motor is going to the shop!!

[illinoisbassfishin]

Well I'm finally going to take my motor to the shop. We have done everything we can do ourselves and it's still not running right. It is a 1983 Mariner 115 Inline 6. We have cleaned out all 3 carbs, rebuilt all 3 carbs, put in a new fuel pump and fuel line and primer bulb and did all the carburetor adjustments we know how to do. It runs great once you get it in gear and about 1000 rpm all the way up to 5500 rpm at WOT. But it won't idle at all when it's in neutral or when it's in forward gear on a low idle and it bogs out and dies when you try to give it gas and push it up on the trailer. One day we were messing with it trying to get it to idle and when we were adjusting on it instead of slowing the idle down with the idle adjustment screw on the lower right side of the motor on the throttle arm we adjusted on the primary pickup screw up by the flywheel and stator where the max spark advance adjustment is also. So hopefully what we are thinking is by doing that we either sped up or slowed down the timing and has the idle all out of whack. We are going to take it to the marine shop so they can put it in a test tank and do a link and sync on it and hopefully they can fix it!!! The guy I talked to on the phone said it could possibly be that the reed cages are worn out and he told me the price of that so I sure hope it's not that!!!

 

[Chris1956]

Re: motor is going to the shop!!

Your reed cages are likely fine. They almost never wear out or break. Since you messed with the timing, it will need to be reset.

I am concerned about the quality of a mechanic who can determine your reeds are worn, over the phone. Does this guy have any references?

An inline six is best tuned by someone who has done it before. The carb idle mixture needs to be set just right to have a good idle and good acceleration.

Good luck....

 

[illinoisbassfishin]

Re: motor is going to the shop!!

He has been around for quite a while as a marine mechanic. I've never took a boat a shop before ever but I know people that have been to his shop and they said he does a great job and he told me he has been working on mercury/mariner motors for 20 years. I don't think he was directly telling me that my reed cages were worn out he was just telling me from my symptoms i'm having with the motor that it could be a possibility. I don't know anything about it but he also said it was rare for the reed cages to go bad but it all depends on how the motor was taken care of and everything. I know we adjusted the primary pickup screw on the motor which has to do with the timing so I'm just hoping this will fix it.