss firing every now and them. At least, that is what I see. I dubt that is the cause of the motor not starting, but could it that be the reason the motor was having problems before? Or does it sound more like #3 sparkplug cable being loose the culprit? Then, how do I go around to make #2 fire all the time without replacing the distributor. Should I wait a few more days, maybe is still wet? What do you all think? Trying to avoid messing with the distributor if I dont have to.
In final note, when I placed the plugs back and try to start it again a cold solder failed in the starter and had to take it to the shop. I will get the starter tomorrow with new brushes, just $65.00. I will try to start it again.
Thanks.
Long story, you can skip it and go to the next paragraph. On monday I went to a new ramp. The lakes here are very low and that made for a very steep ramp. Launching the boat was not a problem but when I was retrieving the boat in the trailer by winching it the motor got a nice dip in the water. I tend to winch the boat by looking away from that nasty steel cable, that makes me give my back to the boat. When I was done "winching" and look back the angle of the trailer put all the weigth of the boat in the back forcing the motor under water way past the merc 500 label. Both carbs got water on it so I went home, empty the carbs and shoot some mix to the motor. Then went to take the sparks pugs out and notice cable #3 was almost completely removed from the sparkplug. Anyway I shoot mix to the motor by sparks plug holes. Crank it for a while and repeat the process. Next day I try to start the motor but I wont. So I deduct the distributor might still be wet and waited until today. I tried to start it today, and it did start and died right away. This repeated a few more times.
So here is where im going, I took the sparks plugs out. Tie them all to a ground and made sure I had good spark in all of them. I did spark in all of them, but #2 tends to miss firing every now and them. At least, that is what I see. I dubt that is the cause of the motor not starting, but could it that be the reason the motor was having problems before? Or does it sound more like #3 sparkplug cable being loose the culprit? Then, how do I go around to make #2 fire all the time without replacing the distributor. Should I wait a few more days, maybe is still wet? What do you all think? Trying to avoid messing with the distributor if I dont have to.
In final note, when I placed the plugs back and try to start it again a cold solder failed in the starter and had to take it to the shop. I will get the starter tomorrow with new brushes, just $65.00. I will try to start it again.
Thanks.