outboard misbehavior

Maybe somebody can give me a solution to an outboard motor mystery. I've got a 2-stroke Mercury Mariner 8 h.p. outboard on my other boat. It has a "workboat" propeller (3 blade, low pitch). The little motor starts and runs fine, but once or twice a season it fouls a plug--the upper plug. When I pull the plug, it's not fouled in the sense of having a big accumulation of crud. In fact, the insulator and the electrode are clean except for being wet. Pop a clean plug in and it runs happily again. I take the used plugs home and clean 'em in solvent. It doesn't take much because they're not really fouled. The last time this happened, the plug managed to start firing again for a while. I was running at full throttle and I assume that the gases (air & fuel) being pumped through the dead cylinder dried out the plug enough. It's always a stomach-wrenching moment when the plug fouls because the engine slows down like it's running out of gas. Since I only use it in a busy confined channel, it's not good news to have the outboard stop. So far I've chosen the option of continuing on one cylinder until I'm either in open water and can sail or am back in my slip. Any idea why one cylinder is giving me fits? Chris Campbell

Does it do this all the time or is it random? Is there a period of time that the engine has to run before it starts acting up? I'm no expert but if it's wet it would appear that it is not firing. Why it starts firing when a new one is put in is the mystery as well as why it stops firing to begin with. I would guess it is heat related. Engine gets hot, plug stops firing. Engine cools off, new plug put in and it fires again. Will it re-start with same plug after it cools off and not cleaned up? If possible, next time it stops firing, pull the plug wire off and expose the metal connector and see if you are getting a spark. If you are getting a spark than I'd guess it is valve related but probably still heat dependent as in something is changing when the engine gets hot. Good luck - Paul From: Chris Campbell <cc… [at] lsnm.org> To: Cal_Boats <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> Sent: Mon, Jul 30, 2012 10:20 am Subject: [Cal_Boats] outboard misbehavior Maybe somebody can give me a solution to an outboard motor mystery. I've got a 2-stroke Mercury Mariner 8 h.p. outboard on my other boat. It has a "workboat" propeller (3 blade, low pitch). The little motor starts and runs fine, but once or twice a season it fouls a plug--the upper plug. When I pull the plug, it's not fouled in the sense of having a big accumulation of crud. In fact, the insulator and the electrode are clean except for being wet. Pop a clean plug in and it runs happily again. I take the used plugs home and clean 'em in solvent. It doesn't take much because they're not really fouled. The last time this happened, the plug managed to start firing again for a while. I was running at full throttle and I assume that the gases (air & fuel) being pumped through the dead cylinder dried out the plug enough. It's always a stomach-wrenching moment when the plug fouls because the engine slows down like it's running out of gas. Since I only use it in a busy confined channel, it's not good news to have the outboard stop. So far I've chosen the option of continuing on one cylinder until I'm either in open water and can sail or am back in my slip. Any idea why one cylinder is giving me fits? Chris Campbell

It sounds like an ignition problem. Maybe one of your coils is going out. Could be the ignition coil, magneto charging coil, or trigger coil. If you can find out what the ohms should be on the various coils, you could figure out which one it be. Meanwhile, in a pinch, I found that reducing the spark plug gap allowed me engine to run with a weak coil. Problem is, that coil has gotten progressively weaker and weaker, and when you have a weak spark the engine wants to miss at higher throttle settings. Lately I'm thinking of reducing the gap even further. It's now down to .012, to see if it will run at all. Meanwhile, I sail, and pray to the wind gods for enuff wind to get me to the start line and enuff wind to get me back in the slip. Me competitors have been kind enuff to give me tows back to me slip after the race finish, which with light winds, has been at the mouth of the breakwater, leaving about a mile and a half to get back to the slip. In the case of me Suzuki 4 one banger, I isolated the problem to be the charging coil, but I've been thinking of getting a lighting and battery coil installed as well, as long as I'll have to pull the flywheel to get at it. Decisions, decisions. Good Luck, Jerry From: Chris Campbell <cc… [at] lsnm.org> To: "Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com" <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 7:20 AM Subject: [Cal_Boats] outboard misbehavior Maybe somebody can give me a solution to an outboard motor mystery. I've got a 2-stroke Mercury Mariner 8 h.p. outboard on my other boat. It has a "workboat" propeller (3 blade, low pitch). The little motor starts and runs fine, but once or twice a season it fouls a plug--the upper plug. When I pull the plug, it's not fouled in the sense of having a big accumulation of crud. In fact, the insulator and the electrode are clean except for being wet. Pop a clean plug in and it runs happily again. I take the used plugs home and clean 'em in solvent. It doesn't take much because they're not really fouled. The last time this happened, the plug managed to start firing again for a while. I was running at full throttle and I assume that the gases (air & fuel) being pumped through the dead cylinder dried out the plug enough. It's always a stomach-wrenching moment when the plug fouls because the engine slows down like it's running out of gas. Since I only use it in a busy confined channel, it's not good news to have the outboard stop. So far I've chosen the option of continuing on one cylinder until I'm either in open water and can sail or am back in my slip. Any idea why one cylinder is giving me fits? Chris Campbell

