The Wright Stuff
Seaman Apprentice
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2005
- Messages
- 34
Well I finally got the boat on the water today. It was the first time Ive tried running it. It went worse than expected. I have a 1973 16ft fiberglass boat running a 1988 Mercury 50 HP.<br /><br />Got out there and pumped the bulb til it was hard, raises the fast idle lever half way, held in the choke and it cranked right up, only to die 10 seconds later. After that it wouldnt start. I checked the fuel and the bulb was still tight. Thought I might have flooded it. Waited 10 minutes, raised the fast idle all the way up, and cranked it with no choke, took a little bit but it started. <br /><br />Thought I was money. I was wrong. I visually checked the OB and noticed a leak coming from under the cowling near the tell-tale and a film on the water...uh oh. Removed the cowling and saw that the tell-tale rubber nozzle was rotted and was spewing water into the cowling, no big deal....but where was the film and the oil spots on the water coming from? Followed the fuel line and traced it back to the carbs and there was fuel steadily pouring out of them. NOT good. Let it run for a few minutes hoping it would miraculously heal itself and it didnt. <br /><br />So I knew I was going to have to take it home. Well it was already on the water having taken it off the trailer(stupid me). So I figured it wouldnt hurt to run the OB long enough to retrailor it. Well tried to put it in gear but I could not lower the fast idle lever all the way down without it dying. Another problem. So I just slammed it down really fast and put it in reverse at the same time. That worked. Thought I was golden...wrong again. Backed about 100 feet from the dock and threw it into forward and tried to turn....CRAP. I can only turn LEFT!! It would turn left and back to dead center but not an inch right. So after some carefull backand forth and about 10 minutes I got it back to the dock and threw a dock line. So I just killed it and had to get soaked hand loading it onto the trailer.<br /><br />So overall,<br />fuel spewing from the carb area<br />steering screwed up<br />will not idle without the fast idle lever raised some. <br />rotten tell-tale spout(not a biggie)<br /><br />Well I was thinking this day would be alot more fun than it was. Im just very PO'd about it and just feel really down that everything went so bad. At least it didnt blow up. Thats about the only good thing I can say about it.
<br /><br />Not sure about the steering thing unless something is broken in the helm or way out of whack back by the motor.