Re: Will a bad fuel pump cause my boat to not plane out?
ok im going to type a good size summary of everything, so i can give you guys the best imformation i can.
It started out when i bought the boat, it had a starter problem and only cranked on pull starts, which was very difficult and i have no idea how he did it on the water..
the first thing i did was get the starter rebuilt, i got it built in a city near the water here in alabam, its was 65$ and worked great.
The boats throttle seems to be very touch there is a spot with an arrow that says start here. The engine will not even try to turn over unless it is a half inch above this start here, then it turns over, sometimes i trys to crank, when it does i give it more throttle, it will either stop trying to turn over or it will crank up. it also had problems idleing low, if i try to idle it would die.
the first crank is ALWAYS the hardest, sometimes ill sit there for 5mins trying to crank it. After its cranked and i ride it to the fishign spot which isnt very far i can turn it off then it cranks not easy still, but easier, sometimes withen the first 3-4 times of trying to crank it, following the same procedure as above.
So i called this boat shop near my house, its big, packed and sells lots of boats. so i figured it would be a good place. I told them my problems and they said it sounds like the carbs need to be cleaned. so i said how muhc, they said its 100$ per carb and my boat has 2. so 200 bucks.
I also wanted them to re-seal the drain plug, it was wearing out and made me nervous, so they did that also. whats alll this run, he said thats nothign , should be no more then 250.
I rode up there to checkk on the boat after not hearing from them for 3-4 days and they were working on it, while i was there they were like wheres the Kill switch on this boat, and i said what?? (im new to boating obvioulsy)
and he said yeah a switch to conenct to your life vest its needed on boats here in alabama, so i said how much is a kill swtich he said 15bux i said ok go ahead and do it. and while your at it i already have a speedometer but its not hooked up, he said it would need some device to go on the back of the boat i said ok how much 10buck,s go ahead and do it.
2-3 days later i go up there to check on the boat again because of course i havent heard from them. I pull up and he says they litterally just fishined it up and hes walking me through it, he showed me the kill switch, showed me the drain plug, then started explaining about how the fron battery had the lights and the trolling motor on it. and it also had a hot wire from the main battery going up to that battery makiung it a 24volt system that was bad so he rewired all that stuff, i was like well thats nice of him (i guess i ended up paying him in the end) which the wiring looked good now, i wasnt complaining. i asked about thes peedomenter and he said that he blew some air in it and it seemed to work, (thanks i guess?)
then he went to crank it. it took him a LONG time to crank, im talkinga bout a good 10 mins, he said it could be becasue they had winterized gas, alot of extra oil in it. finally it cranked, after he tried to tell me something about this motor has problems idleing that there was nothign that could be done about it, something abuot just the year and age, thats why it had that "sweet spot" to crank it. i was aggitated, but i was ready to take my boat out and didnt even think to mention that the reason i brought it in was to fix the idleing and cranking problem -.-.
so i figured i was close to the 300 range with all this extra work.
when he told me 600 i was like woah! i didnt say anything but if the boat ran good and idled okay i guess id deal with it.
the reciept pretty much said parts ordered then"shop hours"
like....
Speedometer thing -10
brass drain plug-10
carb kit -25
Shop hours 5.0
total 600
________________
something like that.
__________________
so i was aggitated but i only paid 300bucks for the boat so i can deal with that. even though theres a 50hp evinrude in my area on craigslist for 600bucks right now, that has no problems at all cranks right up etc.etc. which i recently found....
This was monday afternoon..
tuesday i took the boat out, it took forever to crank so long that the battery died *the battery is old, so that could be it* i swtiched it over to teh trolling motor battery and that cvranked it up fairly fast.
road aourn everything was fine all day..
HONESTLY i found NO diffrence in the carbs, still had troubles idleing and cranking.
I brought the boat in, and that was it.
wednesday i went back out with my wife..
the boat wont plane out- again i know little about boats, i started freaking out thought we were taking in water in the dry space or whatever(where i drain the drain plug) but after sitting next to the dock 10mins i come to realize, that no were not sinking, so i give it another try, at full throttle it just cruises on top of the water bearly going anywhere. like if i had the thorttle at 1/8 push foward. i guess to explain it.
so it wouldnt pick up and go, i drove the boat i guess 20mins from spot to spot and it never changed.
the next day i called a friend up who knows a good bit moere than boat, he came and looked at it, and there is a breather on top of my gas can that was closed and it should be open. so i did that and was excited thinking maybe thats what it was about, but no, i took it back out and it still didnt work, so i called the shop up they said they had a 30day warnty on all the work they did, i took it in on saturday, i called them the first time thursday and thats when they told me it was the fuel pump casuing it to flood and getting to much gas so it wouldnt plane out. ( i think plane out is the correct term. )
its now friday at 1:14pm and i talked to him yesterday at 415 pm and he was trying to find a fuel pump. im about to call him back now and see what he says.