After 3+ seasons of absolutely NO motor issues my luck finally ran out. Thurs eve I'm out on the river for my final check of new PD and cables. They are all good. So I'm just cruising around. Nobody else out - I mean nobody. No other boat trailers at the ramp. And of course, I'm doing 3k rpm and the motor coughs once, then catches and then stops dead. The tank I was on was very low so I assume I ran it dry but I've done that (on purpose) and I get a little different deal with some sputtering and time to switch tanks. But change over and I have about 1/8 left in the big tank (35 gal). I check the engine just in case there's a giant on/off switch that had moved itself into off. Nope. So I start carefully trying to restart. About 4-6 tries battery is getting tired. I am almost to the point where I will need to start paddling or call 911 in the next 30 min before I go over Willamette falls. I wiggle the coil wires and the dizzy cap basically doing nothing. But I try one more time and boom off she fires.

So I chalk it up to no fuel.

Take it back out the next night. Same deal nobody else on the river except I am smart and bring a daughter and boyfriend to row just in case. I also put 15 gals in each tank. Boat fires right up. Off we go after warmup. 15 minutes into a run up river and wham same thing. A cough and total stop. Now I doubt it is fuel and start wigglin ignition wires. Try the motor and it fires right up. Start back for the dock. Runs great. Near the dock I put it idle and let the BF drive. He gets in the seat and touches the throttle and it dies. I make him start rowing. I try starting and it fires up. I idle to the dock and we go home.

So how do I go about troubleshooting this? I need to be in the water or at least on the trailer in the water. But I want to bring some chit to try swapping out so I've got a chance of fixing it instead of getting stranded and go on the evening news. It's got to be fuel or ignition.

BBF. Points, coil nuttin fancy. Elec choke is on and hooked up because this is Oregon not SoCal. And I will say that I bet the choke is working because this early in the season the water is friggin cold. The temp gage is basically 120-130 instead of 130-150 during "Summer" season. My fuel lines run from bow and keel tanks uphill to a 3-way and then down into the bilge, up to the mech fuel pump and then up to the carb. This is the way they were all last season too and no random stopping like now. There's some pics of the motor in my gallery but I can put some more on this thread if need be.

Thanks for any help dudes!

don't forget a jumper wire (incase the ignition switch is crapping out).

Oooo!!!! GT damn!!!  You know what HAS changed since last season? I tore into the control lever and rebuilt it. Which means I shoved the neutral safety switch around and probably beat it up.

Guess what happened when the boyfriend (daughters not mine  ) touched the throttle? It stopped! (I've got a combo throttle shifter not a gas pedal.)

Theory A - I've got an intermittent short right there in the safety switches!!!

U da man GT! That's karma material right there!

How would the nuetral safety switch kill the motor if it's already running?   

GT

Hellifiknow. But an intermittent short/open in the main key/safety switch circuit fits the symptoms better than a fuel issue does. The symptoms fit a loss of power to/from the coil better than anything else. So maybe the coil or ballast suddenly failed this season instead of the other 15 years, but I know I dicked around the safety switch area over the winter and I am ALWAYS the most likely cause of the problemo!

Sounds like Glenn got it. But I'd still replace the ballast resistor, if you're running one. Sounds to me like the ceramic coating might be gone in one spot and a lil water...viola. Used to have the same thing happen in Mopars til I got smart and started mounting the things on top of a fenderwell instead of the firewall where water always hit it.

Just my .02

Ray

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about, driving while jiggling wires under the dash! Haven't done that since High School! What Hot rodding is all about!

Good luck with it, I'm unfamiliar with the Morse combo controls. Were it me, I'd bypass this 'neutral safety' switch as a test to begin with. Then start there. I think, with all respect to Glenn, you're gonna find the ballast resistor is the issue, IMHO. (Why I went Hyfire and dun run one). Never liked the idea behind those Mofo's EVER!

Ray

I had an intermittent loss of power followed by a total shut down last season at Elsinore (thanks for the tow, Flytime).  But it ended up being a broken wire at the ignition switch.

Thats he problem with having a 30 year old boat with 30 year old wiring 

 Could also be worn / corroded contacts in the ignition switch.  My Lancer did this 2yrs ago.  It would just shut its self off, as soon as you touched te key it would have power again.

Another thing to check out is a cloged fuel filter! I had a problem that sounded alot like yours and that is what it turned out to be.

A fuel pressure gauge is a bonus(maybe you have on already?) At least you'd know if you were dealing with a fuel or fire issue. I had an ign switch go bad once took me a season to figure out WTF.

hotwire the boat and see if it stays running

Weather turned nasty and I also got some work pour in so I'm busy chasing income and in hold mode on the boat.

Meanwhile I've realized I need to put the crack pipe down for a few days and clear my head. The safety switch has nuttn to do with anything but the start solenoid so it couldn't be involved in the random stopping. Which is why Glenn was politely asking me WTF Steve  which means now I gotta give him another karma for being so polite.

but the waterfall thing spooked the crap out of me.lol

hah hah! Yeah I'm good at makin the story sound better than it was. There's plenty of places to catch yourself before actually doing the ultimate. But you don't think logically when you are on the uphill side and you start realizing that having some other boaters out on the water isn't such a bad thing.



When my motor finally fired back up I was about 100 yards upriver from that little ski boat you can see in the pic.

where is that Bonneville? used to live in portland, camped on the columbia all the time, go to multnoma falls......almost fifty years ago

It's Willamette Falls at Oregon City just south of downtown Portland. I live in West Linn which has a real nice, free ramp and park just upriver of the falls. It's 5 minutes from my driveway to the ramp and I've never had to wait for more than one other guy ahead of me.

Only downside is everybody else on this section of water is in a wakeboat. I am the only I mean only prick with no mufflers for miles. So it's fun but... sniff... lonely. 

I went to dinner on the Spirit of Portland dinner cruz, and the big sternwheeler (christmas party) on the Wilamete, I got to drive it. Actualy I think they were both christmas parties.

Me too! 'cept they didn't let me drive