First I must appologize for a lack of info, as I'm doing this 2nd hand
at this point, helping a cousin off on Marthas Vineyard.

He repowered a 30 footer single screw with a mercuriser V8 (to be
honest not even 100% sure its all a Mercruiser but parts match so I'm
going with that).

I was going to MV in July and he mentioned he was having carburetor
problems. Since it has a Quadrajet (termed by some as Quadrabog),
which I am familiar with, I said I'd pick up a rebuild kit on the
mainland, help rebuild while I was there, piece of cake.

We did just that, of course not all parts matched like the float
needle seat and ball, but the old ones were in good shape and
reusable as were all the jets and seats. The gaskets matched which
was the most important part. Tthe carb was very very full of gunk
especially in the fuel bowl. Cleaned that and all the passages, and
while doing some googling in the groups found that the bottom plugs
give problems too, so resealed those as well. Put it all together put
it on, ran like a charm, went out into Vineyard Sound pulled a lobster
pot so he could show me the hydraulics returned to port - success.

Early (for a vacationer) the next morning he called, and said the boat
died. So for the first time I went to see for myself. Of course it
wouldn't do it then. So we made arrangements to meet the next morning
around 10 so I'd be there for the first firing. Started right up, and
I'm thinking he's jinxed, and then right about the time you would be
comfortable with pulling out, she died - bam. That was not my idea of
carbureter problems.

It turns out he has replaced the alternator with a single wire one,
and thus a new wire was required there. He replaced the distributor
with an electronic Peako (sp) to be honest I've forgotten the name,
but it's a common replacement as I recall it.

Well we put some meters on ignition, batteries, coil, circuit breaker,
but didn't find anything conclusive. We even were able to recreate
the problem once more that day and twice the next day, but no joy in
trouble shooting it.

Had to head back to the mainland but kept googling around and found
that the "pruple" wire needed to be up to spec. It wasn't clear to me
that this is a resistence wire and I haven't resolved that issue. He
said he checked the resistence and it seemed fine to him.

The way it quits has to be electrical. None of that gas starvation
sound, just wham dead, doesn't even diesel a little.

One part that he is loath to touch and I am suspicious of but can't
find anything bad about is the circuit breaker on the back of the
engine. One would think this would just pop or not. But I have my
suspicions that when it's damp in the morning on the Vineyard, so
moisture is getting in there and wreaking some kind of havoc once the
alternator has charged up the batteries and starts to send more juice
back there. Once the moisture burns off, it then works fine. But I
can find nothing on this part that would make it worth while to swap
out. Nor can I find a wiring diagram to indicate what it is really
doing so I can tell him "just go get a 50 amp fuse block and wire
around it and see what happens". If I recall correctly, we even had a
meter on that when it died once, but it happens so fast, there's a
good chance we could have missed a spike especially since we were just
looking for the presence of voltage and not looking at the amps
comming in. Since that circuit breaker costs about $60 to replace,
he's not going to run out and get one on my gut feeling!

Any thoughts on this?

Note because this is a retrofit, there are none of the typical
neutral switches to deal with, nor can I tell there there is anything
other than a "normal" feed coming out of the ignition switch (again a
mongrel item). By normal I mean it is not a special resistance wire.

Thanks for putting up with the long note and for any help you can
give.

email is goingjag at yahoo dot com - sorry I'm sick of spambots

"nospamgoingjag" wrote in message
...
First I must appologize for a lack of info, as I'm doing this 2nd hand
at this point, helping a cousin off on Marthas Vineyard.

He repowered a 30 footer single screw with a mercuriser V8 (to be
honest not even 100% sure its all a Mercruiser but parts match so I'm
going with that).

I was going to MV in July and he mentioned he was having carburetor
problems. Since it has a Quadrajet (termed by some as Quadrabog),
which I am familiar with, I said I'd pick up a rebuild kit on the
mainland, help rebuild while I was there, piece of cake.

We did just that, of course not all parts matched like the float
needle seat and ball, but the old ones were in good shape and
reusable as were all the jets and seats. The gaskets matched which
was the most important part. Tthe carb was very very full of gunk
especially in the fuel bowl. Cleaned that and all the passages, and
while doing some googling in the groups found that the bottom plugs
give problems too, so resealed those as well. Put it all together put
it on, ran like a charm, went out into Vineyard Sound pulled a lobster
pot so he could show me the hydraulics returned to port - success.

Early (for a vacationer) the next morning he called, and said the boat
died. So for the first time I went to see for myself. Of course it
wouldn't do it then. So we made arrangements to meet the next morning
around 10 so I'd be there for the first firing. Started right up, and
I'm thinking he's jinxed, and then right about the time you would be
comfortable with pulling out, she died - bam. That was not my idea of
carbureter problems.

