I've posted before that I don't know anything about motors. Now I'm about to prove it.
I bought a runabout after I sold my Hunter to get out on the water with. It's 2002 Mercury 60 HP motor ran fine last year but from the outset this year it has lacked power. After making excuses about the bottom not being clean and this or that I finally had to admit it was running poorly. Based on these forums I got some Sea Foam and put that in the gas (The acetone thing was tempting but I couldn't ascertain that it wouldn't harm any plastic or rubber parts). Anyway the Sea Foam didn't work.
My history of "Fixing" motors is that I take them apart and then they never run again. I end up taking them to the dump. But that didn't dissuade me from trying again despite the overwhelming evidence that I should just take the motor to the "Guy". But I was figuring that it has 3 carburetors and would be expensive to have all three rebuilt. I was convinced that they were gunked up. Soooooo,
Yesterday was the day. I was going to take the boat to a beach where I can stand behind the motor and access it without killing my back. My plan was to take each spark plug wire off while the motor was running and see if I could identify if one or more cylinders were a problem so that when I took the boat in, I could tell them to look there first. Or maybe I would try to overhaul one carburetor if it weren't too hard to get off the engine. So I took the engine cover off, with the motor not running, and thought why don't I just check the wires first. The middle spark plug wire fell off the power distributer after I barely touched it. I put it back in. Two other wire ends were not fully pressed into their connectors and I pushed them back on.
I decided to test it since I wasn't anxious to stand in the water and pull each wire off while the motor was running. And, of course the title of the post gives away the ending. The boat took off like a banshee. It's running better than ever - I do think the Sea Foam improved the carburetor performance.
So to Stu and others who encourage us to try to solve our own problems, or at least get informed about them, thanks. I'mma so happy and I saved a pile of money.
I bought a runabout after I sold my Hunter to get out on the water with. It's 2002 Mercury 60 HP motor ran fine last year but from the outset this year it has lacked power. After making excuses about the bottom not being clean and this or that I finally had to admit it was running poorly. Based on these forums I got some Sea Foam and put that in the gas (The acetone thing was tempting but I couldn't ascertain that it wouldn't harm any plastic or rubber parts). Anyway the Sea Foam didn't work.
My history of "Fixing" motors is that I take them apart and then they never run again. I end up taking them to the dump. But that didn't dissuade me from trying again despite the overwhelming evidence that I should just take the motor to the "Guy". But I was figuring that it has 3 carburetors and would be expensive to have all three rebuilt. I was convinced that they were gunked up. Soooooo,
Yesterday was the day. I was going to take the boat to a beach where I can stand behind the motor and access it without killing my back. My plan was to take each spark plug wire off while the motor was running and see if I could identify if one or more cylinders were a problem so that when I took the boat in, I could tell them to look there first. Or maybe I would try to overhaul one carburetor if it weren't too hard to get off the engine. So I took the engine cover off, with the motor not running, and thought why don't I just check the wires first. The middle spark plug wire fell off the power distributer after I barely touched it. I put it back in. Two other wire ends were not fully pressed into their connectors and I pushed them back on.
I decided to test it since I wasn't anxious to stand in the water and pull each wire off while the motor was running. And, of course the title of the post gives away the ending. The boat took off like a banshee. It's running better than ever - I do think the Sea Foam improved the carburetor performance.
So to Stu and others who encourage us to try to solve our own problems, or at least get informed about them, thanks. I'mma so happy and I saved a pile of money.
