Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Lot of mishaps this past weekend, but still a great time was had by all.

Got to Rough River lake, no one at the ramp or parking lot, sunny and about 80. Looking good so far.

Loaded up, got everyone ready, tow straps unhooked, ready to go!

pulled over to the ramp...three others got there first,the one in front being a camper dropping in a 18' toon, and he had no idea how to back that a** up. I shouldn't have laughed.

finally got backed in...and missed a tow strap. I'd loosened it, but 3 yr old distracted me enough while I was taking them off, I forgot to actually pull it off. swam out to unhook, no worries. Except my winch/step/stop apparently broke the weld and was laying under the trailer. pulled it out and tossed it in the back of the truck(dreading loading back up)

wife was backing it out for the first time, and I'd neglected to go over the fast idle the motor tends to need from a cold start, so she couldn't keep it running after she'd gotten it out. she got it over to the bank though, so after I parked, I was able to get in and we got going......whew!!!

Went out, had our sister/brother in law coming to join us in an hour or so, so didn't go far. Ate lunch, and soaked it in. AS soon as they said they were 15 minutes out, we headed back in, I took the long way back to the dock, letting my wife enjoy actually getting up to speed, since the only other time she'd been out so far, we had major carb issues.

Coming into no wake zone, slowed down to idle...and started sputtering, lotta dark exhaust coming out...and died...flooded. Didn't smell like it was running rich prior to that, but for the rest of the day, unless she'd been sitting for a while, low RPM meant it was going to die. WOT and cruising speed ran great, but low RPM was really really rich.

Once we picked up the inlaws, the clouds immediately rolled in...rained for a good 30 minutes, while we chased the clearer skies we could see "elsewhere on the lake."

Stopped raining, but we were wet, and temp had dropped to about 68. anchored out in the shallows and played games, listened to music, and chilled for the rest of the day. didn't get in the water unless we needed to, but still a nice day overall. Loading the trailer ended up being just fine, didn't back it in as far as I normally would and just powered up the supports. strapped it down real well and trailered back to storage(1/4 mile tops from ramp).

Working on borrowing a trailer so I can bring mine back and weld it, and will need to figure out why it's running rich. I'm guessing maybe adjusting the floats?

Floats on carbs seldom have to be touched. It's the new 90/10 gasoline that deteriorates anything in the fuel system that's rubber. Sticky needle valves are often found.

Chances are you just need to pull the carb's, disassemble, clean and reinstall the carb's. Sometimes the problem can be a pinhole in the rubber diaphragm in the fuel pump or a dirty fuel filter. I just use an aerosol spray can of carb. cleaner. If you're careful with the gaskets, seldom do carb. cleanings even require any parts kits. And make sure you screw down any adjustment screws, note how many turns and reinstall the adjusting screws in the same positions.

I can pull, clean and reinstall my two Yamaha carbs. in about an hour.

I just rebuilt the carbs, I'm hoping I just need to adjust the floats. Also just replaced the fuel hoses, and fuel filter.

There should be mixture adjustment screws on the carbs. It sounds like the low side is too far out. Try turning it in about a 1/4 turn.

Sounds like one of my trips.

adjusted the floats, and idle screws. ran great for the first hour or so. Slowing back down to idle was fine. Then after running back over to the ramp for the wife to move the truck over to the marina we're putting her in while the trailer is worked on, back to flooding. Aaaaannnnnnd. Starter solenoid going out again...I just replaced it. Wife's not happy. I'm giving up and turning it over to a mechanic this weekend.

Solenoid was fine...I'm an idiot who didn't check that the battery wingnut hadn't vibrated loose.

Had another great time at the lake, trailer fixed, no issues there. Engine ran pretty well, still flooding, but not overly bad. brought it back with me to take to the mechanic.

Started it up before taking it over there, ran for a bit, shut her down, now won't crank again. Solenoid is engaging, fuse is fine, guess starter might have gone out. I'm not telling the wife, just taking to the mechanic and saying "fix it!"

Did hit 18.1mph on the GPS with 4 adults and two kids. I was happy with it

Mechanic just now getting to look at it today...had about 11 boats in front of me when I took it.

Float levels still off...guess I'm not very good at pretending to be a marine mechanic

JOIN the crowd!!!

Good news is he said I did a good job with the wiring of ignition/trim/tach/starter/solenoid. Compression and bleed down are still good. Just fuel coming out of the carbs when squeezing the primer bulb or when trimmed up.

Little tip, if your purchase includes an engine that's been sitting on the side of the road for two years with untreated gas in it, your carbs will require more than one cleaning.

Mechanic gave it back to me, told me to take it home and rebuild the carbs again. The float needles weren't seating like they should. He said I did it right the first time, but the old stuff just gummed up the needle seats again. soaked em overnight, and no more flooding!

Great sticktoitivity! I think I just invented a word

Run lots of sea foam through it

ran two cans. Guessing that's what broke whatever residual gunk was left loose to get caught in the inlet