It turns out he has replaced the alternator with a single wire one,
and thus a new wire was required there. He replaced the distributor
with an electronic Peako (sp) to be honest I've forgotten the name,
but it's a common replacement as I recall it.

Well we put some meters on ignition, batteries, coil, circuit breaker,
but didn't find anything conclusive. We even were able to recreate
the problem once more that day and twice the next day, but no joy in
trouble shooting it.

Had to head back to the mainland but kept googling around and found
that the "pruple" wire needed to be up to spec. It wasn't clear to me
that this is a resistence wire and I haven't resolved that issue. He
said he checked the resistence and it seemed fine to him.

The way it quits has to be electrical. None of that gas starvation
sound, just wham dead, doesn't even diesel a little.

One part that he is loath to touch and I am suspicious of but can't
find anything bad about is the circuit breaker on the back of the
engine. One would think this would just pop or not. But I have my
suspicions that when it's damp in the morning on the Vineyard, so
moisture is getting in there and wreaking some kind of havoc once the
alternator has charged up the batteries and starts to send more juice
back there. Once the moisture burns off, it then works fine. But I
can find nothing on this part that would make it worth while to swap
out. Nor can I find a wiring diagram to indicate what it is really
doing so I can tell him "just go get a 50 amp fuse block and wire
around it and see what happens". If I recall correctly, we even had a
meter on that when it died once, but it happens so fast, there's a
good chance we could have missed a spike especially since we were just
looking for the presence of voltage and not looking at the amps
comming in. Since that circuit breaker costs about $60 to replace,
he's not going to run out and get one on my gut feeling!

Any thoughts on this?

Note because this is a retrofit, there are none of the typical
neutral switches to deal with, nor can I tell there there is anything
other than a "normal" feed coming out of the ignition switch (again a
mongrel item). By normal I mean it is not a special resistance wire.

Thanks for putting up with the long note and for any help you can
give.

email is goingjag at yahoo dot com - sorry I'm sick of spambots

Moisture under the cap will cause all kinds of havoc after a few minutes
running. The moisture atomizes and shorts things out. The coil or tower wire
could be failing. The Petronix module could be failing. The resistor wire
doesn't matter since there are no points. In fact it should be bypassed. The
ignition switch could be going bad. Run a jumper from the battery to the
coil to see weather the problem is 12 volts or high voltage. Make sure you
have a good water separation filter in the gas line so that the carb doesn't
glop up again. This should be a cheap fix, even if you buy all of the parts
I mentioned.
Jim

"Jim" wrote in message
nk.net...


Moisture under the cap will cause all kinds of havoc after a few minutes
running. The moisture atomizes and shorts things out. The coil or tower
wire could be failing. The Petronix module could be failing. The resistor
wire doesn't matter since there are no points. In fact it should be
bypassed. The ignition switch could be going bad. Run a jumper from the
battery to the coil to see weather the problem is 12 volts or high
voltage. Make sure you have a good water separation filter in the gas line
so that the carb doesn't glop up again. This should be a cheap fix, even
if you buy all of the parts I mentioned.
Jim


You just earned yourself a Miller. Good advice.

Eisboch

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 14 Sep 2006 22:22:19 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:

You just earned yourself a Miller.

Miller? As in High Life?

I thought you were a Sam Adams guy.


I am. Or was.

Jim's a Miller guy. Or was.

I love the taste of beer .... but it no longer loves me. sigh

Eisboch

"Eisboch" wrote in message
...

"Jim" wrote in message
nk.net...


Moisture under the cap will cause all kinds of havoc after a few minutes
running. The moisture atomizes and shorts things out. The coil or tower
wire could be failing. The Petronix module could be failing. The resistor
wire doesn't matter since there are no points. In fact it should be
bypassed. The ignition switch could be going bad. Run a jumper from the
battery to the coil to see weather the problem is 12 volts or high
voltage. Make sure you have a good water separation filter in the gas
line so that the carb doesn't glop up again. This should be a cheap fix,
even if you buy all of the parts I mentioned.
Jim


You just earned yourself a Miller. Good advice.

Eisboch

Delivered?

"Jim" wrote in message
link.net...



You just earned yourself a Miller. Good advice.

Eisboch

Delivered?


I'll let you know when the snow starts flying. The Sprinter is ready.

Eisboch

As far as I know there are no requirements for a resistive wire in the
merc ignition systems. You are right, that perko electronic ignition
upgrade is a common one. I think that merc has used purple for the
ignition hot wire color for quite a while and that may just be what you
are hearing about in your google searches. Normally that 50amp breaker
is covering just about everything electrical except the starter so when
it dies if the 50amp breaker is the problem you should see loss of
power to the gauges and all the rest. That is of course with the
caveat that the wiring is still somewhat close to the merc original
design. I would not expect the one wire alternator to be a problem as
that is not ususual either. The one wire alternators simply have a
better electronic regulator that can shutdown the field circuit when
not running.

