chit maybe i should list my boat there for 12k and see what happens...lol

I was born and raised in Medford. Believe me, there's not a lot of bank executives there throwin their bonus money at boats. 

If it kicks I would have to say it's not bad.  I would be checking for proper wiring.  Do you have a good ground to the block also?

X2 ground. Is your solenoid remote or part of the starter? Mine is remote or separate. I think it grounds through the case and whatever mtng bracket. I had to rethink my mounting bracket scheme once I ran up against this. But after getting ground it worked great.

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 

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.

  Got one, a 78 CV23 jet.

Thank you to everyone who helped.

Pictures!! Pictures!! I need instant gratification!!! 

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!

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!

That's not a "diverter" as in Place Diverter. That would be a stock Berkeley "F" trimmable nozzle. It works, but is a bit "clumsy" compared to the Place unit. Also, there are no replacement parts available for the main components should they break. The "yoke", or gimbal, seems to be the most susceptible to failure. I've seen many requests on various boat board through the years for that specific part.

Ya but the post started with the words "im looking for a berk "e" diverter", so I thought he wanted the Berk version of a diverter not the Place version of a diverter.

Yeah dude - you had to do it. There's nothing wrong with you at least when it comes to spotting a great boat at a great price.

Called PD and chatted. Tim says some people notice less thrust than jetovator rig but very few talk about near total loss of reverse. Especially with only an 18' hull to move around. So I suspect its me and something.

Back in the garage.... When the control lever is just barely in reverse the bucket is fully closed and there's just a bit of play when I grab it and wiggle. All the play is up in the control area I can hear it. But even though I wish it was tighter it isn't enough to push the bucket up off covering the nozzle.

I did notice that both control cables were sliding a bit in the transom bushings so I tightened them a bit more and then decided to just overkill it so I clamped the bastards inside the transom with an additional clamp.

Then I dicked with the trim setting. I moved everything so #5 is now straight (I mean in line with bowl) instead of #4. Now #8 is full down and #3/#2 is full up. I'm going back out when the weather is OK and assume that I just need to remember to go into full or almost full down whenever I want to reverse. Darn another thing to remember when I get near the dock. Fly zipped, beer stowed, limbs inside boat and ... oh yeah trim down boy, down!

Here's a before and after pic. I had a jetovator and had it locked into a fixed trim angle. Now I have the new PD and I left off the rudder. Things are good. I have mild wood. Assometer says I have picked up a leetle bit of mph. I can set a little down trim and get a sweet hole shot and small roost for pulling skiers. I can trim at max up and get a cougar attracting rooster. So life is good...


But I have almost zero reverse thrust now. There's only one of me in the boat so I can't verify that the bucket is all the way down but it sure as hell is when I test in my garage. All I get is a crappy little reverse thrust and A LOT of water splashing into the back of my boat. I also have no neutral now. Used to have just a tiny bit of forward when I was in neutral. Now I have a lot (sez the new dent in the back door of my tow rig.)

With the before gear, I had really nice control of the boat. Slide in and out of reverse at idle and the boat would respond. Now I just have forward, forward.

Help!!! Thanks.

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/boa/1105215600.html

this is the nice one...on sale for 11k...lol

this is the same guy that had the project so i would call him.

Repo's right, this guy had a 2nd hull that he was trying to give away. You might call and find out what happened to that hull.