Repair or Repower?

[Fed up]

Ok guys i have an 89 115 I6, it is in need of electronics. I am a firm believer in if one is replace they all should be replaced. I am right now looking at $700 worth of electronics on a 20+year motor. I have a 15' Champion bass boat.
My question is, is it worth it to replace the electronics on the motor, or would i be better of getting another motor. Granted another motor would be used but at this point i am trying to weigh all of my options.

If the motor is replaced i will defiantly not go with a 115 horse due to this is the max hp rating on the hull. I see this size boat all day with 50-75 hp motors.

Any ideas?

 

[Mi duckdown]

Re: Repair or Repower?

if the max rating is 115, you will disapointed with 75. How do know you the electronics are bad?

 

[Fed up]

Re: Repair or Repower?

all symtoms came down to the high speed stator windings.

 

[CharlieB]

Re: Repair or Repower?

Symptoms?

What TESTS have been done?

Replacing an entire system instead of only the defective component isn't very cost effective.

However there can be made an arguement over the time/life of parts.

 

[Mi duckdown]

Re: Repair or Repower?

Since you don't explain the problem with the motor. it is hard to diagnose.
and you have an OEM Service Manual?

 

[Fed up]

Re: Repair or Repower?

yes i have a service manual... here is a run down of the problems.
compression test was preformed- dont remeber the numbers off hand but were within the 15psi specs.
all fuel lines with bulbs and filters replaced- two fuel tanks removed and cleaned and dried.
complete carb tear down and clean- along with fuel pump.
Link and sync done.

Symtoms, idles great on muffs along with a bit over idle- drop it in the water and it stalls and bogs, with enought effort you can get it to run it will top out at 2500rpm. anymore throttle given just chokes it down. Once it is warmed up it is hard to get back running after shutting down for some fishing. When making a hard right hand turn it will die.

 

[Mi duckdown]

Re: Repair or Repower?

When making a hard right hand turn it will die. That is a little suspect.
You need to check some wireing.
OEM MERC SERVICE MANUAL?

 

[Fed up]

Re: Repair or Repower?

will do. After i posted that the little dummy light came on in my head. I am just getting aggervated with the whole motor...haha.. the wife orriginaly told me just to go buy a new motor. That was untill we were at the bass pro shop and she was speech less at the price of a 75hp and the only thing she said was " they dont even have a price on the 115"

 

[Mi duckdown]

Re: Repair or Repower?

Buy from a MERCURY DEALER ONLY. SERVICE???
Where do you live? if you have a Bass Pro near You,
You must have a Merc Dealer Close by.???

 

[Fed up]

Re: Repair or Repower?

no i was not planning on buying a motor from them or getting service from them. we were there to purchase fishing gear. I have a local mercury dealer here in my home town. I am tempted to drop my motor off with them and let them have a go at it. That is if nothing is obvious

 

[Mi duckdown]

Re: Repair or Repower?

Do YOU live in Michigan?

 

[Fed up]

Re: Repair or Repower?

nope Mississippi

 

[Mi duckdown]

Re: Repair or Repower?

A GOOD MERC Repair Mech should be able to diagnose elec problems in 1 hour. at 60 to 70 dollars an hour.
and that motor is worth every penny.

 

[Fed up]

Re: Repair or Repower?

I think I will swing by there tomorrow after work. Just to see what kind of turn around time I can get. It has finally started to warm up down here so i bet i am not the only one thinking of getting back on the water.

 

[Mi duckdown]

Re: Repair or Repower?

What? There is 20 inches of ice on the lakes up here. Hey email me if you have questions,

 

[Fed up]

Re: Repair or Repower?

4 inches of snow last thursday, 60 degrees today...

 

[CharlieB]

Re: Repair or Repower?

complete carb tear down and clean- along with fuel pump.
Link and sync done.
Symtoms, idles great on muffs along with a bit over idle- drop it in the water and it stalls and bogs, with enought effort you can get it to run it will top out at 2500rpm. anymore throttle given just chokes it down. Once it is warmed up it is hard to get back running after shutting down for some fishing. When making a hard right hand turn it will die.

LOL, it is not uncommon for a well used boat/motor to develop multiple problems that the owner thinks are just 'quirks'.

Taken one-at-a time each can be solved and restore the boat/motor to fine operation again.

The first thing I would check is idle mixture, too lean, back out each mixture screw 1/8 turn and retest acceleration on the water.

Second is a DVA test of the ignition system, a weak high speed winding in the stator will not generate adequate spark and prevent higher RPM.

The right hand turn problem is most likely a pinched/shorted wire in the harness where it flexs in the turn.

 

[Fed up]

Re: Repair or Repower?

The right hand turn problem is most likely a pinched/shorted wire in the harness where it flexs in the turn.

After inspection of most of the harness on the engine, ones that are visable anyway, the only cracked wires i can see are to the trim switches. The trim seems to work fine. But of course those will be fixed shortly.


on another note
when I pulled the flywheel shroud, i guess thats a good term for it, i noticed what seems to look like brake dust on the inside of it. There does seem to be some on the underside of the flywheel. I did notice however that the wires coming from the stator seem to look newer than any of the other wires under there...

further more.
I redid the compression test- the results were 1-135 2-130 3-115 4-135 5-128 6-135
does this make any sense? the number 3 cylinder is with in 15psi of some of the others but not from the highest ones.

 

[Fed up]

Re: Repair or Repower?

Ok I have an update, and a question about stators. I pulled the flywheel from my motor to find that the stator was toasted, yeah it was visualy evident. So I ordered another one.

The model number for the current stator is ******A18
and the newish one is *****A8

The only difference I can see is that the wiring lengths are different. Will it hurt anything if I cut the wires that are too long and shorten them up like the newer model stator?

 

[Fed up]

Re: Repair or Repower?

Alright guys I have an update on my situation, I got the new stator on and she fired right up....took it out to the lake, left it on the trailer and fired her up, hit the throttle and she reved to about 4gs. Figured probably should do a link and sync and clean the carbs. Got home, and for some reason decided to pull the #3 plug to see how it looked. I saw water on the plug, so back on the hose she went fired it up only to see water comming out of the upper exaust port. So I shut it down and pulled the plug back out and got a light and looked around, sure enough part of the piston came apart and apparently went through the water jacket.

This is were my work stoped and my searching started. I looked at a few boats with various motors on them and could not find one to my liking, and in the price range that my accountant allowed me to use.

I happen to expand my search on Craigslist to find a posting for a Glasstream 15.5 foot bass boat with a merc 115 tower of power. Claimed the motor ran great, blue band, with the solid state ignition.

So fastfoward four days and I am at Lake Guntersville to take this thing for a water test. The told me the boat was in decent shape, needed some carpeting. Decent in some peoples eyes are total trash in others eyes.... and this was the case this time.

Hit the water and this thing ran like a champ, so we settled on a deal and i trailered her home.

Now here is where my questions start.

This motor on the Glasstream only has power tilt, and uses and external pump (that leaks like crazy) My motor has tilt and trim with the updated setup. Can i change just the tilt and trim over to the new motor?

Does anyone know what wiring changes will need to be made to make this work with the control box off of the Merc, since the one off of my Mariner will not fit the plug.