On 7/30/2012 11:30 AM, Gerald Sobel wrote: > > > It sounds like an ignition problem. Maybe one of your coils is going > out. Could be the ignition coil, magneto charging coil, or trigger > coil. If you can find out what the ohms should be on the various > coils, you could figure out which one it be. Meanwhile, in a pinch, I > found that reducing the spark plug gap allowed me engine to run with a > weak coil. And Paul wrote: > Does it do this all the time or is it random? Is there a period of > time that the engine has to run before it starts acting up? > I'm no expert but if it's wet it would appear that it is not firing. > Why it starts firing when a new one is put in is the mystery as well > as why it stops firing to begin with. I would guess it is heat > related. Engine gets hot, plug stops firing. Engine cools off, new > plug put in and it fires again. Will it re-start with same plug after > it cools off and not cleaned up? Thanks for suggestions, guys. What makes this puzzling is that it happens so infrequently. The motor starts easily and runs fine at idle. At speeds just above idle, there's a range where it misses a little, but I've always figured that was just where the carburetor is transitioning from one set of jets to another. What I accelerate hard from standing still (backing out of the slip or going from reverse to forward) it will miss a bit then run fine. That's acceptable. Even when it has been missing a bit, it runs again on both cylinders just fine. I don't think it's heat related because the boat makes the same trek all the time--either down the river or back up the river, depending on the wind. Yesterday I had to power both ways because of an untimely wind shift (boo). Motor handled the trip just fine, about 2.5 mi. down the river and about 1.5 miles back up (I sailed part way in until the wind was on the nose in a busy narrow channel). I'll try the spark test the next time I'm fiddling with it. What I'll do is remove the plugs, fit a clean plug to the spark plug wire, ground it, and see what color the spark is. If both cylinders look the same, that will mean that both have good spark--right? I've got the Merc shop manual and will have to study that to figure out the spark trigger mechanism. It's not the simple points-and-magneto that I'm used to--it's a higher-tech version. On a related note, Practical Sailor had an article in the latest issue on corrosion prevention when using ethanol gas in outboards. Luckily, my marina sells ethanol-free gas, and it has made life much more pleasant. The outboard isn't plagued with the carb problems I had a few years ago. I use their gas in all my outboards now, and in the lawn mowers too. Chris Campbell

