Boat problems, Help please

Hey,
I am having a couple problems with my boat. First of all, my boat sometimes turns off at sudden times. A few times at random times my engine just shuts off. It has done it a couple times while I am pulling a wakeboarder going about twenty miles an hour. Most of the time, if I sit and idle for a few minutes, it starts running rough and then shuts off. It doesn't seem to be a real problem but is really annoying. The engine is a 97 mercury 90 horsepower. It did this at the end of last year also, I took it to the dealer and they did a tune up and changed the spark plugs and it worked fine for the last month of the season but started doing it again about the fifth time I had it out this year. Also, when I got my boat out for the season my RPM guage doesn't work. It worked fine all last year. Any idea of some quick things I can check before I pay a dealer to look at it. It is a 97 bayliner capri if that helps.

Hmmm.... wakeboarding behind a Bayliner with a 90 Hp outboard. Dude, you need a new boat!

If you insist on making this one run, then I would suggest tracking down why the tachometer quit working, the problems just might be related. The tachometer connects to the ignition system, and if the wire that connects the two shorts out it would kill the engine.

It is possible that the wire has simply fallen off the back of the tach and when it bounces just right it touches metal and shorts out.

When the engine dies, does it start back up right away?

A thing to try would be to squeeze the priming bulb when the motor starts to run rough and see if that clears it up. If it is a fuel related problem then I would expect that to clear it up, but if it is an ignition related problem it will do nothing.

Rod

Hey,
I know I despiratly need a new boat but I am a poor college kid and can't afford it. Yeah, when it dies, it will turn back on right away. I will try the priming bulb next time I go out.
Thanks for the info,
Jimmy

Jimmy, are you running an extra battery with those tower speakers? It seems like that is a lot of tower speakers for an outboard with one battery. I doubt this has any relation to your problem, but I was just curious when I saw the speakers the other day.

(Message edited by kstateskier on May 11, 2004)

Suggest checking the fuel filter.

Jimmy,

I had a similar problem with my 1998 200 hp EFI merc, turns out the manual fuel pump (pulse pump) was losing prime, letting air into the fuel system. I ended up replacing the fuel lines around the motor with the mercury fuel line, very soft and pliable. If this doesn't work, my next guess is that one of the diaphrams in the fuel pump is bad, which is easy to rebuild for about 10 bucks.

Hey Nick,
I am working on running an extra battery but I am having a few problems with that also. I am trying to run the speakers off of a deep cycle battery but I can't get it to work. My amp will not work if I run the stero and tower speakers off of different batteries so I have to keep them on the same one. The problem with this is that my guages are on the same power wire as my stereo and if I hook up my guages to the deep cycle they dont work. I am not sure what I can do to solve this problem. Any ideas or thoughts on this would also be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jimmy

Jimmy, I'm not as big of stereo guy as I would like to be, but I have a friend that is in to it, I'll talk to him, or I'm sure someone on this site can help.

Jimmy, the amp won't care what batt it is hooked up to....but it needs to be a good batt to start with. You can hook up amp/stereo to 2 different batts.....check your batteries and make sure they are both good. The remote wire coming from the stereo needs to go to the amp, but use the main power and grd cable from the amp to the other battery. Need help, holler at me

Hey Michael,
that is pretty much how I have it set up now. When I bought my boat, it already had the stereo installed in it so I am not sure exacltly how it is wired. it looks like the ground cable from the deck comes straight to the starter battery but there is only one power cable to that battery so they must have spliced the power cable for the deck in to that cable. When I hook up my boat and tower speakers to either battery together exerything works but when I hook them up to seperate batteries, the amp and tower speakers do not work. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know.
Thanks,
Jimmy

Jimmy, email me at mgamble@houston.rr.com with a number I can contact you, and I'll give you a call after 9 p.m. tonight.....I'm sure I can run this down w/you on the phone and get you up and running. I've had quite a bit of experience setting these types of things up.....I'll check my email and holler at you tonite.