First boat at 64

[uncle sage]

Hi guys feeling better now but the Boat is still busted.lol. My fault, i had left the battery to drain, the key switch was in the on position all night after putting it through what i thought was hard use yesterday. Did i say that this is my first boat? So Uncle Bill gave it a good looking over but we couldn't get it to turn over so put a small trickle charger on it for the night.

He seems to think all the controls, chokes, and carbs are working smooth as can be, a little doubtful that i'm going to benefit by running the sea foam thru. Coming back tomorrow he is, we shall soon find out.

 

[CampRipleyLF]

Terrible to hear about your old friend but great way to remember him. Good luck fishing!

 

[uncle sage]

Yeah Bill was a Great Guy, in his 80's when he passed. A hunter and fisherman all his life, he Shepard over a remarkably solid Family, had a strong faith in the Bible, used to like to hunt bucks in the lava beds in Far north Eastern Calif, not too far from where i'm at. He's, taken some real nice bucks, gotten his share of limits out of that boat, and i found him easy to please, easy to make smile. RIP

 

[Yellowstoner]

Sounds like it could be a carburetor, but also I've seen a stuck choke cause similar problems. Good luck! If your rubber components were trashed as some others suggested, it probably wouldn't be running around a lake for 15-20 minutes at a time. The rubber would probably be leaking gas and also dissolved in your fuel. I wouldn't stress about that too much - there's plenty of people that run boats in CA and elsewhere with ethanol. It's not ideal, but it's also not a death sentence as some of the previous posters have seemed to think.

 

[10Dogs]

Uncle..........as Chuckerman suggested above

The priming bulb inline of the fuel hose is always a suspect.
I have personally had to pump this ball constantly to keep my Dad's engine running way back in 1982 before we were "mandated" with E-10
The old 15HP Evinrude would litterally takeoff wity each pump of the ball.

Recently I have had to replace the priming bulb on my snowthrower due to cracking from effects of Ethanol.
It looked like a glazed donut inside from the buildup of sugar.
Understand that these rubber parts could simply be dry rotted or cracked like we get just by getting old.

Uncle.........may God control your sugar and get you back on the lake soon.

10Dogs

 

[Wapiti Warrior]

I have had a bad squeeze bulb that wouldn't allow enough gas through and this caused the motor to not have any power. Once I changed the bulb out the motor ran fine. The old bulbs didn't like the alcohol in the gas.
John

 

[DRAFTSTUD]

My 2 cents: If she will idle, but dies when you apply throttle you probably have a clogged up High Speed Jet. I have (If it's not too clogged) taken the bowl plug out and put carb cleaner hose into that hole, making sure you use a rag or tissue to block blow back out that hole, flush it out with carb cleaner until you see it spray up into the throat of the carb. Old 55's were real bad about this problem. John

 

[Brittany Chukarman]

I was going to suggest the high speed jet next if the easier fixes didn't work. Never heard of fixing it that way, good to know. Good call DS.

 

[uncle sage]

10Dogs said, "Uncle.........may God control your sugar and get you back on the lake soon."

Very nice of you, i might use the help!

Guys, Haven't talked to mechanic U Bill this day yet but he left here yesterday with a little smile on his face like the cat who had eaten the canary, saying he didn't think i'd need a carb flush. I didn't pick that up so much at the time but i noticed, gave it a second thought afterward. All the hoses appear and feel flexible, not sure of the word i want, but they look and feel brand new. In fact, once the old repainted, terrible job, cover is off, it's amazing to me that the motor is 47-48 years old, it's clean as can be brand new looking. Further work pending, hopefully gets done today but i'm no whip snapper especially when a Buddy wants to help.

Thanks again for ALL the concern and helpful thoughts Guys, much appreciated!

 

[uncle sage]

Well there is a lot more to owning and maintaining a boat than i had guessed or supposed. The dead or fully depleted battery, optima blue Top Duel Purpose, did take a charge overnight with U Bills charger set on "trolling motors". I'm finding though, that one does not just charge a depleted optima battery like one would a car battery.The battery now is showing almost 13 volts. When the exercise i'm running right now as i type this, is done, i plan to hook my regular 4 amp charger to it to top it off and hope that works, not sure if it will or won't. A special designed optima battery charger seems awful expensive, especially at this point in the game where i may have to bite the pill and take my losses.

Right now, the boat has the clam shells on, the water on, a few ounces of carb cleaner mixed with one gallon of gas mix, in the 6 gal tank, running at a fast idol and in gear, making a heck of a racked outside. I plan to let it run for a good while or until the gas mix in there runs out.

The motor does now rev up, no problem doing that at all. Out on the lake day before yesterday, would just die when tried to throttle up in gear. U Bill said that it's running a bit rough, not too bad, tuff for him to tell until it's out on the lake when can test it better. I'm optimistic. Thanks again Guys!

 

[brnsvllyjohn]

I have had small amounts of water in my carburetor bowls in engines that sat around too long. Maybe you will be lucky and it was something in the fuel that caused it to run poorly. That should be gone now. If the prior owner never had an issue with the local gas then you are probably not going to have a problem either as long as you use a stabilizer going forward. But all of this is just guessing.
Good luck and go catch some fish.