Chris, my first long shaft OB when I bought Shpritz was a 7.5 HP, which had two ignition coils. One went bad, made the OB run on one cylinder. Replacing it solved the problem, but I sold it after that as it had a shift reverse lock down problem, so the shop claimed. The also said 120 lb in each cylinder was no good. I think they just wanted to sell me a new OB!! I'm thinking of getting a sculling sweep, but it might not be of much use if I get stuck in the San Pedro channel with no wind coming back from Catalina, with a container ship bearing down on me. I guess I could shoot a flare gun at it to get their attention tho..or tie a couple of torpedoes to the bow like African Queen. Now, if we could just "Buy American" there wouldn't be all those ships out there to worry about, just friendly Blue Whales. Jerry From: Chris Campbell <cc… [at] lsnm.org> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 9:25 AM Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] outboard misbehavior(Chris) On 7/30/2012 11:30 AM, Gerald Sobel wrote: It sounds like an ignition problem. Maybe one of your coils is going out. Could be the ignition coil, magneto charging coil, or trigger coil. If you can find out what the ohms should be on the various coils, you could figure out which one it be. Meanwhile, in a pinch, I found that reducing the spark plug gap allowed me engine to run with a weak coil. And Paul wrote: Does it do this all the time or is it random? Is there a period of time that the engine has to run before it starts acting up? > >I'm no expert but if it's wet it would appear that it is not firing. Why it starts firing when a new one is put in is the mystery as well as why it stops firing to begin with. I would guess it is heat related. Engine gets hot, plug stops firing. Engine cools off, new plug put in and it fires again. Will it re-start with same plug after it cools off and not cleaned up? Thanks for suggestions, guys. What makes this puzzling is that it happens so infrequently. The motor starts easily and runs fine at idle. At speeds just above idle, there's a range where it misses a little, but I've always figured that was just where the carburetor is transitioning from one set of jets to another. What I accelerate hard from standing still (backing out of the slip or going from reverse to forward) it will miss a bit then run fine. That's acceptable. Even when it has been missing a bit, it runs again on both cylinders just fine. I don't think it's heat related because the boat makes the same trek all the time--either down the river or back up the river, depending on the wind. Yesterday I had to power both ways because of an untimely wind shift (boo). Motor handled the trip just fine, about 2.5 mi. down the river and about 1.5 miles back up (I sailed part way in until the wind was on the nose in a busy narrow channel). I'll try the spark test the next time I'm fiddling with it. What I'll do is remove the plugs, fit a clean plug to the spark plug wire, ground it, and see what color the spark is. If both cylinders look the same, that will mean that both have good spark--right? I've got the Merc shop manual and will have to study that to figure out the spark trigger mechanism. It's not the simple points-and-magneto that I'm used to--it's a higher-tech version. On a related note, Practical Sailor had an article in the latest issue on corrosion prevention when using ethanol gas in outboards. Luckily, my marina sells ethanol-free gas, and it has made life much more pleasant. The outboard isn't plagued with the carb problems I had a few years ago. I use their gas in all my outboards now, and in the lawn mowers too. Chris Campbell

Chris - You brought up fuel and while I don't think it is a fuel issue, I do have a fuel polishing business and 99% of my business is now pumping out and getting rid of ethanol. Just be aware if you have an old engine/tank etc that has run on regular gas in the past and is now on ethanol, what happens is that the old gas leaves a varnish in your tank and carb bowls as it slowly evaporates. Ethanol comes in and cleans all that varnish off for you and creates a syrupy mess in your tank that will clog filters/jets etc. I have pumped this crap out and left it in a glass jar to evaporate and the remains look like brown sugar. The irregularity of your problem sounds like a loose connection of some sort to me. When I was a kid in high school and had just finished learning how to rebuild an alternator I once drove my Jeep home from a town 80 miles away, went inside and took a shower and came out to go to work and it wouldn't start. Since it didn't have an issue starting when I left that day I figured my alternator must not have been charging the battery. No prob, I just learned how to test them so I did and everything was fine. My dad asked "Are your battery cables clean?" The didn't look bad but sure enough, I cleaned them and it started right up. Lesson learned the hard way. Paul From: Chris Campbell <cc… [at] lsnm.org> To: Cal_Boats <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> Sent: Mon, Jul 30, 2012 12:25 pm Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] outboard misbehavior(Chris) On 7/30/2012 11:30 AM, Gerald Sobel wrote: It sounds like an ignition problem. Maybe one of your coils is going out. Could be the ignition coil, magneto charging coil, or trigger coil. If you can find out what the ohms should be on the various coils, you could figure out which one it be. Meanwhile, in a pinch, I found that reducing the spark plug gap allowed me engine to run with a weak coil. And Paul wrote: Does it do this all the time or is it random? Is there a period of time that the engine has to run before it starts acting up? I'm no expert but if it's wet it would appear that it is not firing. Why it starts firing when a new one is put in is the mystery as well as why it stops firing to begin with. I would guess it is heat related. Engine gets hot, plug stops firing. Engine cools off, new plug put in and it fires again. Will it re-start with same plug after it cools off and not cleaned up? Thanks for suggestions, guys. What makes this puzzling is that it happens so infrequently. The motor starts easily and runs fine at idle. At speeds just above idle, there's a range where it misses a little, but I've always figured that was just where the carburetor is transitioning from one set of jets to another. What I accelerate hard from standing still (backing out of the slip or going from reverse to forward) it will miss a bit then run fine. That's acceptable. Even when it has been missing a bit, it runs again on both cylinders just fine. I don't think it's heat related because the boat makes the same trek all the time--either down the river or back up the river, depending on the wind. Yesterday I had to power both ways because of an untimely wind shift (boo). Motor handled the trip just fine, about 2.5 mi. down the river and about 1.5 miles back up (I sailed part way in until the wind was on the nose in a busy narrow channel). I'll try the spark test the next time I'm fiddling with it. What I'll do is remove the plugs, fit a clean plug to the spark plug wire, ground it, and see what color the spark is. If both cylinders look the same, that will mean that both have good spark--right? I've got the Merc shop manual and will have to study that to figure out the spark trigger mechanism. It's not the simple points-and-magneto that I'm used to--it's a higher-tech version. On a related note, Practical Sailor had an article in the latest issue on corrosion prevention when using ethanol gas in outboards. Luckily, my marina sells ethanol-free gas, and it has made life much more pleasant. The outboard isn't plagued with the carb problems I had a few years ago. I use their gas in all my outboards now, and in the lawn mowers too. Chris Campbell

