yetanotherusername
Recruit
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2012
- Messages
- 3
First off: Old boat, newbie owner (1st boat - no boating experience beyond a canoe or raft). Please be gentle, we all have to start somewhere.
I have little to no idea what I am doing, other than a better than average general grasp of things mechanical.
I've been looking at the FAQ for a couple hours, but I'm afraid I have some questions that I should apparently already know. I don't.
So, I bought a boat, 76 Bayliner Mutiny with Merc 850. It's old, but it was cheap, and it doesn't appear to be in that bad of shape (but see above - what do I know?)
Took it out the first time, ran OK, but lacked power when I tried to open it up, and it kept dying and losing prime. Brought it back in, replaced O ring on gas intake, replaced fuel filter/water separator, tightened up clamps and such that looked like they need tightening, Poured some Seafoam into what was clearly old gas, took it out today and tried again.
Runs much better. Can get up to speed, and stay there but doesn't seem to want to idle very well. Trouble is, I'm not exactly sure of how it is supposed to idle.
So Question #1. I believe (from what I've read here) that it has a Single Function / Dual Lever control. That is, it has a throttle, that engages the drive, and gives it power. It also has this other little lever on the side that I have been using to keep it idling. I don't want to keep it up when engaging the drive though (as it will clunk loudly), but if I don't keep it up at least a little, the engine will die before the drive engages. Is this normal? Am I misusing the idling lever? I need to know how it is supposed operate so that I can assign proper blame between the boat and its' owner.
Question2: When pulling it back out of the water, I was unable to raise the engine back up for transport. It is a manual procedure (no tilt/trim buttons), but it has what I am assuming is a "reverse lock" or something. My guess is that the lock engaged when I put it into reverse, and now doesn't want to let go. I was able to get it up by removing the pin (that is used to set the tilt) but I never did get the locking mechanism to disengage. I put it in forward, reverse, and neutral, (but maybe not while the engine was started - does it matter?) I am hoping/guessing that something needs greasing, and I am overlooking a grease fitting or two. I found the following description of the locations of the grease fittings, but I need a translation. Also, if there are others that this person didn't mention, please tell me of those too. (And of course if there is some other trick to fixing the problem, I am all ears). Anyway, I do not understand any of the locations, so if someone could please decipher it, I would appreciate it:
"There are grease fitings on the swivel bracket(1), tilt tube(1), PTT(2), tilt lock(1) and 2 on the dissy, if you have one. The steering cable also may have one. "
Question 3: Is there a way to tell the temperature of this engine? Is there a danger of overheating it running at full power? it just seems odd not to have a temperature gauge somewhere.
Question 4: I could not spot an obvious alternator/generator. I assume that it has one, but I just want to make sure that I'm not supposed to be charging the battery manually.
And if it is charging, is there any problem with connecting two batteries in series so that I have an extra one available for when I really screw up and need a trolling motor?
Thanks for the help!
I have little to no idea what I am doing, other than a better than average general grasp of things mechanical.
I've been looking at the FAQ for a couple hours, but I'm afraid I have some questions that I should apparently already know. I don't.
So, I bought a boat, 76 Bayliner Mutiny with Merc 850. It's old, but it was cheap, and it doesn't appear to be in that bad of shape (but see above - what do I know?)
Took it out the first time, ran OK, but lacked power when I tried to open it up, and it kept dying and losing prime. Brought it back in, replaced O ring on gas intake, replaced fuel filter/water separator, tightened up clamps and such that looked like they need tightening, Poured some Seafoam into what was clearly old gas, took it out today and tried again.
Runs much better. Can get up to speed, and stay there but doesn't seem to want to idle very well. Trouble is, I'm not exactly sure of how it is supposed to idle.
So Question #1. I believe (from what I've read here) that it has a Single Function / Dual Lever control. That is, it has a throttle, that engages the drive, and gives it power. It also has this other little lever on the side that I have been using to keep it idling. I don't want to keep it up when engaging the drive though (as it will clunk loudly), but if I don't keep it up at least a little, the engine will die before the drive engages. Is this normal? Am I misusing the idling lever? I need to know how it is supposed operate so that I can assign proper blame between the boat and its' owner.
Question2: When pulling it back out of the water, I was unable to raise the engine back up for transport. It is a manual procedure (no tilt/trim buttons), but it has what I am assuming is a "reverse lock" or something. My guess is that the lock engaged when I put it into reverse, and now doesn't want to let go. I was able to get it up by removing the pin (that is used to set the tilt) but I never did get the locking mechanism to disengage. I put it in forward, reverse, and neutral, (but maybe not while the engine was started - does it matter?) I am hoping/guessing that something needs greasing, and I am overlooking a grease fitting or two. I found the following description of the locations of the grease fittings, but I need a translation. Also, if there are others that this person didn't mention, please tell me of those too. (And of course if there is some other trick to fixing the problem, I am all ears). Anyway, I do not understand any of the locations, so if someone could please decipher it, I would appreciate it:
"There are grease fitings on the swivel bracket(1), tilt tube(1), PTT(2), tilt lock(1) and 2 on the dissy, if you have one. The steering cable also may have one. "
Question 3: Is there a way to tell the temperature of this engine? Is there a danger of overheating it running at full power? it just seems odd not to have a temperature gauge somewhere.
Question 4: I could not spot an obvious alternator/generator. I assume that it has one, but I just want to make sure that I'm not supposed to be charging the battery manually.
And if it is charging, is there any problem with connecting two batteries in series so that I have an extra one available for when I really screw up and need a trolling motor?
Thanks for the help!