New boater - 1984 Force 125

ob12

Cadet
Joined
Jun 18, 2004
Messages
6
Hello to everyone, this forum looks really great. I have been reading and searching for the past few weeks and this forum is really awesome. Just recently my wife and I just bought our first boat, a 1984 Bayliner Capri 19ft. It needed alot of cleaning and care, and we are working on it whenever we can afford to.hhehehe <br />At any rate, I had it in this winter for storage and when when I got it out, I wanted the marina people to tune up the motor and clean it up. Well I think they turned up the idle and left it at that, cause the motor is dirty and has a few issues. I am ordering a clymer manual for this motor, as I don't know anything about outboard boat motors. I have worked on car engines before, but never outboards, and not point/magneto ignitions. <br />My problems are that the motor has low and mid rpm shakes, like it is missing most likely. I would like to add a tach to this motor, so if anyone knows where I can get one, that would be great. Also, when I got the boat out of service/storage, I lost about 10mph of top speed, so I am wondering if they did something to the linkage, (which looks like it controls throttle and timing advance). Also, I bought a new prop, as the one on the motor was really chewed up, and I went from a 15 to a 17, (learning what the pitches mean finally), and the engine does not whine out nearly as much as before and it is even slower with the 17, which is backwards I think. The boat still planes out, but keeps getting slower and slower. So now with the 17 pitch I am running about 25mph with two people and full tank, which is much slower than it should be.<br />Any suggestions?
 

rbruce63

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Aug 30, 2003
Messages
212
Re: New boater - 1984 Force 125

Before you do anything, you will have some reputable mechanic check compression on your motor's four cylinders. If compression is within the range as per your Clymers' or Seelock's manual and when compared with the other cylinders the difference is not more than 10%, then, your motor probably needs a tune up, decarbonizing and a carburettor rebuild. Next time you winterize the motor make sure that you run gasoline stabilizer and drain as much gasoline as possible from the tanks, let the motor idle until there is no gasoline in the carburettors and whatever is left will be stabilized.<br /><br />As far as the propeller pitch what you have done is the following: for every 1" increase in pitch you lower rpm's in your motor 500 rpms. If with the 15" pitch propeller the motor was turning within the wide open throttle range ( usually 4,500 to 5,500), then at wide open throttle with the 17" pitch your motor has already lost 1,000 rpm's. If this is below the recommended rpm range, usually located in your motor's plackard inside the motor hood, then, you will loose speed and also you could end up "lugging" your motor.<br /><br />Perhaps you can still return this propeller and get another with the same number of blades and pitch as the former one.
 

ob12

Cadet
Joined
Jun 18, 2004
Messages
6
Re: New boater - 1984 Force 125

Yeah, I think reputable is the key word. It took me 6 weeks to get my boat out of storage with constant requests, (calling and stopping two to three times a week). And when I finally got it out of storage, it had a bunch of stuff in it that wasn't mine, like ski gloves, a cooler with fresh stuff in it and some ski's. It would seem that someone was using my boat. I will take your advice and check the compression in the cylinders first. I also found that one of my plug wires is broken from corrosion. It has the plug wires that are built into the coils, so I cannot just replace the wire. I need to get a coil. I have two black coils and two blue coils in it now, so maybe I will buy two new ones and hope to have a matching color set..hehehe
 

rbruce63

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Aug 30, 2003
Messages
212
Re: New boater - 1984 Force 125

You can always check ebay for the parts...but make absolutely certain to get a parts manual for your motor perhaps from the Mercury dealer and with this knowledge base in your hand you can order parts cheaper. <br /><br />If the service at your marina is this bad perhaps you can consider buying them out, improve the service and then make money on your hobbie.<br /><br />Remember this however, when the boat is not making water then your wallet is, so it is much better to learn from these manuals and make educated guesses!
 
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