Chris What brand of oil do you use, and what ratio? I a big fan of Bell Ray racing oil at 50 to 1. I just changed my first plug on my dinghy after 10 years. It still looked great. You might be oil fouling? From: Chris Campbell <cc… [at] lsnm.org> To: "Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com" <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 7:20 AM Subject: [Cal_Boats] outboard misbehavior Maybe somebody can give me a solution to an outboard motor mystery. I've got a 2-stroke Mercury Mariner 8 h.p. outboard on my other boat. It has a "workboat" propeller (3 blade, low pitch). The little motor starts and runs fine, but once or twice a season it fouls a plug--the upper plug. When I pull the plug, it's not fouled in the sense of having a big accumulation of crud. In fact, the insulator and the electrode are clean except for being wet. Pop a clean plug in and it runs happily again. I take the used plugs home and clean 'em in solvent. It doesn't take much because they're not really fouled. The last time this happened, the plug managed to start firing again for a while. I was running at full throttle and I assume that the gases (air & fuel) being pumped through the dead cylinder dried out the plug enough. It's always a stomach-wrenching moment when the plug fouls because the engine slows down like it's running out of gas. Since I only use it in a busy confined channel, it's not good news to have the outboard stop. So far I've chosen the option of continuing on one cylinder until I'm either in open water and can sail or am back in my slip. Any idea why one cylinder is giving me fits? Chris Campbell

On 7/30/2012 12:40 PM, Gerald Sobel wrote: > > > Chris, my first long shaft OB when I bought Shpritz was a 7.5 HP, > which had two ignition coils. One went bad, made the OB run on one > cylinder. Replacing it solved the problem, but I sold it after that as > it had a shift reverse lock down problem, so the shop claimed. The > also said 120 lb in each cylinder was no good. I think they just > wanted to sell me a new OB!! > I'm thinking of getting a sculling sweep, but it might not be of much > use if I get stuck in the San Pedro channel with no wind coming back > from Catalina, with a container ship bearing down on me. My Cal 20 had a plywood board with a notch for a sweep mounted on the transom. The original owner was a bit of a curmudgeon and cheapskate. I am a cheapskate too and may decide to become curmudgeonly now that I am officially old. I didn't have a suitable oar so I replaced it with a mahogany block to hold my yacht ensign. Besides, I can usually sail on and off the mooring and the old 6 hp outboard usually runs when needed. I've always wondered whether compression tests are useful on 2-stroke engines. Maybe I'll try it on my 8 hp and see if the two cylinders are at least close on compression. Chris

