The joys of boat owner$hip?

[motorcyclepilot]

When I did mine, I just pushed the bell housing in real hard with one hand and reached into the inside of the bellow with the other hand and kind of pulled it, with my fingers, towards me. Don't know if that made sense.

Perfectly clear. You must be He-Man! My fingers were aching trying to pull the bellows on from the inside. I assume the drive bellows came last?

 

[Cptkid570]

I did the u-joint bellow first because it was the hardest to get to. Exhaust bellow last because it is the least important (doesn't keep water out, just directs the exhaust).

 

[liquidlew]

Welcome to the wonderful world of the boat ownership "Black Hole", you are in good company, remember this website has over a half a million members!

Black Hole is right!!! Over a half million MEMBERS huh? I can think of a better word, starts with an S and ends with UCKERS. Yes, I am a proud and loyal member of this club. :wof:

 

[motorcyclepilot]

No Title

Finished! If there is such a thing with boats. I've had it on the water twice this past week. The speedo didn't work on the first trip out because the pitot was clogged. On the second outing the speedo indicated 40mph, but who knows? Shortly after passing a 'no wake' area the boat wouldn't go over 2000 rpm and sputtered when trying. Time to head for the dock.

I suspected ignition problems due to some red dust I saw in the distrubutor the previous day. I should've dug deeper. The weights and housing were covered in rusty gritty muck! No wonder things weren't going right.

Cleaned all that up and is running much better on muffs. I ran it up to 3400, but don't want to go full throttle just on muffs. I'll open it up on the next trip out. Plan on ordering new 'guts' for the distributor in the meantime.

 

[motorcyclepilot]

Had a wonderful outing today. Plenty of power and no issues, other than the boat won't go past 3k rpm. Not sure if I trust the tach gage. Hmmmm.....throttle cable? Carb adjustment/cleaning?

Made about 4 or 5 full power runs along a two mile stretch of river. Beached the boat for a bit to let the kids and my mom stretch their legs, then another couple runs.

I would like to try some skiing and definitely wanna get the engine running to 100% of its potential.

Thanks all!

 

[pckeen]

Don't have the knowledge to give you advice on this, but I'm enjoying the read. Good luck.

 

[JASinIL2006]

Had a wonderful outing today. Plenty of power and no issues, other than the boat won't go past 3k rpm. Not sure if I trust the tach gage. Hmmmm.....throttle cable? Carb adjustment/cleaning? Made about 4 or 5 full power runs along a two mile stretch of river. Beached the boat for a bit to let the kids and my mom stretch their legs, then another couple runs. I would like to try some skiing and definitely wanna get the engine running to 100% of its potential. Thanks all!

I found a TinyTach to be a good investment. Handy, cheap way to get a good tach reading, which is essential for re-propping, etc.

 

[NYBo]

Finished! If there is such a thing with boats. I've had it on the water twice this past week. The speedo didn't work on the first trip out because the pitot was clogged. On the second outing the speedo indicated 40mph, but who knows? Shortly after passing a 'no wake' area the boat wouldn't go over 2000 rpm and sputtered when trying. Time to head for the dock.

I suspected ignition problems due to some red dust I saw in the distrubutor the previous day. I should've dug deeper. The weights and housing were covered in rusty gritty muck! No wonder things weren't going right.

Cleaned all that up and is running much better on muffs. I ran it up to 3400, but don't want to go full throttle just on muffs. I'll open it up on the next trip out. Plan on ordering new 'guts' for the distributor in the meantime.

You are a more patient man than I am. Confronted with that rusty mess, my first stop would have been the trash can, and second would have been my computer to order a new distributor.

As to your performance issues, start with the basics: fuel delivery, spark and timing, compression. Since you removed and cleaned up the distributor, double-check everything about it. Is it installed properly and is the timing advance working properly?

 

[motorcyclepilot]

Thanks for that, Bob. I ran the boat on muffs again today to verify RPM. I thoroughly cleaned the spark arrestor to improve airflow. My shop tach shows 3800 at about 3/4 throttle. Don't wanna race the engine on muffs, so will take a reading next time on the water. The boat gage only showed 3K, so the gage isn't working properly. What a relief.

Attempted to adjust the idle. Closing the mixture screw improved idle, but the screw went all the way in and it idles just fine, so next month will be carb rebuild.

Did I mention that the previous owner advised me to "prime" the fuel pump by pouring gas in the carb? Oh, and there was a can of starter fluid in the boat! Grrrrrr.....

My opinion is that engines are designed to start by turning a key and maybe manipulating the throttle a bit. If that doesn't happen, then something needs to be fixed/adjusted/replaced.

 

[motorcyclepilot]

Had the boat out on the river today for 3 hours. It ran up to 4500 RPM WOT according to my shop tach, so the panel gage is incorrect, only reading 2800-3000. :joyous:

The motor should spin at 4200-4600, per the manual, so I am very happy. Carb kit next month. We will see how that goes.


We were going 45-50 mph on the panel, but didn't have GPS to cross check, so will have to do that next time.

 

[Brian 26]

but didn't have GPS to cross check, so will have to do that next time.

If you have a smart phone there are lots of free apps to give you GPS speed. Try to find one that tracks routes and saves your max speed so you don't have to watch your phone trying to visually capture what the highest speed was.

 

[motorcyclepilot]

Thanks Brian, I may give that a go. On another note, I noticed some galling on the lower gimble and traced it to the aft u-joint bellows clamp being positioned improperly. It was actually limiting the forward travel of the outdrive by a few degrees. All better now.