Bill,

Thanks for your reply. I do have the Ficht software and it did indeed
set a
"soft" code for the interrupt switch. (I think it was code 28)

I have not done any work that affected the shift rod in a while; H20
pump was
over 1 year ago and had a full season with no problems shifting.

WIth the boat out of the water, I hooked a meter to the interrupt
switch
and cycled through the gears. I never saw the shift interrupt switch
get depressed. Are you saying that it will only activate when the
engine is under load at the prop? What is the mechanism for this
to engage when the boat only is in gear under load? I examined the
mechanism
that holds the switch and it seems fine.

Of course the real difficulty in diagnosing it is that most of the time
it works
fine.

The problem seemed to be more pronounced after running in gear for
some
time, then as I am getting close to the dock I have difficulty putting
it in
neutral. I can force it into reverse but it won't find neutral.

After a bit of a harrowing docking procedure, I turn the boat off and
re-start. I am tied to the dock and I cycle it between F-N-R.
Everything
works just as God and Ole would want it to. Try as I might I
can't get it to repeat under controlled circumstances.

I have the boat out of the water now. Shifting by hand while turning
the prop seems to be OK; I sense no binding in the shift rod,
but I will investigate it further.

Thanks for your advice; if you have any more please send it along.


-Almus

Well, I am convinced that the interrupt switch mechanism is perfect.
I now understand perfectly how it works.

I am now assuming that what occurs when I have
the difficult shifting is:

The engine does not throttle down correctly; it is staying
at ~2000rpm.

So even though the interrupt switch drops three cylinders,
the engine is still running way too fast for the load to be
off the shifting mechanism.


So what causes Ficht rpms to stay high?

Leaking fuel lift pump diaphram??

Faulty TPS??



Why would it not be consistent?

And how to diagnose it when it is intermittent?




Help!

-Almus

On 26 May 2005 09:36:32 -0700, "almus" wrote:

~~ snippage ~~

Leaking fuel lift pump diaphram??

Are you getting an excessive amount of oil/gas in your engine pan from
the air baffle?

If so, the gas line may be leaking and it might be one of those
situational things. A friend of mine has the same FICHT I have and
had a really interesting problem in which the fuel line had a teeny
little split and it dumped fuel into the baffle which caused the
engine to do much the same as your describing.

The only other thing I can think of based on my limited experience
with FICHT engine repairs (~~ snicker ~~) is that the pump itself may
be hiccupping for one reason or another.

Sorry - can't do better than that.

Later,

Tom

Tom,

Thanks for your info. I called Bombardier tech support. They are
actually pretty good to deal with; no wait on hold.
You get directly connected to technical folks.

They suggested that either
the fuel pump diaphragm was leaking (#1 possible cause)

or that the TPS was screwey (much less likely).

The leaking diaphragm would however make it run fast after
the engine was sitting...just the opposite of what I see.

I will check the fuel lift pump vacuum lines. If they
are full of fuel I will have my culprit, if not I will probably
button up the motor and go fishing.

On 26 May 2005 10:08:38 -0700, "almus" wrote:

Thanks for your info. I called Bombardier tech support. They are
actually pretty good to deal with; no wait on hold.
You get directly connected to technical folks.

They are terrific folks aren't they?

Glad you have an idea of the problem. Good luck with it.

Later,

Tom