On 7/30/2012 12:51 PM, pw… [at] aol.com wrote: > > > Chris - > You brought up fuel and while I don't think it is a fuel issue, I do > have a fuel polishing business and 99% of my business is now pumping > out and getting rid of ethanol. > Just be aware if you have an old engine/tank etc that has run on > regular gas in the past and is now on ethanol, what happens is that > the old gas leaves a varnish in your tank and carb bowls as it slowly > evaporates. Ethanol comes in and cleans all that varnish off for you > and creates a syrupy mess in your tank that will clog filters/jets > etc. I have pumped this crap out and left it in a glass jar to > evaporate and the remains look like brown sugar. When I got this OB, it had been somebody's dinghy engine and had sat in a storage locker aboard the boat, apparently. There were no chips at all on the lower unit, where's it's usually dinged up or abraded, but the top of the cover is scratched up. Because it had sat a long time, the carb was a bit gummy, so I cleaned it. The outboard started on the 1st or 2nd pull this spring. I'm inclined toward the "low voltage at the spark plug" theory. On the subject of the evil ethanol gas: my old '86 Mustang developed an intermittent problem last summer and continued it this summer. It's a summer car and sits in the garage all winter. The problem was that it would randomly shut down for about half a second at highway speeds after about 30 mi. Just for a moment--but long enough for that punch-in-the-gut "oh shit" feeling. And then, of course, I'd be on edge for the next 100 mi., wondering if the car were going to crap out completely. I pondered the problem, tried to figure out how to get it to misbehave in front of a mechanic, and finally had the "aha" moment. Ethanol gas, I thought; phase separation...water.... So I added a couple cans of isopropyl alcohol moisture remover--problem solved. I figure that I just had a slug of water in the gas tank and the fuel injection system would occasionally take a gulp of that and spray it into the cylinders. I'll use a fuel stabilizer designed for alcohol gas this winter. > When I was a kid in high school and had just finished learning how to > rebuild an alternator I once drove my Jeep home from a town 80 miles > away, went inside and took a shower and came out to go to work and it > wouldn't start. Since it didn't have an issue starting when I left > that day I figured my alternator must not have been charging the > battery. No prob, I just learned how to test them so I did and > everything was fine. My dad asked "Are your battery cables clean?" > The didn't look bad but sure enough, I cleaned them and it started > right up. Lesson learned the hard way. When I was in high school, my Dad's car wouldn't start at work. He got a ride elsewhere and called me to come and fix the car. Lights worked; radio worked, no action from the starter. Somehow I figured out the same thing. There was unseen corrosion on the battery posts. The resistance was low enough to let the light & radio work but too high for starting currents. Chris >

On 7/30/2012 2:17 PM, Chuck Lennox wrote: > > > ChrisWhat brand of oil do you use, and what ratio? I a big fan of Bell > Ray racing oil at 50 to 1. I just changed my first plug on my dinghy > after 10 years. It still looked great. You might be oil fouling? Right now it's West Marine brand (needed some oil quickly). Had been Mercury's brand. Somebody said that left fewer deposits in the exhaust system. The plug isn't fouled in the classic way, with a bunch of solid oily crud in the gap surrounding the center insulator or covering the electrodes. It's just wet with fuel when I pull it and otherwise clean. Maybe I should change the oil anyway to some better brand--where you you buy the racing oil? Chris Campbell > >

