1995 40 mariner "power pack" problem

[GregD]

Went for a little cruise down the bayou today and the old motor shut down, would turn over but not start. Used the trolling motor to get to a boat landing. My son checked the motor and said the power pack was shot. I have never had a motor that a power pack went out, what is the normal cause, old motor ? When I purchased this rig the seller advised that he had replaced the power pack and other than this, had not had any problems with the motor.

Thanks

[HandymanHerb]

I take it he checked your safety switches to make sure they weren't grounding the box out or opening a connection killing power to it.

[badmoonrising]

Very common, at least on the 2 Evinrudes that I had to replace the power packs on. Usually the motor will idle fine and sputter gradually worse as you open the throttle, fire on one cylinder, etc.

[Towdaddy]

I had a powerpack go out on an Evinrude 85hp on a previous boat. The nice thing about the 85 was that it was a V-4 and had a powerpack on each bank. The motor would run on two cylinders and I limped back in with it. The powerpack was not hard to change out but was fairly pricey on that motor.

[GregD]

I take it he checked your safety switches to make sure they weren't grounding the box out or opening a connection killing power to it.

He check the plug wires (four) and just said they were not firing. The motor did start running a little rough before it died. He also checked the fuse at the power pack, which was good. He did not check any safety switches (?) . He also checked the cables from the motor to the battery ( last week) and said the motor was not charging . I had noticed when leaving the motor cables and a couple accesories connected to the cranking battery that the battery was dead within a short time, so I disconnected the wires when not in use. I suspected that the rectifer was out and the alternator was not charging or there was a short somewhere. The motor had not been ran for several months but started fast and ran very good last week. I know I should have checked out the electrical system before using it again .

Thanks for the replies.

Greg

[GregD]

Found a solution with my problem. I'm taking the Yamaha F60 ( has less than 25 hours) thats on the Lakesport and mounting it on the Bass Buggy and mounting the Mariner 40 on the Lakesport.

A local boat dealership is charging $400.00 total, for rigging both. When asked about the 40 Mariner, he advised that this motor is the old 50 hp Mercury from years past with a few changes. He will check this motor and make the repairs.

My better half will be happy with less smoke and noise on the pontoon boat, we very seldom use the Lakesport (alum. fishing boat).

UPDATE: Replaced the power pack, motor cranked up and runs good.