I have the old Finnish Vire 7 inboard gas engine in my 77 Oday 25. Has always run well however this year she started up fine after the winter but cuts out after about 15 minutes of runtime. Then it will only remain running if I apply full choke. I changed the plug (single cylinder) and replaced the sierra gas/water separator filter. She ran fine while tied up, ran her for an hour then took her out and she died in the exact same spot 15 minutes from the marina. Has a Tillottson HL carb. Just curious whether any of you gas engine tinkerers recognize these symptoms? Bad gas? Bad carb? Timing issue? Just trying to keep the old girl running for a few more years.
Vire 7 gas engine carb problem?
- Thread starter stx203
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Boy does this sound familiar. Had the same exact problem with my Atomic 4. Do you have the push/pull ignition switch? Had to replace mine. How about the coil? Had to replace mine. Cap and rotor? New ones here. I also rebuilt the carb and retro fitted the electric fuel pump. It cost around 400 for everything but the insurance paid 950 for the tow in. An overheating coil is the most likely culprit. Many of these old boats had coil changes that didn't include a resitor coil or a ballast resistor. This threw 12 volts to the coil which overheats them. I experienced a shutdown without any warning. With the fuel side you should see a sputter or skip as it starves for fuel. The fast stop is more an indicator of loss of spark. Just learned this myself.
I feel your pain. I also have a vire7 in my 25. I just got back from a week sail and the old vire ran like a champ. I tied up in a slip at the marina to leave her for a few days. As i was walking off the dock I had a last minute thought and grabbed the anchor I had bungeed on the bow and put it under the starboard seat. You know the one that has the ignition switch exposed on the inside :cry: Yep the anchor hit the exposed key switch and fried the coil. Yep the coil that's behind the flywheel. :cry: So I ran down to the auto parts store and grabbed a 12volt coil. clipped the wire between the old coil and the condenser using a mirror to see what wire I was clipping with my body twisted into the shape of a pretzel. I then ran the wire from old shut off switch to the negative side of the coil and a new hot from the switch to the positive side of the coil. I don't need a magneto anyway i was thinking. By this time its getting close to dark on Saturday night and everything is testing out like it should I got juice on the positive side of the coil and the negative side is flashing with my test light when I turn over the engine but im not getting spark. By then I really confused and aggravated It should be working its getting dark and im running out of sailing time.
So I checked the coil and they sold me a bad one! The auto parts store is closed and not open the next day. The weekends shot and if i would have had the energy I would have tossed the vire over board. Lol.. Thats my vire story from the weekend If I were you I would pull the carb off and give it a good cleaning. Something to note if yours is like mine the left bolt that holds the spark arrestor on needs a small washer on the head of the bolt or it will hit the choke shaft when its screwed in tight and the choke will not work. I found that out the hard way. Also drain the tank and add new gas if you've not already done that. One more suggestion I highly recommend is take off the exhaust elbow and burn out all the gunk that has built up in there. You will be shocked how clogged up it will be. Im also thinking you have a overheating problem and the exhaust cleaning should help. How much water is it spitting out?The vire does have a push pull magnetic type cut off switch. the magneto is behind the flywheel with the condenser, coil and points. If that's the problem you may want to switch over to a standard ignition system like i am trying to do. You would have to pull the engine to replace the coil, condenser or points. There is just not enough room to get to it there is no front access to the engine. If you switch to a standard ignition system you lose the ability to start the engine using a pull rope. Also you are using 12 volt power to the coil anytime its running. Does anyone know how much juice I'm using? the vire doesnt have an alternator.
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