On my Suzuki, the ignition coil secondary is supposed to be about 3k ohms. the primary, 0.3 ohms. I get 10k ohms at the plug, so I'll have to double check the ohms at the coil terminal. I guess the plug wire has significant resistance. The charging coil, inside the flywheel housing, going into the cdi is supposed to be around 25k ohms, and the trigger coil, also inside the flywheel is good at about 90 ohms. I found the ohms on the charging coil to be way off, and my engine now won't even start. Maybe, if I squeeze the gap down to .005" it might? The CDI can only be tested with special equipment. Jerry From: Chris Campbell <cc… [at] lsnm.org> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 11:58 AM Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] outboard misbehavior(Chris) On 7/30/2012 12:40 PM, Gerald Sobel wrote: Chris, my first long shaft OB when I bought Shpritz was a 7.5 HP, which had two ignition coils. One went bad, made the OB run on one cylinder. Replacing it solved the problem, but I sold it after that as it had a shift reverse lock down problem, so the shop claimed. The also said 120 lb in each cylinder was no good. I think they just wanted to sell me a new OB!! >I'm thinking of getting a sculling sweep, but it might not be of much use if I get stuck in the San Pedro channel with no wind coming back from Catalina, with a container ship bearing down on me. My Cal 20 had a plywood board with a notch for a sweep mounted on the transom. The original owner was a bit of a curmudgeon and cheapskate. I am a cheapskate too and may decide to become curmudgeonly now that I am officially old. I didn't have a suitable oar so I replaced it with a mahogany block to hold my yacht ensign. Besides, I can usually sail on and off the mooring and the old 6 hp outboard usually runs when needed. I've always wondered whether compression tests are useful on 2-stroke engines. Maybe I'll try it on my 8 hp and see if the two cylinders are at least close on compression. Chris

Bad Coil. From: Chris Campbell <cc… [at] lsnm.org> To: "Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com" <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 7:20 AM Subject: [Cal_Boats] outboard misbehavior Maybe somebody can give me a solution to an outboard motor mystery. I've got a 2-stroke Mercury Mariner 8 h.p. outboard on my other boat. It has a "workboat" propeller (3 blade, low pitch). The little motor starts and runs fine, but once or twice a season it fouls a plug--the upper plug. When I pull the plug, it's not fouled in the sense of having a big accumulation of crud. In fact, the insulator and the electrode are clean except for being wet. Pop a clean plug in and it runs happily again. I take the used plugs home and clean 'em in solvent. It doesn't take much because they're not really fouled. The last time this happened, the plug managed to start firing again for a while. I was running at full throttle and I assume that the gases (air & fuel) being pumped through the dead cylinder dried out the plug enough. It's always a stomach-wrenching moment when the plug fouls because the engine slows down like it's running out of gas. Since I only use it in a busy confined channel, it's not good news to have the outboard stop. So far I've chosen the option of continuing on one cylinder until I'm either in open water and can sail or am back in my slip. Any idea why one cylinder is giving me fits? Chris Campbell ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

I think any TW-3 (is that what they call it) 2 cycle from a major brand (or a minor brand, for that matter) is going to be just fine, IMHO. I really think your problem is ignition failure, or a weak coil shorting out internally. Sometimes it's moisture that's got in, and sometimes it starts acting up after the motor gets hot. Jerry From: Chris Campbell <cc… [at] lsnm.org> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 12:26 PM Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] outboard misbehavior On 7/30/2012 2:17 PM, Chuck Lennox wrote: ChrisWhat brand of oil do you use, and what ratio? I a big fan of Bell Ray racing oil at 50 to 1. I just changed my first plug on my dinghy after 10 years. It still looked great. You might be oil fouling? Right now it's West Marine brand (needed some oil quickly). Had been Mercury's brand. Somebody said that left fewer deposits in the exhaust system. The plug isn't fouled in the classic way, with a bunch of solid oily crud in the gap surrounding the center insulator or covering the electrodes. It's just wet with fuel when I pull it and otherwise clean. Maybe I should change the oil anyway to some better brand--where you you buy the racing oil? Chris Campbell > >