I do concur with your theory that it is electrical. I don't think it
is moisture in the distributor as has been suggested. That usually
results in problems running like missing or backfiring, not sudden and
complete engine stopping. You could replace the 50 amp breaker with a
fuse holder pretty cheaply but carry a few spare fuses if you do. I
think the most common electrical problem on older boats is connection
problems from corrosion. That this engine originally had points says
it is pretty old. I'm guessing the boat is at least as old too. You
could simply run a new hot wire from the ignition switch all the way to
the ignition system on the engine to see if the problem disappears. Or
even from the battery with a switch inline if he remembers to turn it
off when he's not using it.

nospamgoingjag wrote:
First I must appologize for a lack of info, as I'm doing this 2nd hand
at this point, helping a cousin off on Marthas Vineyard.

He repowered a 30 footer single screw with a mercuriser V8 (to be
honest not even 100% sure its all a Mercruiser but parts match so I'm
going with that).

I was going to MV in July and he mentioned he was having carburetor
problems. Since it has a Quadrajet (termed by some as Quadrabog),
which I am familiar with, I said I'd pick up a rebuild kit on the
mainland, help rebuild while I was there, piece of cake.

We did just that, of course not all parts matched like the float
needle seat and ball, but the old ones were in good shape and
reusable as were all the jets and seats. The gaskets matched which
was the most important part. Tthe carb was very very full of gunk
especially in the fuel bowl. Cleaned that and all the passages, and
while doing some googling in the groups found that the bottom plugs
give problems too, so resealed those as well. Put it all together put
it on, ran like a charm, went out into Vineyard Sound pulled a lobster
pot so he could show me the hydraulics returned to port - success.

Early (for a vacationer) the next morning he called, and said the boat
died. So for the first time I went to see for myself. Of course it
wouldn't do it then. So we made arrangements to meet the next morning
around 10 so I'd be there for the first firing. Started right up, and
I'm thinking he's jinxed, and then right about the time you would be
comfortable with pulling out, she died - bam. That was not my idea of
carbureter problems.

It turns out he has replaced the alternator with a single wire one,
and thus a new wire was required there. He replaced the distributor
with an electronic Peako (sp) to be honest I've forgotten the name,
but it's a common replacement as I recall it.

Well we put some meters on ignition, batteries, coil, circuit breaker,
but didn't find anything conclusive. We even were able to recreate
the problem once more that day and twice the next day, but no joy in
trouble shooting it.

Had to head back to the mainland but kept googling around and found
that the "pruple" wire needed to be up to spec. It wasn't clear to me
that this is a resistence wire and I haven't resolved that issue. He
said he checked the resistence and it seemed fine to him.

The way it quits has to be electrical. None of that gas starvation
sound, just wham dead, doesn't even diesel a little.

One part that he is loath to touch and I am suspicious of but can't
find anything bad about is the circuit breaker on the back of the
engine. One would think this would just pop or not. But I have my
suspicions that when it's damp in the morning on the Vineyard, so
moisture is getting in there and wreaking some kind of havoc once the
alternator has charged up the batteries and starts to send more juice
back there. Once the moisture burns off, it then works fine. But I
can find nothing on this part that would make it worth while to swap
out. Nor can I find a wiring diagram to indicate what it is really
doing so I can tell him "just go get a 50 amp fuse block and wire
around it and see what happens". If I recall correctly, we even had a
meter on that when it died once, but it happens so fast, there's a
good chance we could have missed a spike especially since we were just
looking for the presence of voltage and not looking at the amps
comming in. Since that circuit breaker costs about $60 to replace,
he's not going to run out and get one on my gut feeling!

Any thoughts on this?

Note because this is a retrofit, there are none of the typical
neutral switches to deal with, nor can I tell there there is anything
other than a "normal" feed coming out of the ignition switch (again a
mongrel item). By normal I mean it is not a special resistance wire.

Thanks for putting up with the long note and for any help you can
give.

email is goingjag at yahoo dot com - sorry I'm sick of spambots

Thanks all for the replies. It's kind of hard working with him
remote.

The reason I had mentioned the single wire alternator and the circuit
breaker is it "seemed" to shut down about the time you would think the
batteries have recharged from a start, and therefore the internal
voltage regular would be cutting out. So I was thinking there might
be some correlation there, especially if the circuit breaker is
expecting something different in the way of a voltage/amperage drop,
and maybe moisture adds to the resistance, then once it burns off the
moisture the circuit breaker is more willing to "tolerate" the
smaller differential because the batteries are already topped up from
the previous start.

I guess I'll see if he'll run a hot wire from a separate switch to the
ignition since that would be an easy thing to do, and he has a pretty
good shutdown routine that he follows because burning a dock down in
Menemsha would be an expensive proposition!

Thanks again for the ideas.