Hello all. This is my first post here about my first boat. Last season I picked up an 83 Fourwinns with an 83 Mercury 70hp 3cyl. It seemed to run mostly faultless last season. Here and there it seemed as though it would drop a cylinder, but a simple pull blow and reconnect of the spark plug boots seemed to fix it. Well at the end of the season I learned that this must have just been a fluke as I really had troubles at the end of the season. It was bad enough that I could only get it started if I got it wide open throttle and then was able to back it down to about half throttle otherwise it would die. When I got back I found I had no spark and all the wires coming off the stator and trigger were rotten and crumbling.
I replaced the trigger with a CDI trigger, and then the stator with the wrong stator If found later. I was able to get the engine going with the wrong stator but it ran very fast and was very rough sounding. It had turned out I had a stator for a 80hp 4 cyl. While it was in there I had a mobile mechanic try to fix the timing as I felt it was out of wack, but he could not get it to go right. His comment was that anything below 900 rpm and the engine and it seemed like someone was flipping a switch and the engine would just cut out and on the flip side the engine would not go above 3000 rpm.
I corrected the stator with a Sierra that was quintuple checked against the mercury part numbers to ensure I had the right one. I could tell when I put it in that I defiantly had the wrong stator before.
Moving forward I took it home today with the new stator with little success. First I found that the markings on the flywheel were not matching the .464 marking needle, so I moved the flywheel one bolt pattern over and it seemed to match (by eye) top dead center. I am still however having a lot of problems.
Both the previous wrong stator and now the correct stator installed I cannot start the motor without having the throttle pushed almost wide open. Once open it will pop and fly way up in rpm and I can bring it back down but it seems to still idle a bit fast. As soon as I bring it to the idle position it will slow to what seems like (by ear) a reasonable idle but hen completely just switch off again. I realize I need to tune this thing at WOT for timing (and no I dont have the right tools, an RPM gauge or timing light) so for myself all of this is being done by hear, But I can defiantly tell its way off. I tried playing a bit with some of the adjustment screws but couldn't even seem to get this thing close at all. I can never start it without it being WOT, and if I try to aggressively adjust the trigger adjustments Just to see if it will start off key alone I still cant get it.
Any thoughts what I need to be looking for to even get this thing remotely close so I know I am not chasing the wrong thing?
I replaced the trigger with a CDI trigger, and then the stator with the wrong stator If found later. I was able to get the engine going with the wrong stator but it ran very fast and was very rough sounding. It had turned out I had a stator for a 80hp 4 cyl. While it was in there I had a mobile mechanic try to fix the timing as I felt it was out of wack, but he could not get it to go right. His comment was that anything below 900 rpm and the engine and it seemed like someone was flipping a switch and the engine would just cut out and on the flip side the engine would not go above 3000 rpm.
I corrected the stator with a Sierra that was quintuple checked against the mercury part numbers to ensure I had the right one. I could tell when I put it in that I defiantly had the wrong stator before.
Moving forward I took it home today with the new stator with little success. First I found that the markings on the flywheel were not matching the .464 marking needle, so I moved the flywheel one bolt pattern over and it seemed to match (by eye) top dead center. I am still however having a lot of problems.
Both the previous wrong stator and now the correct stator installed I cannot start the motor without having the throttle pushed almost wide open. Once open it will pop and fly way up in rpm and I can bring it back down but it seems to still idle a bit fast. As soon as I bring it to the idle position it will slow to what seems like (by ear) a reasonable idle but hen completely just switch off again. I realize I need to tune this thing at WOT for timing (and no I dont have the right tools, an RPM gauge or timing light) so for myself all of this is being done by hear, But I can defiantly tell its way off. I tried playing a bit with some of the adjustment screws but couldn't even seem to get this thing close at all. I can never start it without it being WOT, and if I try to aggressively adjust the trigger adjustments Just to see if it will start off key alone I still cant get it.
Any thoughts what I need to be looking for to even get this thing remotely close so I know I am not chasing the wrong thing?