On 7/30/2012 3:32 PM, Gerald Sobel wrote: > > > On my Suzuki, the ignition coil secondary is supposed to be about 3k > ohms. the primary, 0.3 ohms. I get 10k ohms at the plug, so I'll have > to double check the ohms at the coil terminal. I guess the plug wire > has significant resistance. > The charging coil, inside the flywheel housing, going into the cdi is > supposed to be around 25k ohms, and the trigger coil, also inside the > flywheel is good at about 90 ohms. I found the ohms on the charging > coil to be way off, and my engine now won't even start. Maybe, if I > squeeze the gap down to .005" it might? Doesn't the spark get weaker with decreased gap? Less voltage required, but a skinnier spark? > The CDI can only be tested with special equipment. And on a one-banger, you can't switch the devices to see if the problem follows the suspect one to the other cylinder. Chris C. > Jerry > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > *From:* Chris Campbell <cc… [at] lsnm.org> > *To:* Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com > *Sent:* Monday, July 30, 2012 11:58 AM > *Subject:* Re: [Cal_Boats] outboard misbehavior(Chris) > > On 7/30/2012 12:40 PM, Gerald Sobel wrote: >> Chris, my first long shaft OB when I bought Shpritz was a 7.5 HP, >> which had two ignition coils. One went bad, made the OB run on one >> cylinder. Replacing it solved the problem, but I sold it after that >> as it had a shift reverse lock down problem, so the shop claimed. The >> also said 120 lb in each cylinder was no good. I think they just >> wanted to sell me a new OB!! >> I'm thinking of getting a sculling sweep, but it might not be of much >> use if I get stuck in the San Pedro channel with no wind coming back >> from Catalina, with a container ship bearing down on me. > > My Cal 20 had a plywood board with a notch for a sweep mounted on the > transom. The original owner was a bit of a curmudgeon and > cheapskate. I am a cheapskate too and may decide to become > curmudgeonly now that I am officially old. I didn't have a suitable > oar so I replaced it with a mahogany block to hold my yacht ensign. > Besides, I can usually sail on and off the mooring and the old 6 hp > outboard usually runs when needed. > > I've always wondered whether compression tests are useful on 2-stroke > engines. Maybe I'll try it on my 8 hp and see if the two cylinders > are at least close on compression. > > Chris > > > > > >

On 7/30/2012 3:35 PM, mike farrell wrote: > > > Bad Coil. Ignition problem seems to be the consensus and a bad coil with weak output would make sense given the nature of the problem--wet but not cruddy plug on the same cylinder each time. Maybe I'll do the visual spark test before approaching the parts counter, where there's sure to be sticker shock. Chris Campbell > >

swap plug wires. if the same problem happens on the other cylinder, case solved. Reggie To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com From: cc… [at] lsnm.org Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:41:20 -0400 Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] outboard misbehavior On 7/30/2012 3:35 PM, mike farrell wrote: Bad Coil. Ignition problem seems to be the consensus and a bad coil with weak output would make sense given the nature of the problem--wet but not cruddy plug on the same cylinder each time. Maybe I'll do the visual spark test before approaching the parts counter, where there's sure to be sticker shock. Chris Campbell

might not work depending on whether the pistons rais in unison or not. To: ca… [at] yahoogroups.com From: my… [at] hotmail.com Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:03:23 -0600 Subject: RE: [Cal_Boats] outboard misbehavior swap plug wires. if the same problem happens on the other cylinder, case solved. Reggie To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com From: cc… [at] lsnm.org Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:41:20 -0400 Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] outboard misbehavior On 7/30/2012 3:35 PM, mike farrell wrote: Bad Coil. Ignition problem seems to be the consensus and a bad coil with weak output would make sense given the nature of the problem--wet but not cruddy plug on the same cylinder each time. Maybe I'll do the visual spark test before approaching the parts counter, where there's sure to be sticker shock. Chris Campbell

I buy it at motorcycle shops. I have been running BelRay for over 20 years with no problems at all. It works well with fuel stabilizer. I bet it's twice as much $ as West's oil. It's a synthetic and can't be mixed with other oils. I run it in my chains saws, dirt bikes and outboard. 12 oz to 5 gal. Very little smoke is also a plus. From: Chris Campbell <cc… [at] lsnm.org> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 12:26 PM Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] outboard misbehavior On 7/30/2012 2:17 PM, Chuck Lennox wrote: ChrisWhat brand of oil do you use, and what ratio? I a big fan of Bell Ray racing oil at 50 to 1. I just changed my first plug on my dinghy after 10 years. It still looked great. You might be oil fouling? Right now it's West Marine brand (needed some oil quickly). Had been Mercury's brand. Somebody said that left fewer deposits in the exhaust system. The plug isn't fouled in the classic way, with a bunch of solid oily crud in the gap surrounding the center insulator or covering the electrodes. It's just wet with fuel when I pull it and otherwise clean. Maybe I should change the oil anyway to some better brand--where you you buy the racing oil? Chris Campbell > >